A darkly comedic summer thriller!
Swiped by L. M. Chilton
Out now! Happy Pub Week!
Gwen Turner is navigating a rough patch that's about to get worse. She quit a great job to run a coffee shop out of a van. Her best friend is getting married and moving out of their flat. And Gwen is still in pain over a recent breakup and not having the best of luck on a dating app. As if that's not enough, she's suddenly a suspect in a string of suspicious deaths. Someone is picking off the guys Gwen met on the app. Now Gwen has to find out who really did it and get herself off the hook.
I found this darkly funny and wholly original. It is a comedic mystery/thriller with an FMC who, although spirited and clever, also makes questionable choices, uses humor as a shield, and sometimes gets in her own way. She's flawed, and she knows it. Even though Gwen won't be everyone's cup of tea, she made the book work for me. The story has an edginess that is matched by Gwen's energy. Her rash decisions are both the catalyst for many of the goings on and even how she pieces together her investigation. She's a character I won't soon forget.
This was fast-paced, and the mystery was sufficiently twisty enough to keep you guessing. I enjoyed the author's writing style. There were several laugh-out-loud moments and a few cringe ones as Gwen had to relive some truly terrible dates, all of which were vividly depicted. This is a promising debut novel, and I cannot wait to read what Chiltern writes next!
Georgia Maguire narrates the audiobook, and she does a fantastic job! She completely nails Gwen's energy and humor, from the sarcastic to the self-deprecating. Maguire breathes life into every character, adding to the suspense. This funny summer thriller was an entertaining way to spend an afternoon!
Thank you to Libro.fm and Simon and Schuster Audio for the free audiobook!
My steep was Peach Vanilla Black Tea with Figs from Club Magic Hour a delicious blend for summer iced tea!
PUBLISHER'S SYNOPSIS:
A clever and darkly hilarious thriller/romantic comedy about a young woman who must unmask a serial killer that everything thinks is her, all before her best friend’s wedding
Gwen Turner has made a bloody mess of her life. She recently broke up with the best man she’s ever known for reasons even she can’t admit to herself and quit a lucrative job to open her own coffee shop. To top it all off, her best friend is getting married and leaving her behind in singlehood.
Along with too much cheap wine and bad reality TV, Gwen turns to a dating app to help fill the void in her life. Swiping through the few eligible bachelors left in town, she spends her evenings out on one disastrous date after another. But when a string of murders suddenly occurs in her small coastal English city, she’s shocked by the connection between each of the victims—they’ve all been on a date with her.
Before she knows what’s happening, Gwen finds herself the main suspect in a serial killer’s murderous spree, and the only way she can clear her name is to track down her former dates (even those that have ghosted her) and unmask a killer before it’s too late.
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