The Blurb
Every serial killer is someone’s friend, spouse, lover or child….
Young women are being murdered in the Lincolnshire town of Lyndford, where five people fear someone close to them might be the monster the police are searching for.
One of them is right.
Juliet sees an expert’s profile of the average serial killer and realises that her abusive husband, Paul, ticks all the boxes.
Maisie thinks her mum’s new boyfriend seems too good to be true. Is she the only person who can see through Gary’s friendly, sensitive façade?
Tamsin is besotted with her office crush, Jake. Then love turns to suspicion…
Steve is used to his childhood friend, Dan, being a loud mouthed Lothario with little respect for the truth. But is a new influence in his life leading him down a more sinister path?
Dorothy’s beloved son, Orlando, is keeping a secret from her—a chilling discovery forces her to confront her worst fears.
THE DEVIL YOU KNOW is a character-driven psychological drama that will keep you guessing until the very end.
My Thoughts
I read a lot of crime and psychological thrillers and at the time I got around to reading The Devil You Know I have to admit to being in the mood for something a little different. The Devil You Know had been sitting on my kindle for a while and I completely forgotten what the premise of the book was. I dived into it and was very pleasantly surprised. Tyler has written a compelling psychological thriller that is unique in its perspective. Despite being a thriller, it satisfied my need to read something different and I struggled to put it down.
A serial killer is murdering women in Lincolnshire and, of course, the police are desperate to find the killer to prevent the death toll from rising further. Sounds like your regular crime thriller right? Wrong! Tyler completely changes the perspective and follows the thoughts and lives of five unconnected individuals who each suspect, following the release of a photofit, that the killer may be someone they know.
How would you react if someone you were close to resembled a photofit of a suspected serial killer? Especially if their behaviour is unusual? Would you speak to them about it, look for evidence or go straight to the police? What effect would this have on your relationship? This is what each of the characters face in The Devil You Know and it makes for great reading. It takes you deep into the emotions, thoughts and feelings of each of the characters and their reactions. Tyler has given a wide range of experience within her characters – there is the abused wife, the lonely single mother of an adult child, the colleague with a crush on her work mate, the childhood friend who finds himself disagreeing with his friend’s views and behaviour and the teenage girl whose mother is in a new relationship – and gives each their own voice.
The Devil You Know has quite a complex plot with a lot of different characters and perspectives, however, Tyler pulls this off without ever causing confusion and ensuring that the story flows effortlessly. This is a real testament to her writing skills and shows meticulous plotting.
I adored the psychological aspect of Tyler’s book. I’m always intrigued about what goes on in the mind of a killer and Tyler provides us with an explanation for his actions. She has pretty much considered every aspect; from the family and friends point of view during suspicion, the reason why the killer commits his crimes and the fall-out from the suspicions and the impact on the family members of the killer after prosecution. You are taken on a journey of trying to figure out who the killer is with carefully placed snippets of information from the police. While I had drawn the correct conclusion in respect of one of the suspects, Tyler kept me guessing (incorrectly I might add) and finishes with one hell of a twist.
The Devil You Know is a great read. It is refreshingly different, utterly engrossing and compelling and really well written. It needs to be on your ‘to be read’ list!
A huge thank you to Terry Tyler for my copy of The Devil You Know in exchange for my review. The Devil You Know is out now.
Thank you so very much for this, Abbie ~ I wasn’t sure if you would like it or not! It’s been a hard book to promote, because although it’s centres round a serial killer, it’s not a crime novel…!!
You’ve made my day ~ you really understood what I wanted to do with it. Thank you. x
You are so welcome Terry. I really enjoyed it! Loved the unique perspective and it really got me thinking which I always love in a book. Yes I can imagine it has been difficult, not sure what genre it fits into – it needs a knew genre of its own xxx
Sadly, I think that’s the case for all my books – none of them fit neatly into a genre!
Hahaha I like your style Terry! I will definitely be checking out your other books in the future 🙂
This sounds really interesting, a bit of a different take on the theme. I read loads of them too and they can get a bit same-y. Will need it to be available on audible tho!
Hope you and the woofalumps are ok, Abbie xxx
Not sure if it is on Audible. I went into the book thinking I wasn’t really in the mood for a crime novel and was very pleasantly surprised as it is from a whole different perspective.
We are ok, thanks. I hope you are doing ok Pat. I will pop you a pm xxx
No, it’s certainly not a crime novel; I don’t like reading crime, either. I get bored with all the long conversations about the ins and outs of the case.
Sorry, Patricia, it’s not in audible, only Kindle. Something I haven’t got round to yet! Thanks for reading 🙂
Love this author’s books. All brilliant!
I will definitely be checking out the rest of Terry’s books after reading The Devil You Know.
So happy you liked this one! I adored the psychology behind it and I couldn’t help but wonder “what would I do?” I mean, you can’t stay away from the story, there’s always a detail that’s gonna catch your attention and make you ask yourself how you think you’d react. I just loved how every narration was not confusing, and the writing was smooth and great. Just like this review! <3
Aww thanks Meggy. The Devil You Know is brilliant and so well written. I love books that make you think about different situations and this one certainly did that. I still find myself mulling over it now and I finished it ages ago!
From the ‘whodunnit’ point of view, it’s so hard to know if you’ve fed enough, not enough, or too much information to the reader. My two test readers both thought the first culprit was someone else. I thought, ‘phew’!!
Thanks, Meggy and Judith 🙂
(ps, Abbie, I love commenting on your blog because the captcha thing is fun to do:)
I thought I had it sussed but I got it totally wrong!
Hahaha I’m going to have to comment on the front end of my own blog now to see what the captcha is … I can’t remember!
Actually, this did happen to me once. Back in the 1970’s I suspected that someone who used to live in my dorm and socialize casually with our group of friends might be the Zodiac Killer of California Bay Area fame. He had printing similar to the Zodiac’s and the letters he had written to me were on similar paper to what I saw in the newspaper photos. He also had an unusual personality. He was still single. I had married right after college. I had showed my husband the letters and he agreed there might be a reason to suspect him. Of course, neither of us was convinced it was him. We just thought if there was any chance at all we should inform the police of what we knew.
The Zodiac killer was active about ten years after we had all graduated and moved on, so the letters had been my only communication with my acquaintance since then. My letters didn’t have any of the strange symbols, but the printing and paper were very close, or so it appeared to my untrained eye.
I took a friend to the Los Angeles Public Library downtown, along with my collection of letters and we studied all the photos in the news articles. My “suspect” was then living in the Bay Area. My friend agreed that there was enough similarity to be suspicious. We did turn the letters over to the police with what we knew about my friend. I was happy that the police ruled him out. I don’t think, though, that they ever caught the Zodiac.
Oh my God what an amazing story! I have heard of the Zodiac killer but wasn’t aware they had never caught him! I can’t imagine how you felt with your suspicions, and although you didn’t think it was him (and I bet were relieved when your friend was ruled out) you definitely did the right thing. After all, how well do we ever really know anyone?