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kberry513's review
4.0
While this one is just as good as all the others, I found myself wanting to slap Maggie Taylor pretty much the whole time. She holds off on going to the police for so long even though she's been getting threatening messages from people who know who she is and where she lives. Her kids could absolutely have been at risk. Then once she knows everything, she is still hesitant to turn in her husband. It is more than clear that he is a pathological liar from the second she finds him in a motel. She really should have turned him in then. Add all that to the fact that even after she sees that he is perfectly willing to kill Leo with no remorse, she still doesn't mention to the police that he was at the warehouse. And how did she not think it was suspicious to find out that Frank is the one who recommended her for a job right when she's questioning everything she knew in the past? I mean come on now! You've been getting creepy phone calls, use your head!
Also, while I'm glad that Tom and Leo have broken up and that they seem to be fully broken up, I'm also glad that she didn't die and that she's going to try to get past her issues with her new bf. I'm a little concerned that Becky and Tom are going to get together, especially now that I really like her boyfriend. There's just been lots of hints that Becky is into Tom...I guess we will see in the next one.
Plot summary: Twelve years ago, Michael Alexander is dumped by a girl and his therapist has him join a chat room where people fantasize about killing the objects of their rage. His therapist, calling himself Invictus, facilitates Michael and two others into a private chat where they discuss ways they could murder his ex girlfriend while he has a solid alibi. In return, he is supposed to kill the mother of one of the other boys. They choose two more victims to muddy the waters - all three look alike. One of them survives the attempt. Tom Douglas found him very suspicious, but his superior didn't agree and it was around the time that Tom's daughter was born, so he had to let it go. Tom suspects that he may not be Lucy's bio dad, but he lets that thought go. His DI Phillipa agrees with him and finds it very suspicious that Alexander fell off the grid as soon as the hunt for the killer died down, ostensibly to care for his mother, who actually died when he was 8.
He changes his name to Duncan Taylor and marries a woman named Maggie who becomes a defense lawyer. They've been living in southern England where Duncan has been living a double life as a plummer and serial killer, drowning women who drink too much. They move to Manchester when Maggie gets hired by a new firm. Unbeknownst to her, that is where he is from and his old therapist is the one who recommended her - so that he could get Duncan back. His old killing buddies want revenge because he didn't get his inheritance because Duncan didn't kill his stepmother 12 years ago. They start killing women who look like Maggie and they abduct Leo Harris, intending to draw Duncan out. He takes off and leaves his kids alone before Maggie gets home.
When Becky gets called to the scene of the first current dead body, she believes it is Leo. She had seen pictures and Tom had just gotten a call from Leo's brother in law, as Leo had not showed up to her niece's christening. Tom has gone to check on her and found her apartment empty. When Tom goes to the morgue to identify the body, he realizes it isn't her. However, the three horizontal cuts on the leg of the victim link it to the murders from 12 years ago. A friend of the woman, who turned out to be a nurse, Louisa, comes to identify her and help figure out who killed her. She knew that the victim was out on a date with a man she may have worked with. Louisa and Tom are interested in each other, but nothing comes of it yet.
Maggie starts getting threatening phone calls and trying to figure out what happened to Duncan. He cleared out a cupboard that he always kept locked before he left and she's afraid it has to do with an affair, but once she sees the first dead woman on the news, she knows it's about that. Her son sees a white van following them and she calls to report this to a policeman she knows, but when he calls her back she doesn't want to tell him the whole story, having heard from Duncan (who asked her not to involve the police). Tom and Becky show up to interview her, but she doesn't tell them anything, although they know she's lying and that she's not telling them something about her husband.
Her sister comes up to help with the kids and she figures out that he used to be called Michael and that at one point, he was in foster care. She and her sister track him down after he calls her asking her not to go to the police. The other killers send her a photo of the second victim, stating she's next. She confronts her husband, who confesses only that he "unwittingly" helped plan his ex girlfriend's murder, but that he took off because he was afraid of being implicated. She feels sick, knowing that he feels no guilt about the other women who were killed, but she still decides not to go to the police. The other killers abduct her and her son when she goes to pick him up from football. They end up letting her son go and he goes to the police. His description of the man and his knowledge of the original license plate of the van lead them to two men who were prior suspects. Becky's boyfriend's knowledge of the transit system (he works for transit police) help the narrow down where Leo and Maggie are being held.
