GIRL, 11

The host of a popular true-crime podcast investigates an unsolved serial killer case in this debut novel.

In Justice Delayed, her podcast, Elle delves into a series of serial murders that shocked the Upper Midwest with their brutality and obsessive precision. Perhaps most devastating of all, every victim was one year younger than the last, earning the perpetrator the nickname “The Countdown Killer.” These murders happened over the course of four years until the last victim, an 11-year-old girl, escaped her captivity; the remains of two adults and one of the missing victims were found in a burned cabin shortly thereafter, and as nothing has been heard from the killer for nearly 20 years, most people believe his was one of the bodies. Elle, who was herself abducted and abused as a child, tries to put her focus on telling the stories of the victims rather than sensationalizing the killer, but when discussing TCK, she finds it hard to remain distant. When someone contacts her with a tip that they know who TCK is, and then is murdered, she begins to wonder whether her podcast may have inspired the killer back to action. When an 11-year-old girl goes missing, Elle must convince the police that her hunch is correct or risk losing everything. The irony of the novel is that, despite Elle’s insistence that because the killer “wanted to control the narrative…I’m not going to give him what he wants,” author Clarke grants him several chapters of narration to better explain his obsessions and his “evolution.” This impulse to explain everything away with nice, neat symbolism only exacerbates the argument that true crime (though in this case, of course, the story is fictional) often serves to glorify the criminal. Everyone wants an origin story to help explain away evil, and Elle, or at least Clarke, is no exception.

Chills, thrills, and tension compete with a troubling desire to tie a nice, neat bow on the psychology of murder.