Most of the story is told through a dual narrative carried by Mark and Jenny; additional facts are provided by recalled conversations between a father and daughter, and extracts from a true crime book and commentary from the anonymous author about interactions with the book’s subject.

Now, what worked well. The writing was fine. The actual plot was okay. The story being told from both Jenny and Mark's points of view was really good.All-in-all, I would give this read 4 stars. I would recommend it to you if you enjoy dark, psychological thrillers though please do look up the trigger warnings beforehand. This has a good plot and is a great idea but is a little slow, even dragging in some places, and was a little underwhelming. I enjoyed the alternating point of view between Jenny and Mark, which works well. The opening chapter draws you in brilliantly as well. Both Jenny and Mark are hiding significant things, added to the extracts from Paul Slater’s story brings an extra element which will give you plenty of questions as well as the chills. In a sleepy Devon village, a young girl is taken from the streets. Local vet, Jenny, is horrified. This kind of thing doesn’t happen here. Hi! The Serial Killer’s Daughter by Alice Hunter is a psychological thriller that I definitely enjoyed and one that creeped me out a bit. It’s the second book in a series, the first one being The Serial Killer’s Wife. I would say it can be read as a standalone since despite having not read the first book, I was never lost in the story! The final nail in the coffin for me was the absolutely unnecessary epilogue in which one of Jenny's children cruelly pulls the wings from a butterfly only to smash the poor thing into the table. This was supposedly to cause Jenny to wonder if the "serial killer gene" skipped a generation to "infect" her child, but due to the fact that there was a lot of talk about animal mutilations in this book just leads me to seriously wonder about the author herself.

After reading the first in this series, The Serial Killer’s Wife, last year I was eager to see how this story would follow on. Whilst this book is part of a series it can be read as a standalone as enough of the previous book information is given to make you understand what happened previously. Hayley’s been under the weather lately with a flare-up of her arthritis, and I don’t like to think I’ve caused her any stress. ‘You go grab a cuppa. I’ll call Samir and Abi – I’m sure they’re on their way. I don’t know if there’s been an accident or something, because the roads are busy and there seems to be a lot of activity for a Wednesday.’ Why isn’t Daddy taking us?’ Ella asks as she pulls her booster seat from the rear of the car and positions it in the passenger side of my Volvo estate. Meet Olivia who goes missing after walking home from the pub. Now the games afoot. What happened to her?

Featured Reviews

I feel this book was cleverly done. Especially since the crime was similar to her father’s crimes. Is it a copycat or can someone be trying to get away with murder by using Jen? And it’s because our alarms didn’t go off this morning, we’re running late and Daddy has to be in work by nine-thirty.’ I’m thankful Alfie has at least quietly climbed into his own booster seat and has secured his seatbelt without me having to ask or help. ‘Good boy, Alfie,’ I say, shooting Ella a ‘see – your six-year-old brother is better behaved than you’ glare. Bar her need to remove it for work sometimes, it’s only ever come off her finger once before during our ten-year marriage. And on that occasion, all hell broke loose. Did she throw this at me last night? I couldn’t have been too drunk to remember. It was only one bottle of wine. But something made her take it off. And now she’s hiding away in the en suite. You’re going to be late, Jen,’ Mark says, his tone gentle. He can probably sense something isn’t right. That, or he’s found my discarded wedding ring and is worried it’s happening again. The memory of the last time I slipped my ring from my finger and hurled it at Mark is still fresh in my mind. I cringe as I recall the stream of expletives and insults that flew from my mouth. It wasn’t my finest moment.

I was also expecting more hidden secrets, something that would make the story play out differently since it was hinted at with a few characters. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my free e-ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review! I had a lot of problems with this book. First, I'm not sure how this can be part of a series....when the characters are different? Yes, they both dealt with serial killers, but a series? That is like saying King's It and Tolkein's The Hobbit are a series because they both have spiders in them. Oh my! I thought The Serial Killer's Wife was good but Alice Hunter has really turned up the heat for The Serial Killer's Daughter. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Reader Review Whilst I really enjoyed it and was gripped throughout, the ending disappointed me as I saw the culprit coming from a mile off. I am rarely one to nail the perpetrator, and particularly from an early stage of the book, so this one didn't have the wow ending of the first book.

Toys

There is no doubt that I loved this book. I cannot wait to lose myself in the author’s other book very soon.