Disclosure: I received a copy of this book free of charge for review purposes only. Receipt of a book does not guarantee a review or endorsement.

my murder

There were five of us in the survivors’ group: Angela, Jasmine, Lacey, Fern, and myself. The name was a lie. None of us had survived.

Lou is happily married with a daughter she loves, but Lou is also the victim of a serial killer. She was brought back to life as a clone, part of a government scheme to reunite people with their families. As part of her recovery she meets with the other victims, all cloned like she was. But the more she befriends these other women, the more niggling doubts form in her mind. Who is she really and how did she end up the fifth victim?

Lou is struggling with her identity, and before her murder she was struggling with post-partum depression. The person she is now loves her child and husband without a doubt. So why is there a bag in the cupboard, packed and ready to go?

Her support group is full of the other clones, though they don’t really see themselves in that way. They died and then they were alive again. They have differing opinions on how to deal with their trauma. One recreates the crimes in a VR world which becomes the next big thing, echoing how people have a morbid fascination with true crime.

Others would just like to move on with their lives and the group’s friendships are awkward but they are bonded together by a unique experience. The cloning technology isn’t widespread and the project would have been expensive. But how could they let a tragedy of a young mother from a “good” background go unaddressed?

My new body felt so tired sometimes, but I guess it was probably me, inside my body, that was the weary one.

Despite the tagline for this book, she’s not really investigating her own murder until past halfway through the story, and this left me feeling like I was waiting for the story to get going for far too long. Which is a shame because there is a disjointed feeling in the book for a reason that becomes clear and I’d rather have spent my time trying to work things out earlier than wondering when she would realise something wasn’t right with what she had been told.

If you’re not particularly sensitive to spoilers, this is a great speculative mystery, set in a near-future where the world around them seems believable even if the cloning of the human mind is a far-off science fiction concept.

My Murder is published by Wildfire and will be available in hardback, ebook and audiobook editions from 6th June 2022. Thanks go to the publisher for providing a copy for review via NetGalley.

Goodreads | Amazon* | Waterstones* | Hive | Wordery | Blackwell’s* | Bookshop.org*

*indicates an affiliate link