Synopsis:
From the USA Today and International Bestselling author of The Widow Next Door comes The Diary of a Serial Killer’s Daughter, a demented page-turner.
If you knew your father’s darkest secret, would you turn him in?
What if his secret was connected to you?
Ruby Marlowe’s always been a daddy’s girl. Her mother died when she was two, and her single father has ensured she has everything she needs. However, everyone has dark secrets, and Ruby’s father is no exception…
When she’s young, she doesn’t understand the weight of her father’s killing game. However, as she ages, she realizes her obsessive tendencies aren’t the only elements that separate her from her peers. After she begins to investigate her mother’s life and death, Ruby starts to believe there are some secrets even she doesn’t know about the serial killer she calls Daddy.
As her father’s killing grows rampant, the secrets get harder and harder to hide—and she fears it will all come crashing down. Will Ruby seek a different life for herself and betray the only person who has ever loved her, or will she get wrapped up in his sinister path?
A twisted page-turner that shines an eerie light on the father-daughter bond from the USA Today and International Bestseller L.A. Detwiler.
Edition:
E-ARC
Disclaimer:
I received a copy of The Diary of a Serial Killer’s Daughter from Net Galley in exchange for review. This did not impact my review in any way.
My Thoughts:
I was sold on this premise from the start. We so often read/hear about/see things about serial killers, and their own madness, but we don’t nearly so often get the opportunity to see the kind of havoc they can wreak on those who are close to them.
This story is told by Ruby Marlowe, daughter of a serial killer (so it’s not just a clever name) via entries into her personal diary (well, diaries I imagine) spanning from the time she is 7 years old until she is 16.
We know fairly early on that Ruby is special. She has some unnamed ‘condition’ (which to me sounds like she might be on the autism spectrum based on symptoms, but dammit man, I’m a writer, not a doctor) which makes it difficult for her to fit in with her peers. She doesn’t deal well with over-stimulation, she’s not very sociable, and when she gets stressed out she does things like rock back and forth, hit her head on things, or scratches her neck until it bleeds.
As the synopsis points out, Ruby becomes aware of her father’s crimes – what she refers to as his killing game. Her diaries pick up for the reader when she first becomes aware of the “game.”
“Ruby
Little Bunny in the flowers.
He rests for hours.
White as a cloud.
He isn’t loud.
Soft like a shirt.
The bunny is hurt.”
poem by Ruby Marlowe from The Diary of a Serial Killer’s Daughter
When Ruby comes to realize that her life can be different – that she doesn’t have to live with the weight of always having to protect her daddy, will she take it? Or will she choose to continue to live a life that is solely comprised of each of them protecting the other? “Just Daddy and Ruby. Ruby and Daddy.”
On a side note: this book has proven, once and for all that Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer has ruined serial murderers for me forever. I always picture them as Michael Rooker – every time! Every ding-dong-diddly time (please consider this permission for a Henry/Flanders mashup). Throughout the entirety of this book, I consistently pictured Ruby’s father as being played by Micheal Rooker. Ruby in my mind was a blank child (as, admittedly, most children are in my mind – they’re mostly just small, loud, interchangeable clay lumpkins).
About the Author (from her website):
L.A. Detwiler is a USA TODAY Bestselling author with Avon Books (HarperCollins) and a high school English teacher from Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania. During her final year at Mount Aloysius College, she started writing her first fiction novel, which was published in 2015. She has also written articles that have appeared in several women’s publications and websites. L.A. Detwiler lives in her hometown with her husband, Chad. They have five cats and a mastiff named Henry. Her debut bestselling thriller, The Widow Next Door, is available now.
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Rating:
I wish a bit more detail had been added in at the end. The story was so full of details up until then, but there at the end it got very bare-boned. Like, we leave fully understanding what happened, but it is all presented in a very abrupt fashion. I wish we got just a bit more detail about the ‘hows’ of it all. But aside from that gripe, it was a fantastic read.
The Diary of a Serial Killer's Daughter By L.A. Detwiler Self Published ISBN: 9781581613978 Published: March 12, 2020 E-Book, Paperback 233 Pages
