• The Killer Next Door

  • By: Alex Marwood
  • Narrated by: Imogen Church
  • Length: 12 hrs and 14 mins
  • 4.1 out of 5 stars (4,619 ratings)

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The Killer Next Door  By  cover art

The Killer Next Door

By: Alex Marwood
Narrated by: Imogen Church
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Publisher's summary

Everyone who lives at 23 Beulah Grove has a secret. If they didn't, they wouldn't be renting rooms in a dodgy old building for cash - no credit check, no lease. It's the kind of place you end up when you you've run out of other options.The six residents mostly keep to themselves, but one unbearably hot summer night, a terrible accident pushes them into an uneasy alliance. What they don't know is that one of them is a killer. He's already chosen his next victim, and he'll do anything to protect his secret.

©2013 Alex Marwood (P)2014 Tantor

Critic reviews

"This tightly plotted story grabs readers from the opening paragraphs and will keep them up far too late at night. Highly recommended for fans of Laura Lippman, Tana French, and Gillian Flynn." ( Library Journal)

What listeners say about The Killer Next Door

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  • 4 out of 5 stars
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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Incredible--but not for the faint of heart

In any big city, people whose lives are in transition drift in and out of places like 23 Beulah Grove, at the edge of the London sprawl. Once a respectable Edwardian house, it's now divided into six small, dusty apartments. The landlord is a creep, but he doesn't ask too many questions--and that's just what these tenants need.

When a desperate woman rents a just-vacated room, she meets the other five tenants: a Persian asylum-seeker, a man who never turns off his music, a self-described "perky scouse" girl from Liverpool, a friendly but boring guy whose work hours have been cut, and an older lady with a "secure tenancy"--a permanent lease.

Everyone is nice enough, but all of them, even the landlord, have some things they'd rather not talk about--especially the one who's a killer with some imaginatively sick preferences. And all of them are in for more adventure than they ever thought they'd have!

Like Alex Marwood's last book (The Wicked Girls), The Killer Next Door is a stand-alone thriller. But again, within that framework, the author manages to explore some themes more often seen only in the Literary genre: the transient nature of some friendships, the sting of class inequality, the difficulty of change in human lives, and the side effects of gentrification, just to name a few.

And again, in spite of the different and bigger cast of characters this time, all are fully developed: like them or hate them, all are real people. I love thrillers, but often I find myself wishing for something a little chewier--this fits the bill nicely, and Marwood is already on my favorite authors list.

One warning: if you're at all sensitive, there are some pretty graphic (and gross!) passages here that were enough to make me pause the book and breathe deeply for a minute before going back to the story. But of course I did go back to the story--I had to find out what would happen next!

Part of that was because Imogen Church's narration didn't let me down--she brought out both the warmth and the fear in this story, as well as doing a great job on all the British accents.

Stephen King described this book as "scary as hell," and I agree--but thanks to Marwood's talent, it's so much more than a good scare. If you liked The Wicked Girls (or if you are a fan of Gillian Flynn, or Laura Lippman), you'll love The Killer Next Door. Highly recommended!

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201 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent

Alex Marwood might just be my new favorite author. I liked "Wicked Girls." "The Killer Next Door" is even better. A brilliant portrayal of urban life--with all its forgotten, discarded lives--coupled with a serial murderer that, as the title states, lives next door to the novel's 'inhabitants.' Brilliantly plotted. Brilliant character development. Brilliant narrator. I was riveted...and so incredibly disappointed when it came to an end. Highly recommend.

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56 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

One of the best books I have ever listened too!

Which character – as performed by Imogen Church – was your favorite?

Cher, but Imogen Church is excellent with all characters!

Any additional comments?

I loved every minute of this novel. Great story build. Excellent characters inhabit this book. I really liked The Wicked Girls. This one is better. I am now a true fan of Alex Marwood, can't wait for what he brings us next.

Narration by Imogen Church is spot on. Wonderful voice. She is great and will look for her in other books.

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52 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Great story, but not if you get queasy easily

I really enjoyed the story tremendously. However I usually listen to these while cleaning, cooking and eating. This book doesn't mix well with the latter two. It's well worth it if you're not eating :-).