Maggie is taken to a warehouse where they have been keeping Leo and they show up with Duncan. They tell Duncan he has to kill one of them but Maggie had to choose, then give Maggie the option to decide to kill Duncan. Duncan tries to convince Maggie that Leo is already half dead anyway (her arm is infected since they sewed the restraints to her skin). The second guy involved shows up to cause a problem with Ben and in the ensuing chaos, Maggie slips out, finding Tom right outside about to bust in with the police. They take down the other two killers, but Duncan slips out and tells Maggie not to mention him. She doesn't, but when Tom and Becky come to follow it up with her, they tell her all they have discovered about Duncan.
Duncan comes back to get Maggie and tells her that they are going to fake his drowning death, as he can't swim. She ends up killing him first and then faking it and Becky is so convinced, she jumps in to save/apprehend Duncan, almost drowning in the process herself. Luckily, her bf Mark had followed her to the scene and between him and Tom, they resuscitate her. The police find Duncan's body a few days later.
Tom and Leo make up, but only as friends - Leo is happy in her new relationship and Tom thinks they'll just backslide into their old roles. But he's happy for her. Becky tells Tom that Louisa (who has been helping care for Leo) assumes that she is his girlfriend, but that she is definitely into him. Tom teases her about Mark.
Frank/Invictus calls Maggie, telling her she has now joined the club and implying that he has been manipulating his patients into becoming killers all along, including her husband and one of the criminals she has been defending.
Also, while I'm glad that Tom and Leo have broken up and that they seem to be fully broken up, I'm also glad that she didn't die and that she's going to try to get past her issues with her new bf. I'm a little concerned that Becky and Tom are going to get together, especially now that I really like her boyfriend. There's just been lots of hints that Becky is into Tom...I guess we will see in the next one.
Plot summary: Twelve years ago, Michael Alexander is dumped by a girl and his therapist has him join a chat room where people fantasize about killing the objects of their rage. His therapist, calling himself Invictus, facilitates Michael and two others into a private chat where they discuss ways they could murder his ex girlfriend while he has a solid alibi. In return, he is supposed to kill the mother of one of the other boys. They choose two more victims to muddy the waters - all three look alike. One of them survives the attempt. Tom Douglas found him very suspicious, but his superior didn't agree and it was around the time that Tom's daughter was born, so he had to let it go. Tom suspects that he may not be Lucy's bio dad, but he lets that thought go. His DI Phillipa agrees with him and finds it very suspicious that Alexander fell off the grid as soon as the hunt for the killer died down, ostensibly to care for his mother, who actually died when he was 8.
He changes his name to Duncan Taylor and marries a woman named Maggie who becomes a defense lawyer. They've been living in southern England where Duncan has been living a double life as a plummer and serial killer, drowning women who drink too much. They move to Manchester when Maggie gets hired by a new firm. Unbeknownst to her, that is where he is from and his old therapist is the one who recommended her - so that he could get Duncan back. His old killing buddies want revenge because he didn't get his inheritance because Duncan didn't kill his stepmother 12 years ago. They start killing women who look like Maggie and they abduct Leo Harris, intending to draw Duncan out. He takes off and leaves his kids alone before Maggie gets home.
When Becky gets called to the scene of the first current dead body, she believes it is Leo. She had seen pictures and Tom had just gotten a call from Leo's brother in law, as Leo had not showed up to her niece's christening. Tom has gone to check on her and found her apartment empty. When Tom goes to the morgue to identify the body, he realizes it isn't her. However, the three horizontal cuts on the leg of the victim link it to the murders from 12 years ago. A friend of the woman, who turned out to be a nurse, Louisa, comes to identify her and help figure out who killed her. She knew that the victim was out on a date with a man she may have worked with. Louisa and Tom are interested in each other, but nothing comes of it yet.
