‘Not all evil, on the surface, is ugly and menacing. It doesn’t always lurk in city centres after dark. It
mows your lawns, frequents your local pub, takes its kids to school and contributes to communities.’
When the first letter arrives saying that ‘tonight it begins’, journalist Miller Hatcher ignores it. But
then the body of a murdered woman is discovered, strangled, a scarf around her neck.
Cassie Hughes has always vowed to find the man who murdered her mother. Cassie knows he’s out
there and wants him to pay, and Miller agrees to bring the cold case back into the public’s eye.
Logan Dodds has been obsessed with true crime ever since his sister was murdered thirty years ago.
He has turned his obsession into a career and has created the True Crime Enthusiasts Club and his
newest venture, True Crime Tours.
The lives of Miller, Cassie and Logan – all affected differently by murder – become entwined as The Scarf Killer, desperate for infamy, and Miller’s attention, makes his mark on the small town of Lentford.
After seven years of working as a librarian in New Zealand and overseas, Nikki now works as a freelance proofreader and copy editor. She lives in the small Waikato town of Cambridge in New Zealand with her husband and two girls.
Nikki has been writing on and off her whole life and before she turned to crime writing had success in flash fiction. She has been published in ‘Bonsai: Best Small Fictions from Aotearoa New Zealand’, and ‘Fresh Ink’ anthologies.
Crime/thriller/mystery novels are her passion. Her first novel, ‘Nothing Bad Happens Here’, featuring journalist Miller Hatcher, is set on the Coromandel Coast of New Zealand. It was a finalist in the 2018 Ngaio Marsh Award for best first novel. Her second book, ‘No One Can Hear You’, was long-listed for the Ngaio Marsh Award for best novel in 2019. ‘
The Murder Club’ is the second in the Miller Hatcher series.
My thoughts:
This was really enjoyable, a small town is suddenly on the map after a killer starts their spree, with everyone looking at their friends and neighbours slightly differently. Is the murderer among them?
Miller is a local journalist who gets drawn into the case by the killer, who starts sending her letters, in the sinister tradition of Jack the Ripper and the Zodiac Killer, among others. Instead of publishing them however, she hands them to the police, determined not to give in to the murderer’s desire for publicity.
But she can’t help but wonder about it, as more women are killed and it dredges up terrible things from the past – like the murder of Cassie’s mother, and the other terrible deaths Logan’s awful murder tours exploit.
The plot is clever, the ending satisfying, and Cassie and Miller make great characters – similar but different, both dealing with their troubled pasts and trying to heal, both stronger than they think.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
ramblingmads 