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50 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Hitchcock would make this a movIe.

This was a huge surprise, and a happy one. Its one the more clever mysteries I've encountered. There is dark humor, characters that make you squirm and more you fall in love with.

The opening scene involves a sharp police team investigating a serial murder. What follows is how they got there. But that is where I fell in love with the story. It is a huge surprise with a perfect twist.

It reminds me of Hitchcock movies like Rear Window, The Lady Vanishes, The Rope, and The Trouble With Harry. There's a great deal of suspense, but the characters are so colorful and captivating I found myself loving some, pitying some and hating others.

The narrator is excellent. She isn't the best I've heard, I did cringe over the voice of one character, but she had me totally invested in the tale.

This is an easy 5 Star for me.

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43 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Gritty London thriller

I picked up this book, one of Audible's Daily Deals, on the strength of Alex Marwood's last book, "The Wicked Girls," and now Marwood has joined my list of authors to follow - she tells a good story, she's carving out a niche for herself, and so far she's avoided the series trap.

Marwood's niche seems to be "Lower-class British crime thrillers." "Lower-class" referring to the characters, not the books. In The Wicked Girls, we got a look at the lives of two girls who'd gotten into trouble as teenagers, and the very different paths their lives took because of how the system treated them. In The Killer Next Door, we have a collection of down-and-outers in London - runaways, political refugees, old people with nowhere else to go, the broken and the unemployed, all living in a shabby rental unit with your typical sleazy landlord.

The eclectic personalities - the 15-year-old runaway, the Iranian political refugee, the septuagenarian with the secured tenancy who's lived in this dump her entire life, the ex-bartender who's wanted by the police and by gangsters - are all trying to mind their own business when a series of events brings inevitable disruption into their lives. First, there's the sleazy landlord, who would really like to get rid of Vesta, the old lady whose secured tenancy is costing him so much money. Then there are the people after Colette. And finally, there is the serial killer living among them.

The last element is, of course, the major twist in the book, and Marwood spends plenty of time delving into his psyche and the world through his POV. A really nasty, self-pitying world it is, too, and quite plausible. You almost want to feel sorry for the pathetic little schmuck, except for the fact that he's a serial killer who lures women into his apartment so he can murder them and then turn them into mummified RealDolls to share affection with. Marwood also does not stint on graphic descriptions of bodily fluids and effluvia. So, this is a pretty violent and gross novel.

But it's very well done, and underneath the crime thriller aspects (there isn't much time spent teasing the reader about who the serial killer is, since the suspect list is so small), it's also a harsh look at modern British society, with its underlying class system still very much intact, and the "poshes" and the not-so-poshes living in very different worlds. Marwood's sympathies are clearly with the not-so-poshes, as all her protagonists are people who've been kicked around a lot by life, but keep going and sometimes manage to get back up.

Very much recommended if you fancy a thriller set in a dark and gritty London that doesn't resemble anything you see on the BBC.

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36 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

London Living, with Instructions on Embalming

This is not a mystery and it is not scary. It might help if you are English to understand it. It is mostly about a bunch of losers living in an old building made into an apartment building run by a loser pervert. It is gross in parts, because we occasionally go to one apartment, where this guy (Lover) kills women and then keeps their bodies around for months. There is a lot of detailed information on how the Egyptians mummified their ppl. Long drawn out chapters on him rubbing lotion on them to keep their skin supple. The rest is a Peyton Place of English losers.

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26 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Made me a marathon listener!

Finished this one in less than two days. Found the characters to be very colorful and interesting. A gruesome but often funny story linking a band of misfits, murder, and mayhem.

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26 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Even better than Wicked Girls!!!

Any additional comments?

Best book I've listened to all year! Loved all of the characters, especially the protagonist and Cher. Love the interesting situation of all these very different people thrown together in this strange house. Enjoyed changing points of view. Very fun and creepy book!

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24 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Creepy and endearing

Loved the story, didn't know if I would.
The woman who reads it is fantastic!
The characters are well developed and the twist and turns are a delight.

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19 people found this helpful