Maggie starts getting threatening phone calls and trying to figure out what happened to Duncan. He cleared out a cupboard that he always kept locked before he left and she's afraid it has to do with an affair, but once she sees the first dead woman on the news, she knows it's about that. Her son sees a white van following them and she calls to report this to a policeman she knows, but when he calls her back she doesn't want to tell him the whole story, having heard from Duncan (who asked her not to involve the police). Tom and Becky show up to interview her, but she doesn't tell them anything, although they know she's lying and that she's not telling them something about her husband.
Her sister comes up to help with the kids and she figures out that he used to be called Michael and that at one point, he was in foster care. She and her sister track him down after he calls her asking her not to go to the police. The other killers send her a photo of the second victim, stating she's next. She confronts her husband, who confesses only that he "unwittingly" helped plan his ex girlfriend's murder, but that he took off because he was afraid of being implicated. She feels sick, knowing that he feels no guilt about the other women who were killed, but she still decides not to go to the police. The other killers abduct her and her son when she goes to pick him up from football. They end up letting her son go and he goes to the police. His description of the man and his knowledge of the original license plate of the van lead them to two men who were prior suspects. Becky's boyfriend's knowledge of the transit system (he works for transit police) help the narrow down where Leo and Maggie are being held.
Maggie is taken to a warehouse where they have been keeping Leo and they show up with Duncan. They tell Duncan he has to kill one of them but Maggie had to choose, then give Maggie the option to decide to kill Duncan. Duncan tries to convince Maggie that Leo is already half dead anyway (her arm is infected since they sewed the restraints to her skin). The second guy involved shows up to cause a problem with Ben and in the ensuing chaos, Maggie slips out, finding Tom right outside about to bust in with the police. They take down the other two killers, but Duncan slips out and tells Maggie not to mention him. She doesn't, but when Tom and Becky come to follow it up with her, they tell her all they have discovered about Duncan.
Duncan comes back to get Maggie and tells her that they are going to fake his drowning death, as he can't swim. She ends up killing him first and then faking it and Becky is so convinced, she jumps in to save/apprehend Duncan, almost drowning in the process herself. Luckily, her bf Mark had followed her to the scene and between him and Tom, they resuscitate her. The police find Duncan's body a few days later.
Tom and Leo make up, but only as friends - Leo is happy in her new relationship and Tom thinks they'll just backslide into their old roles. But he's happy for her. Becky tells Tom that Louisa (who has been helping care for Leo) assumes that she is his girlfriend, but that she is definitely into him. Tom teases her about Mark.
Frank/Invictus calls Maggie, telling her she has now joined the club and implying that he has been manipulating his patients into becoming killers all along, including her husband and one of the criminals she has been defending.
joweston's review
4.0
As with this whole series, this is an absolutely unstoppable page turner - pure and simple. Once again, Rachel Abbott writes a gritty story, with a great lead character in Tom Douglas. Also as with other books in the series, there is an element of suspension of disbelief, however, that doesn't stop me enjoying them immensely.
joo13's review
5.0
I enjoyed reading this so much, I went straight into the next book. This author is a fab writer. Even though the stories are about murders and crime, it's not gory and it's more about the investigations.
wellingtonestatelibrary's review against another edition
3.0
3 Stars for Tom and Becky. 0 for Maggie (the main character). This woman has the worst sense of self-preservation of any character I have ever met. She didn't even have the sense to protect her children adequately. She gets threatening phone calls, letters stuck through her mail slot and a guy approaching and threatening her son on the side of the road when they went for a family bike ride!), but she still sends them off to school/daycare/football practice and doesn't even know where football practice is!!!! THEN after she finds out that her husband has been lying to her their entire marriage, she tracks him down and "...she couldn't fall apart yet. Not until she found out if he still loved her"!!!!! What?! Who cares?!! I found myself hoping she would experience the natural consequence of her stupidity in the end (be it death or prison) but no, she got away with everything!
