Published By: Simon and Schuster
Pages: 352
Released On: 18/06/2026
Plenty of people have lousy parents, but Nicola Fischer’s father has just been convicted of murdering five young women, including her best friend. Fired from her job and hounded by reporters, Nicola passes the time by doomscrolling and drunk-dialling Greer Woods, the alluring host of the hit show To Catch a Killer, who cracked the case and turned Nicola’s life upside down before disappearing along with her so-called ‘best intentions’.
When an email from Greer finally shows up in Nicola’s inbox, there’s no apology or explanation, just a cryptic invitation. The Death Row Club is an annual weekend getaway for the adult children of serial killers – and Nicola is the newest reluctant member. Desperate to escape her small town, she accepts the offer with barely a second thought, forging tentative bonds with her fellow club members, most of whom seem intriguing, and only slightly unhinged.
But when an uninvited guest shows up at their remote wilderness retreat, everyone is put on high alert, and the next morning paranoia turns to outright fear. Because one of their own is dead, and the rest of them are left with only one question.
If the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree, which of them is the bad seed?
*****
Thanks to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.
This is such a fabulous debut and it bodes well for her future and I cannot wait for further works.
This opens with a bang – quite literally – and it doesn’t let up.
I read hundreds of thrillers and a lot of them are to do with serial killers, but they’re to do with the killers themselves or the investigation. This is one of the rare ones that focus on a family member, and I thought that was interesting and made it fresh and unique.
I felt really sorry for Nicola and everyone else in her situation – life ruined because of something someone else did. It really makes you think and asks questions of you. If your mum or dad turned out to be a serial killer, does that instantly negate everything good about them? Does it immediately stop you from loving them? I’d like to say yes but I don’t think it’s that black and white.
It’s a thriller yes, and it gets more thrillery as it goes on. But the first half…it’s hard to describe. There’s mentions of the serial killing obviously, but it’s about more than that, it’s about the people, loneliness, friendship, relationships, trust, and it was more moving than I expected a thriller to be.
The main issue for me was there were a lot of characters and a lot of storylines going on. Each character had their own, and then there was the overarching story that linked everyone. Whilst they’re all interesting, I think I’d have preferred it if it had focussed a bit more on few storylines.
It took a big turn at about 3/4 through that was good, but if I’m honest, I was a little confused as to how everything fitted together from that point. So it was a good twist and an interesting one, but it did muddle everything a bit for me.
It’s got everything I wanted but it still felt original and exciting. I read it within an afternoon I was so addicted to it.
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