Published By: Thomas & Mercer
Pages: 317
Released On: 18/02/2025
She believed her serial-killer ex was innocent, but now history is repeating itself. What does she really remember?
Writer Karen Walker knows more than most about murderers. Her first love went on to become The Bagman, a notorious serial killer now locked away for life in a maximum-security prison.
Karen has spent her life running from the weight of having loved him, defended him and, ultimately, leading the police to his door. But now, ten years later, just as she’s about to publish her account of his crimes, a young woman is abducted in horribly familiar circumstances.
It can’t be The Bagman…can it? He’s safely behind bars, thanks to her. But she has to know for sure.
Returning to the hometown she thought she’d left for good, Karen is drawn into a deadly game of cat and mouse with the man she’s never escaped. If there’s any chance of saving the kidnapped girl, she’ll have to face up to what really happened back then, once and for all…
*****
Thanks to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.
I could swear I’ve read loads of Claire’s books before, but apparently I’ve only read one, and it wasn’t even a crime one – This Could Be Us; it was very good though.
This one sounded right up my street, in a similar vein to Lisa Jewell and Gillian McAllister, who I both love.
It has come to my attention that I read a scarily large quantity of books involving serial killers…maybe I need to get that looked at.
Each chapter of this starts with a segment from the main character’s (Karen) memoir, which I thought was an interesting way to look at what had happened in the past, without it keep flicking backwards and forwards. Having said that, I would have liked a bit more of what happened in the past, be it through more snippets of her book or interviews or flashbacks etc. Things are mentioned in passing, but the time of the crimes and in the decade since seemed a bit….glossed over, and I would have liked more there.
Karen was a difficult character to like, I struggled to figure her out. She’s a victim of many things, but is she to be trusted? There are lots of characters, goodies and baddies and those in between; victims and attackers. No-one is perfect, no-one is fully good and fully bad. There’s a lot of grey areas morally, which made for interesting reading. They’re all real, 3D character with enough to get your teeth into.
It’s written in first person from the POV of Karen, but it’s clearly written for someone, as it’s all “You did this, and then we did that”. Was it a diary? A letter? Was it to the imprisoned man?
It is quite simple, no massive twists and turns (at least for the most part), and normally in a thriller I would say it needs those twists and turns to hold my attention. But I didn’t feel the need in this. Claire has such a way with words that the thrill is in the things unsaid. The silence between the words and actions. And I think if she was throwing in shock after shock, we’d have missed most of that subtlety.
There are a few bits that are unbelievable. I mean, I know it’s a fictional book, a fun thriller, and so it doesn’t necessarily have to be 100% accurate to real life. But things still need to make sense within the context of the story, and I don’t believe anyone would allow a civilian – especially one so linked to the previous crimes – to try and help solve the recent crime. It didn’t spoil the reading of it. I still enjoyed it, but those kind of things just stuck out as a bit weird.
It’s not my absolute favourite of thrillers, but it is still very good. I enjoyed it and read it in less than a day and will definitely be keeping my eye out for her other thrillers.
Books By Your Bedside 