Review: The Killer Next Door

The Killer Next Door by Alex Marwood
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Alex Marwood is an author to have caught my eye a couple of times in the past, but it’s only when I needed another book to complete a deal that I picked up The Killer Next Door. As the book had caught my attention a few times, I decided it was time to take the leap and see if it was what I was hoping for.

In truth, I was rather let down by this one. If I’m being brutally honest, this book spent a lot of time sitting around the two-star rating. It was more of a two-point-five-star rating in the end, and a part of me decided to round up – if only because it was marginally better than the books I usually hand out two-star rating to.

I think my biggest issue is that I went in expecting something completely different to what I was given. The title alone was enough to put ideas into my head. Unfortunately, the attention to the killer next door – the part of the story I was interested in – seemed to get lost under all the other stories going on. This was less of a thriller, and more of an insight into the lives and secrets of those living within an apartment building. It just so happens that one of these people, to spice things up a little, is a serial killer.

Don’t get me wrong, there were plenty of attempts at the thriller aspect. Not only do we have a serial killer, we also have a run in with a gang. However, neither really lived up to the full potential. I wanted to be sucked into this one, yet I was more than capable of putting the book aside and doing something else.

Partly, it’s because I did not care for the characters. None of them interested me all that much. Partly, it was because of the writing. We seemed to shift from third person to first person within chapters, from perspective to perspective within chapters. It wasn’t the type of writing for me.

However, I can appreciate how things came together in the end. That is what had me rounding up to a three-star rating. It may not have been the explosive read I had been hoping for, but it came together better than I’d expected.

Although I have a mild interest in another Alex Marwood book, I doubt I will be picking it up any time soon.

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