Witch: The True Story of Las Vegas Most Notorious Female Killer by Glenn Puit

Witch: The True Story of Las Vegas' Most Notorious Female Killer by Glenn Puit
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 4 days

Pages - 352

Publisher -

Source - Bought (in Vegas)

Blurb from Goodreads

Drawing on extensive interviews with the accused herself, here is the sordid, twisted, and surprising story of Brookey Lee West—a successful technical writer from Silicon Valley who became Las Vegas’ most notorious female serial killer.

In February, 2001, police uncovered the decomposed remains of Christine Smith bagged like garbage in a Las Vegas storage unit. She’d been dead for years. Next to the makeshift tomb were books on witchcraft and Satanism. It didn’t take long for authorities to discover that the owner of the foul Canyon Gate Unit #317 was Christine’s own daughter, Brookey Lee West. Further investigation revealed something even more shocking—a one-woman crime spree that spanned two decades, stretched from Nevada to California, and may have counted among its victims Brookey’s own husband and brother....



My Review

So I hadn't heard of this one, I have read/seen a lot of true crime but never heard of this case. We effectively open with the finding of a body in a storage unit, the police trying to find the owner of said storage unit. We then get a back history of the deceased person Christine Smith and her daughter and owner of the unit, Brookey Lee West. Christine's early life, upbringing, how she met her husband and their life. The beginning of Brookey Lee's life, the suspected murders and glimpses of who she was or presented to those who were in her life.

This book is different is that we get more of the victims past and lives than really we do of Brookey Lee West. I feel like I don't know a whole lot more of her than I did before I started the book, absolute I know more of her mum, dad, husband and some of the ways she interacted with them but otherwise I don't think we know her much at all. Most books on killers you get quite in depth of who they are/were but this leaves you, well it did me, with a lot more questions.

Interesting read and I would read other books on her, see what information and takes other authors manage to pull together, 3.5/5.

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In Bloom by C J Skuse

Today I am kicking off the blog tour for "In Bloom" by C J Skuse. If you haven't read Sweet Pea (the first book in this series) you really need to. Please check out the other stops that follow on the tour, each blogger offers different content.





In Bloom by C.J. Skuse
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 1 day

Pages - 384

Publisher - HQ Stories

Source - Review copy (ARC)

Blurb from Goodreads

The darkly comic crime sequel to Sweetpea, following girl-next-door serial killer Rhiannon as she’s now caught between the urge to kill and her unborn baby stopping her.

If only they knew the real truth. It should be my face on those front pages. My headlines. I did those things, not him. I just want to stand on that doorstep and scream it: IT WAS ME. ME. ME. ME. ME!

Rhiannon Lewis has successfully fooled the world and framed her cheating fiancé Craig for the depraved and bloody killing spree she committed. She should be ecstatic that she’s free.

Except for one small problem. She’s pregnant with her ex-lover’s child. The ex-lover she only recently chopped up and buried in her in-laws' garden. And as much as Rhiannon wants to continue making her way through her kill lists, a small voice inside is trying to make her stop.

But can a killer’s urges ever really be curbed?



My Review

Firstly let me say this is the second book in a series, I absolutely advise reading the first, Sweetpea, available to buy now. This book picks up where Sweetpea leaves off, Rhiannon is pregnant, her boyfriend is in jail awaiting trial for several gruesome murders, murders Rhiannon committed herself. Trying to come to terms with pending motherhood, the changes in her body, her bossy fetus and of course her constant need to kill,Rhiannon has her hands full.

If you haven't read Skuse, and I am not sure of her other works but these books are absolutely not for the easily offended. Rhiannon is a brutal killer wih no morals, she has a gob on her that could make a sailor blush, she is self absorbed, horny, crude, sarcastic, hilarious (in a very non pc way), dangerous and one of the most psychotic female serial killers created!

Each chapter (well almost every chapter), like the previous book opens with a list of people she would like to kill that day, if circumstances permitted. She is trying to deal with her changing body, roller coaster emotions, blood thirsty ways oh and the police who are investigating her partner which means questions questions questions.

The book started off a bit of a different pace for me and I wasn't sure if I was going to like this as much as the first, sequels often have the hard job of keeping up with the previous offering. Needless worry, in fact this is one of the very few times I rated the sequel higher than the original which is no mean feat and hats off to the author. Once the book gets going it ensnares you and I found it hard to put the book down, some of it like a car crash you just can't look away. She is a terrible person, a brutal murderer but you find yourself rooting for her, a vigilante who doesn't like animals being hurt so she will always get points off me for that!

Her relationship with a specific character I really liked but it also had me a bit beside myself, by exposing herself to friendships she increases the risk of exposure. At one point it reminded me of, or rather, it echoed Hannibal Lecter and Clarice Starling's weird relationship but in a good way, absolutely not a criticism. This book is an absolute mind trip, Rhiannon is a unique killer I think and I have read hundred of books with murderers but this is my first pregnant killer who goes on a bit of a journey herself to "mend" her ways but will she be successful? How easy is it to quit your murderous ways, how do you change your future when your past just won't go away and most importantly can she keep it together when all eyes are on her? Packed with bad language, murderous behaviour, sex, lies, kill lists, an outrageous book with a main character holy water and a priest would struggle to bring from the dark side, I loved it! 5/5 for me this time, I will be checking out the rest of Skuse's work and wait impatiently for the next book! Available to buy from today, grab your copy now!

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