Also, the surprise ending was no surprise at all. I saw that coming a mile away.
I read her previous 2 books and enjoyed them, so I am hoping this is just a weird error in judgment on the author's part.
Also, the surprise ending was no surprise at all. I saw that coming a mile away.
I read her previous 2 books and enjoyed them, so I am hoping this is just a weird error in judgment on the author's part.
books_penguin's review
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
stephreadsal0t's review
2.0
I should stop reading books by Rachel Abbott. I'm clearly just not a fan. This book frustrated me soooo much. It felt like a low rent Gone Girl and the main character was so stupid it was painful to read.
sooky's review
5.0
Swoon!
Kill Me Again is exactly the sort of story I’m looking for when I have cravings for an entertaining detective story. It has everything: family drama, secrets, lies, devious suspects, revengey stuff, and competent police officers who work around the clock to catch the killer.
So, please don’t mind me while I wax lyrical about DCI Tom Douglas, but I can’t help it. He’s one of my favourite detectives, an all around lovely dude who is not only a diligent detective, but a decent human being I find very inspiring. The fact that he’s not real is almost beside the point. I’m pretty sure there are many people like him, and they deserve our attention.
DCI Douglas and his partner in crime-hunt, Becky, have a pretty gruesome case on their hand. Women who look alike keep turning up dead, and the killer’s modus operandi bears a striking resemblance to a case Tom worked on twelve years ago. The clock is ticking, and people in possession of crucial information are too afraid to come forward. When Tom’s ex goes missing, it becomes all too personal for him.
Becky is the perfect partner for Tom. She’s young and enthusiastic and her occasional recklessness is perfectly balanced by DCI Douglas’ careful and methodical approach. She swoons about him every now and then, but so what? Who wouldn’t? Even I do!
I absolutely loved how Rachel Abbott kept dropping little hints from the beginning, and the mix of fast paced action scenes and all the delicious drama was crafted into a captivating, thoroughly addictive story with loveable detectives and a fascinating tangle of lies and deception.5
P.S. Someone please, please make a TV series of these books with Gerald Butler as DCI Douglas. Thank you.
Kill Me Again is exactly the sort of story I’m looking for when I have cravings for an entertaining detective story. It has everything: family drama, secrets, lies, devious suspects, revengey stuff, and competent police officers who work around the clock to catch the killer.
So, please don’t mind me while I wax lyrical about DCI Tom Douglas, but I can’t help it. He’s one of my favourite detectives, an all around lovely dude who is not only a diligent detective, but a decent human being I find very inspiring. The fact that he’s not real is almost beside the point. I’m pretty sure there are many people like him, and they deserve our attention.
DCI Douglas and his partner in crime-hunt, Becky, have a pretty gruesome case on their hand. Women who look alike keep turning up dead, and the killer’s modus operandi bears a striking resemblance to a case Tom worked on twelve years ago. The clock is ticking, and people in possession of crucial information are too afraid to come forward. When Tom’s ex goes missing, it becomes all too personal for him.
Becky is the perfect partner for Tom. She’s young and enthusiastic and her occasional recklessness is perfectly balanced by DCI Douglas’ careful and methodical approach. She swoons about him every now and then, but so what? Who wouldn’t? Even I do!
I absolutely loved how Rachel Abbott kept dropping little hints from the beginning, and the mix of fast paced action scenes and all the delicious drama was crafted into a captivating, thoroughly addictive story with loveable detectives and a fascinating tangle of lies and deception.5
P.S. Someone please, please make a TV series of these books with Gerald Butler as DCI Douglas. Thank you.
melreads11's review
5.0
Even tho I don’t enjoy reading a book that goes back n for, when it linked together, it made sense and then there was twist after twist, I was gripped.
monikajuk's review against another edition
3.0
Originalus siužetas, paveikūs charakteriai... Bet... Nuspėjama. Knyga prailgo dėl prasto vertimo, painiojamų veikėjų vardų. Taip pat erzino gramatinės klaidos.