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Editorial Content for The Killer in Me

Book

The Killer in Me

Contributors

Alison Stewart

Reviewer (text)

Alison S., Teen Board Member

When Nina Barrows begs Warren Witter to drive her six hours to a New York suburb, her one-time best friend doesn't know what he's getting himself into. But even though he has yet to discover the secret of Nina's nightmares --- or, more precisely, her nightly forays into the mind of a serial killer --- Warren obliges. The duo pulls an all-night stakeout, waiting for Nina's phantom killer to strike.
 
But the teens are too late. By the time they plant themselves in front of the victims’ house, the “Thief" has already blasted a hole in the Gustafssons' skulls and slogged their remains through the woods, leaving Nina with nothing but renewed frustration --- and a glimpse of his license plate. Thus begins Nina's (and begrudgingly Warren's) road trip from their Vermont hometown to the merciless New Mexico desert.

“Blurring the superhuman with the insane...Harrison's thriller will tease and entice and entrance you. Plus her prose is tight enough to snap….”

That's how I --- and Warren --- plunged into this psychological thrill ride, certain of only two things: Nina Barrows is no Mary Sue, no Katniss Everdeen-warrior princess. Nina's first, feeble attempt at a mile-run ends in a wheezed declaration of how much she hates PE.
 
But she just might be a serial killer.
 
From Morgan Matson's AMY AND ROGER'S EPIC DETOUR to Margo Rabb's KISSING IN AMERICA to the classic PAPER TOWNS, teen road trip novels crowd bookstore shelves the way mile markers line the interstate. But while Nina and Warren do crash in motel rooms and wolf down pecan pie in vinyl booths, most teen road trips don't climax in a showdown with a serial killer. So thank you, Margot Harrison, for twisting a tired premise into freshness.
 
Nina transcends the girl-who-sees-dead-people stereotype and Warren --- the shy, nerdy, sometimes-drug dealer --- makes for an unexpected love interest. But you don't fly through a hundred pages in an hour because of character development, no matter how unexpected. The heart of THE KILLER IN ME is inarguably, inexorably its suspense. Blurring the superhuman with the insane, night terrors with, well, actual terror, Harrison's thriller will tease and entice and entrance you. Plus her prose is tight enough to snap, with just enough words for a glimmer of atmosphere.
 
Still, there are a few issues with Harrison’s characters. Sure, Warren's flirtation with the drug trade clashes with his nice-guy demeanor. Characters are complex --- I get it --- but no way would Warren hook girls on stimulants just because he wants a new car. And Harrison can exaggerate some of Nina's fears, faking a few thrills in a book bursting with genuine horror.
 
Still, THE KILLER IN ME teems with raw creeping terror and some pretty epic gunslinging. Fusing Henry James' THE TURN OF THE SCREW with the Lone Ranger, Harrison's taut first novel will thrill you, chill you, and leave you clamoring for her second.

Teaser

Hasn't he lived long enough? Why not? I could take him like a thief in the night. This is how the Thief thinks. He serves death, the vacuum, the unknown. He's always waiting. Always there. Seventeen-year-old Nina Barrows knows all about the Thief. She's intimately familiar with his hunting methods: how he stalks and kills at random, how he disposes of his victims' bodies in an abandoned mine in the deepest, most desolate part of a desert. Now, for the first time, Nina has the chance to do something about the serial killer that no one else knows exists. With the help of her former best friend, Warren, she tracks the Thief two thousand miles, to his home turf-the deserts of New Mexico. But the man she meets there seems nothing like the brutal sociopath with whom she's had a disturbing connection her whole life.

Promo

Hasn't he lived long enough? Why not? I could take him like a thief in the night. This is how the Thief thinks. He serves death, the vacuum, the unknown. He's always waiting. Always there. Seventeen-year-old Nina Barrows knows all about the Thief. She's intimately familiar with his hunting methods: how he stalks and kills at random, how he disposes of his victims' bodies in an abandoned mine in the deepest, most desolate part of a desert. Now, for the first time, Nina has the chance to do something about the serial killer that no one else knows exists. With the help of her former best friend, Warren, she tracks the Thief two thousand miles, to his home turf-the deserts of New Mexico. But the man she meets there seems nothing like the brutal sociopath with whom she's had a disturbing connection her whole life.

About the Book

Hasn't he lived long enough? Why not? I could take him like a thief in the night.
 
This is how the Thief thinks. He serves death, the vacuum, the unknown. He's always waiting. Always there.
 
Seventeen-year-old Nina Barrows knows all about the Thief. She's intimately familiar with his hunting methods: how he stalks and kills at random, how he disposes of his victims' bodies in an abandoned mine in the deepest, most desolate part of a desert.
 
Now, for the first time, Nina has the chance to do something about the serial killer that no one else knows exists. With the help of her former best friend, Warren, she tracks the Thief two thousand miles, to his home turf-the deserts of New Mexico.
 
But the man she meets there seems nothing like the brutal sociopath with whom she's had a disturbing connection her whole life. To anyone else, Dylan Shadwell is exactly what he appears to be: a young veteran committed to his girlfriend and her young daughter. As Nina spends more time with him, she begins to doubt the truth she once held as certain: Dylan Shadwell is the Thief. She even starts to wonder...what if there is no Thief?
 
From debut author Margot Harrison comes a brilliantly twisted psychological thriller that asks which is more terrifying: the possibility that your nightmares are real...or the possibility that they begin and end with you?