Book Review - The Murder List by Jackie Kabler

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Title: The Murder List

Author: Jackie Kabler

Format reviewed: Ebook

Source: Netgalley

Publisher: One More Chapter

Publication Date: 31st May 2022

Rating: 5 Stars

When Mary receives a blank diary as a present, she thinks nothing of it. Until she opens the diary, and sees it’s not blank after all…

1st January MURDER LISA, OXFORD

1st February MURDER JANE, BIRMINGHAM

1st March MURDER DAVID, CARDIFF

1st April MURDER MARY, CHELTENHAM

Is this some kind of sick joke? But…it’s the end of January now. And a woman named Lisa was murdered in Oxford on 1st January.

Does that mean there really is a killer out there, planning to commit a new murder on the first of each month? And is the Mary due to be killed on 1st April her?

The clock is ticking for Mary to uncover the truth, before she becomes the next victim on the killer’s list…

Woah! OMG! Wow! 

What a book! 

So incredibly clever, and I had strong gut feelings as to who was behind everything and was completely dumfounded by the finale as a result. 

There is so much more to many of the characters than meets the eyes. There are many red herrings, and I'm never really sure how things would turn out. 

For everything is pointing to the fact that on 1st April, Mary will die, and she is our main character, and main view point, and you get to know her well as she tries along with the police to see if they can track down the diary killer before it gets to her turn. 

It is such a fabulous concept and so great to see how the police could react if they are given a partial threat to a common first name, city and date but nothing else to go on whether they will take it seriously, how they can even remotely comprehend keeping people in their town safe etc..

I loved the snippets from the four police forces working together to try identify and catch this potentially sick and twisted person. 

I thought the previous Jackie Kabler psychological thrillers were fantastic, and this one ramps up the writing, the tension, the generally addictiveness.  I couldn't get enough of it, and it is utterly amazing. 

Had me completely hooked and it even seemed to help combat my long covid exhaustion as I was feeling really alert from reading this fabulous story. 

Thank you to One More Chapter and Netgalley for this copy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.