Love In The Time Of Serial Killers – Alicia Thompson

The true crime backlash is well and truly underway. For a while there, it was the Cool Thing to be into, with an explosion in the podcast format largely attributable to amateur detectives discussing their ‘favourite’ cases. Now, people are starting to question whether it’s really ethical to consume real-life violence and tragedy as entertainment. Love In The Time Of Serial Killers stands strong, though, and allows its heroine to engage with the genre in an intellectual way that reassures us all that it’s not all bad.

PhD candidate Phoebe Walsh has always been obsessed with true crime, and she has parlayed that interest into a thesis – if she can ever get the thing written. The latest obstacle derailing her progress is a summer spent in Florida, clearing out the house of her late mostly-estranged father. Her golden retriever younger brother isn’t much help – he’s busy planning the perfect proposal to his perfect girlfriend. And the good-looking neighbour is definitely a distraction she could do without, especially seeing as he sets her true crime spidey senses tingling.

Love In The Time Of Serial Killers has a refreshing premise for a romance. How often do we begin with the heroine suspecting the love interest might be a murderer? Their ‘meet cute’ occurs in the middle of the night, on a lonely street, where he’s standing barefoot(!) and offering to help her move the heavy desk off the top of her car. Creepy, yes, but not definitive. Soon, Phoebe discovers that Sam isn’t a serial killer (well, unlikely to be, at the very least), he’s just scary in a whole other way: he’s a man that she’s very attracted to, and might just fall in love with.

There’s a lot going on in this one besides the main romance storyline. Phoebe has all kinds of Daddy issues to resolve, an adolescent friendship to revive, and a street cat named Lenore to adopt. I really liked this aspect of Love In The Time Of Serial Killers, especially seeing as it gave room in the story for conflict in the relationship without the guy simply being an arsehole. There are enough areshole men in the world, it’s a relief to read a book about one who doesn’t do anything wrong.

Other things I love: Love In The Time Of Serial Killers has a fat narrator who doesn’t make it her whole personality! It’s mentioned a few times in passing, and Pheobe is honest in her vulnerability, but it’s just one small part of her character. All the characters are surprisingly self-aware, all too rare in a romance novel, but especially Pheobe – she’s the a-hole and she knows it. She has to eat her humble pie before she can get her happily ever after.

And the cherry on the icing on the cake? There’s a few good spicy scenes, just to take the edge off.

So, yes, I loved Love In The Time Of Serial Killers. My only real criticism is that I’m disappointed I can’t read Phoebe’s dissertation. Thompson is clearly into true crime herself, it’s not just a Fun Niche Interest she’s concocted for her character, and I’d love to learn more about the genre from her perspective. That’s not really fair to level as a critique, though, so I’ll just settle for wholeheartedly recommending Love In The Time Of Serial Killers to anyone who wants a romance book with a fresh take and a fun hook.

My favourite Amazon reviews of Love In The Time Of Serial Killers:

• “She literally said “oh he might be a serial killer” next day “oh he’s not” and that’s the end of the conversation. I expected a lot more.” – Makena cagle
• “This book is not cute. The person who is MC is very sick and absolutely wrapped up in her insecurities and paralyzing phobias pertaining to murder… she should be in jail for even doing half the crap she does to him. That the love interest is even interested in her is mind boggling, especially since MC is nothing but rude, abrasive, invasive and puts zero effort into her presentation – I don’t think she even bathes. It is that bad. It is gross misconduct, it is stalking and abusive and masquerades as a romance novel.” S. Fuller
• “This book was so dumb. More like love in the time of stranger sex. And the cat. Wasted my time.” – laiza montanez
• “I honestly can’t get behind a man who still is interested when she acts like that. I want a love story, not a story where the man is a sap and has no self respect.” – KatieR