Serial Killing Across the Ages

Our bad guy in The Shining Girls is pretty damn creepy, even if he’s never really fleshed out as a character. He’s discovered a run-down house with a wealth of treasures inside, a house that allows him to step out into any year between 1929 and 1993. The house also has a room full of souvenirs, and a wall with names — the names of “shining” girls that Harper will hunt down, or has hunted down, or will hunt down again.

“And he’s sorry he ever doubted the House. She’s the one. One of the ones. His shining girls.”

Our heroine, Kirby Mazrachi is the only girl to have survived his attack (which kills her dog, so be warned if you read it) and she’s obsessed with solving her own case. She teams up with a reluctant reporter named Dan, who used to report on homicides but pissed off too many cops, so now he covers sports. They dig up old stories and evidence, and try to figure out what connects all of these cases, spread out over 70 years.

I think I liked the budding romance between Kirby and Dan more than any other aspect of the book, although the whole thing is pretty good. They just have a lot of crackling, tense energy to them, and I really liked their conversations. This is one of those books that jumps around in time a lot (after all, the main character does), so there’s a lot to keep track of, but you do get the hang of it.