A non-reader of romance, I picked up Love in the Time of Serial Killers as a beach read on a recent vacation. The agenda was not to commit to anything serious, but rather to let off steam. Dear reader, I’m happy to report that not only did it make my holiday more fun, but it was also an excellent romance.

Meet the neighbour

Phoebe Walsh, a PhD candidate and a true-blue true crime nut, decides to spend the summer in Florida to get her dead father’s business in order. True crime is also her area of research, and over the summer, she plans to write a chapter on Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood – a book she has been obsessed with all her life and forms a major crux of her dissertation. All she has brought from North Carolina is her massive desk in the hopes that she doesn’t slack off and takes her writing seriously.

When she arrives at her childhood home at midnight, she is stumped by just how heavy the desk is and as she wonders about how to move it into the house, a strange man – quite literally appearing out of nowhere – offers to help. Dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt, his eyes barely visible under his hair, and his odd cheerfulness so late at night sets Phoebe’s alarm bells ringing. She’s read too many true crime stories, she knows the mind of a seasoned criminal – this guy, seemingly normal looking, is definitely a serial killer. Or so she convinces herself.

And she has every reason to suspect so. The man is awake at all hours of the night pacing the rooms, the walls appear to be soundproof but they do not entirely conceal the strange noises coming from the house. And did she also not see him drenched in something red? What if, god forbid, it’s blood?

Worse still, he lives right next door. His name is Sam Dennings.

However, in daytime, he appears quite normal, a seemingly well-adjusted citizen, and Phoebe is surprised when she’s drawn in to his quiet, easygoing nature. She is not looking for friendship, much less a romance. If the neighbour situation wasn’t testing enough, Phoebe runs into her childhood friend Alison, who’s an admin at the local library. Unsure of rekindling a friendship soured by teenage awkwardness, Phoebe is taken aback to learn that unlike her, Alison harbours no grudges. As Alison offers (once more) her hand in friendship, Phoebe cannot help but sift through the memories of her childhood, including the friendship break-up.

Falling in love

The house does not let her forget how she would feel as a child – deeply unhappy and eternally ashamed. Author Alicia Thompson constructs her protagonist’s childhood with great empathy – we learn of Phoebe’s troubled relationship with her father, his anger that ruined any semblance of normalcy, and her mother’s quiet obedience to him, and camping trips and birthdays undone by her parents’ fights.

However, Phoebe seems to be unevenly affected by her parents’ messed-up marriage. Conner, her 23-year-old younger brother, is a happy-go-lucky man, almost comically in love with his Indian girlfriend, Shani. Despite growing up in two separate homes, the siblings share a deep bond of genuine affection. Phoebe and Conner’s banter is truly endearing (almost making me yearn for a brother of my own). While Phoebe suffers from extreme guilt and believes herself to be at fault for a big part of her parents’ unhappiness, Conner reminds her that, like him, she was just a child – and if anything, her love shielded him from the kind of loneliness that she endured in silence.

Sam’s (literally) guy-next-door charm and a very regular personality are a happy shift from the turbulent masculine presence Phoebe has grown up with. Thompson’s male protagonist boasts of no suavity; sexy is not his second name, he has no way with words – but what pierces Phoebe’s heart (and the reader’s!) is his sincere warmth and solid presence.

But no love story is without hiccups. Phoebe has been lugging around heavy emotional luggage all her life, creating a deep scepticism for romantic relationships. And when things start to get serious with Sam, Phoebe feels the walls around her coming up again. Thompson is not the one to overturn the rules of romance, so thankfully, there’s a patch-up at the end – dramatic enough to make even the strongest of romance cynics (me!) smile.

Love in the Time of Serial Killers works on many levels – a small group of adults showing up for each other, men who do not just pretend to be good, two sweet love stories, a bossy cat, and a heroine who’s quirky and unapologetically herself. A very likeable romance for cynics, sceptics, and secret optimists.

Love in the Time of Serial Killers, Alicia Thompson, Berkley.

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