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A review by obsidian_blue
The Serial Killer Guide to San Francisco by Michelle Chouinard
1.0
Please note that I received this book via NetGalley. This did not affect my rating or review.
This was all over the place. And boring. The murder plot and the clearing her accused serial killer grandfather of prior crimes plot were too much in one book. The author should have chosen one or the other. Also I never got a sense for Capri and her “investigation skills” she just ran around accusing people all over the place.
Then when we get to some reveals we still had the grandfather plot to clean up. It just killed the momentum of the book.
Full Review:
"The Serial Killer Guide to San Francisco" follows 49 year old divorced mom, Capricorn (Capri) Sanzio. Capri we quickly find out runs a tour that focuses on famous serial killers in San Francisco. We also find out that Capri is the granddaughter of a famous serial killer, William "Overkill Bill" Sanzio. When Capri's former mother-in-law, Sylvia, refuses to pay for her daughter's graduate school, Capri decides to start a podcast that will focus on who she believes is the real killer of the prostitutes' her grandfather was accused of murdering. However, things go awry when Sylvia is found murdered and the MO matches her grandfather's style of kill.
Look, Capri is just not that compelling to follow through what was a snooze of a book. She runs from scene to scene (overly describing things) and accusing people of all kinds of things. It was just aggravating after a while. Her best friend and business partner seems to think only Capri can solve who really murdered the women her grandfather was accused of, but honestly, I wondered where she even got that. Speaking of the business partner character, no character is well developed. The majority of this book is Capri figuring out what was going on with Sylvia and it was just so freaking boring I did not care. That was the major plot of the book. Rushing from accused rich person to rich person with the police constantly threatening arrest was not good. I don't even know if there was a way to fix this. The secondary plot with the grandfather was just terrible and made zero sense when things are revealed. But once again, it's great to hear about Capri's brother who never appears in this book outside of her referring to him here and there, and the ghostly shapes of her parents who once again we spend no time with. Maybe a slight fix could have been her doing the podcast in book #1 and a follow up could have been Sylvia. I don't know.
The flow was bad.
The setting of San Francisco was not utilized very well at all. I think another reviewer said it best, there's like three places that Capri keeps going and that's it. Also, the chapters are broken up about other serial killers in San Francisco and the short blurbs are kind of worthless in my opinion. Capri's whole thing is that victims should not be forgotten, but those blurbs didn't lay out victim's names.
The ending was just a mess. You only really meet I think 4 people who could have done it, so your odds of guessing who did it are pretty good.
This was all over the place. And boring. The murder plot and the clearing her accused serial killer grandfather of prior crimes plot were too much in one book. The author should have chosen one or the other. Also I never got a sense for Capri and her “investigation skills” she just ran around accusing people all over the place.
Then when we get to some reveals we still had the grandfather plot to clean up. It just killed the momentum of the book.
Full Review:
"The Serial Killer Guide to San Francisco" follows 49 year old divorced mom, Capricorn (Capri) Sanzio. Capri we quickly find out runs a tour that focuses on famous serial killers in San Francisco. We also find out that Capri is the granddaughter of a famous serial killer, William "Overkill Bill" Sanzio. When Capri's former mother-in-law, Sylvia, refuses to pay for her daughter's graduate school, Capri decides to start a podcast that will focus on who she believes is the real killer of the prostitutes' her grandfather was accused of murdering. However, things go awry when Sylvia is found murdered and the MO matches her grandfather's style of kill.
Look, Capri is just not that compelling to follow through what was a snooze of a book. She runs from scene to scene (overly describing things) and accusing people of all kinds of things. It was just aggravating after a while. Her best friend and business partner seems to think only Capri can solve who really murdered the women her grandfather was accused of, but honestly, I wondered where she even got that. Speaking of the business partner character, no character is well developed. The majority of this book is Capri figuring out what was going on with Sylvia and it was just so freaking boring I did not care. That was the major plot of the book. Rushing from accused rich person to rich person with the police constantly threatening arrest was not good. I don't even know if there was a way to fix this. The secondary plot with the grandfather was just terrible and made zero sense when things are revealed. But once again, it's great to hear about Capri's brother who never appears in this book outside of her referring to him here and there, and the ghostly shapes of her parents who once again we spend no time with. Maybe a slight fix could have been her doing the podcast in book #1 and a follow up could have been Sylvia. I don't know.
The flow was bad.
The setting of San Francisco was not utilized very well at all. I think another reviewer said it best, there's like three places that Capri keeps going and that's it. Also, the chapters are broken up about other serial killers in San Francisco and the short blurbs are kind of worthless in my opinion. Capri's whole thing is that victims should not be forgotten, but those blurbs didn't lay out victim's names.
The ending was just a mess. You only really meet I think 4 people who could have done it, so your odds of guessing who did it are pretty good.