In Her Bones

by Kate Moretti

"Fifteen years ago, Lilith Wade was arrested for the brutal murder of six women. After a death row conviction, media frenzy, and the release of an unauthorized biography, her thirty-year-old daughter Edie Beckett is just trying to survive out of the spotlight. She's a recovering alcoholic with a dead-end city job and an unhealthy codependent relationship with her brother. Edie also has a disturbing secret: a growing obsession with the families of Lilith's victims. She's desperate to see how they've managed--or failed--to move on. While her escalating fixation is a problem, she's careful to keep her distance. That is, until she crosses a line and a man is found murdered. Edie quickly becomes the prime suspect--and while she can't remember everything that happened the night of the murder, she'd surely remember killing someone. With the detective who arrested her mother hot on her trail, Edie goes into hiding. She's must get to the truth of what happened that night before the police--or the real killer--find her. Unless, of course, she has more in common with her mother than she's willing to admit."--

• ISBN10: 1501166476
• ISBN13: 9781501166471
• Publish Date: 4 September 2018
• Publish Status: Active
• Imprint: Atria Books
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 320
• Language: English

Reviews

[thebookdisciple]

Moretti writes a forward to In Her Bones that really resonated with me. I, too, am so curious about the family of killers. The daughter of The Happy Face Killer had a show on investigation Discovery (my favorite channel) where she had the family of a killer meet with the family of the victims. It was fascinating! I knew going into this book I would be intrigued. The story is told in 1st person from the daughter (Edie) of a female serial killer (Lilith), with some chapters in 3rd person focusing on the detective, or snippets of books/news articles about Lilith.

I was really uncomfortable (not in a bad way) with being in Edie's head at times. Inside her head are her thoughts, unfiltered. She knows that following the family of her mom's victim is creepy and so she doesn't let the outside world know that is what she is doing. However, since we are reading her POV, we know she is doing it! She hacks into their lives, stalks them, and even though she does nice things for them when possible, it doesn't negate the fact its creepy! She knows its creepy which makes it even worse I think. Edie has so many issues stemming from the fallout of her mother's crimes. She dropped out of school, she is an alcoholic, she has commitment issues, and a slew of other things I'm sure a therapist would have a field day with! Her brother also has a slew of issues.

Obviously, there are murders that occur throughout the story. And confusion about the murders (who, what, why). And stalking (because that is exactly what Edie is doing!). None of them are gruesomely described or exploited in writing for shock value or anything, but the tenor of the book is unsettling and might not be everyone's cup of tea! There are multiple things you are trying to figure out throughout the story from whether or not Colleen was actually a victim of Lilith's, who killed Peter, who is WINPA99 and why are they so involved, and who the heck wrote that damn book. Add in the strange relationship Edie has with Tim and you have more questions than there are pages! I didn't see the story ending quite the way it did, but in hindsight, it made perfect sense. Honestly, I didn't correctly guess the answer to most of those questions but the answers made so much sense I was surprised I didn't see it. Even through all this intrigue, the book FELT long. I think there were sections that could have been cut in order to make the book flow. Perhaps they were left there to help confuse and confound the reader further (totally worked) but I found myself skimming a lot through the middle.

 

• POV: 1st, 3rd


• Cliffhanger: no, includes epilogue

authors like Mary Kubica, Gillian Flynn ...then you will probably like In Her Bones!

 

In Her Bones

 

See full review on The Book Disciple