Rating: Not rated
Tags: Mystery, Fiction, Thriller, Lang:en
Summary
I have a meanness inside me, real as an organ.
Libby Day was seven when her mother and two sisters were
murdered in “The Satan Sacrifice of Kinnakee,
Kansas.” As her family lay dying, little Libby fled
their tiny farmhouse into the freezing January snow. She lost
some fingers and toes, but she survived–and famously
testified that her fifteen-year-old brother, Ben, was the
killer. Twenty-five years later, Ben sits in prison, and
troubled Libby lives off the dregs of a trust created by
well-wishers who’ve long forgotten her.
The Kill Club is a macabre secret society obsessed with
notorious crimes. When they locate Libby and pump her for
details–proof they hope may free Ben–Libby
hatches a plan to profit off her tragic history. For a fee,
she’ll reconnect with the players from that night and
report her findings to the club . . . and maybe she’ll
admit her testimony wasn’t so solid after all.
As Libby’s search takes her from shabby Missouri
strip clubs to abandoned Oklahoma tourist towns, the
narrative flashes back to January 2, 1985. The events of that
day are relayed through the eyes of Libby’s doomed
family members–including Ben, a loner whose rage over
his shiftless father and their failing farm have driven him
into a disturbing friendship with the new girl in town. Piece
by piece, the unimaginable truth emerges, and Libby finds
herself right back where she started–on the run from a
killer.
From the Hardcover edition.
Starred Review. Edgar-finalist Flynn's second crime
thriller tops her impressive debut,
Sharp Objects. When Libby Day's mother and two older
sisters were slaughtered in the family's Kansas farmhouse, it
was seven-year-old Libby's testimony that sent her
15-year-old brother, Ben, to prison for life. Desperate for
cash 24 years later, Libby reluctantly agrees to meet members
of the Kill Club, true crime enthusiasts who bicker over
famous cases. She's shocked to learn most of them believe Ben
is innocent and the real killer is still on the loose. Though
initially interested only in making a quick buck hocking
family memorabilia, Libby is soon drawn into the club's
pseudo-investigation, and begins to question what exactly she
saw—or didn't see—the night of the tragedy. Flynn
fluidly moves between cynical present-day Libby and the hours
leading up to the murders through the eyes of her family
members. When the truth emerges, it's so twisted that even
the most astute readers won't have predicted it.
(May)
Libby Day, the protagonist of Flynn’s disturbing
second novel, was, as a seven-year-old, the only survivor of
her family’s brutal murder by her older brother, an
event dubbed by the media the “Satan Sacrifice of
Kinnakee, Kansas.” Twenty-five years later, she has
become a hardened, selfish young woman with no friends or
family. Since the tragedy, her life has been paid for by
donations of well-wishers, but, with that fund now empty,
Libby must find a way to make money. Her search leads her to
The Kill Club, a secret society of people obsessed with the
details of notorious murders. As Libby tries to gather
artifacts to sell to The Kill Club (whose members, it turns
out, doubt the guilt of her brother), she is forced to
reëxamine the events of the night of the murder.
Flynn’s well-paced story deftly shows the fallibility
of memory and the lies a child tells herself to get through a
trauma.
From Publishers Weekly
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