This memoir by the daughter of the notorious BTK serial killer Dennis Rader provides an interesting perspective about the family behind the scenes. While some details about the case are discussed, the main focus is on Rader’s family, left completely in the dark about his double life and left reeling in the aftermath. Respect is paid to the victims and there are no excuses made. Insight into the mind of Rader is provided without getting overly graphic.

This is not my usual genre of book. I like murder mysteries but have never been a big fan of true crime. What caught my eye for this one was that my husband grew up in the Wichita are during the era of the killings. He remembers waiting up nights being on guard in case he and his Dad needed to protect his Mom and sister. So I was intrigued to know more.

I’m not sure if I’d recommend this unless you have some sort of connection to the case or are a real true crime fan. It’s not particularly sensational but it feel like picking around in someone’s private thoughts if you don’t have a connection to the community affected.

I requested this one because it falls under two of my interests, Criminal Minds and crime. I was excited to see this book because I thought it would be a history about BTK and it seemed like a good fit. But as the days went on, this book just lost its interest for me and as I read a little bit, I found it hard to believe that she could remember the exact conversations she had on the day she found out about her father being BTK.

This was not at all what I was expecting it to be.

I was expecting to read about the BTK's daughter discovering her father was a monster and how she coped with it and came to realization that things may not have been what they seemed. I expected to read about her life after and her new relationship with her father. I was expecting it to be less story-like than it is.

The first 45% of this book is all about her childhood. Which, yes, is important to show that he was an alright father and didn't seem as off as he probably was but we didn't need 6 chapters about a camping trip. We didn't need most of the first half of the book, a good portion of it didn't involve her father anyway.

I actually skimmed a good chunk of the first half of the book once I realized it was more personal memoir than actually about being a killers daughter. It almost feels like she used the fact that her father is the BTK killer as an excuse to get a book deal.

Also wasn't expecting the heavy religious aspect of this book. I should have realized with the subtitle but I didn't.

The stuff that she did eventually get to was kind of interesting but honestly but the time I got to it I just didn't care anymore, which is disappointing because I was looking forward to this book and reading her story.

Unless you actually care about Kerri and her life story, just google the BTK Killer and read some articles or watch interviews on 20/20 because this book just wasn't worth the time.

I am in charge of our Senior School library and am looking for a diverse array of new books to furnish their shelves with and inspire our young people to read a wider and more diverse range of books as they move through the senior school. It is hard sometimes to find books that will grab the attention of young people as their time is short and we are competing against technology and online entertainments.
This was a thought-provoking and well-written read that will appeal to young readers across the board. It had a really strong voice and a compelling narrative that I think would capture their attention and draw them in. It kept me engrossed and I think that it's so important that the books that we purchase for both our young people and our staff are appealing to as broad a range of readers as possible - as well as providing them with something a little 'different' that they might not have come across in school libraries before.
This was a really enjoyable read and I will definitely be purchasing a copy for school so that our young people can enjoy it for themselves. A satisfying and well-crafted read that I keep thinking about long after closing its final page - and that definitely makes it a must-buy for me!

Fantastic read! It's so often that we get to hear all about crimes and those who commit them but it's not so often that we learn about the hidden victims ... the family of the convicted. I was immediately drawn in by Kerri's raw and HONEST account of her life before and after her father's arrest. She is so open and vulnerable and I felt that the things she shared were truly from her heart and not solely for personal gain and recognition. I can imagine that writing this book was a healing act for her and I hope that it helped to bring more peace and understanding into her life.

There was a lot of talk of God and prayer and while that is not my thing, I didn't feel that it was too much to alienate those of us who don't relate. It may be helpful to others who have been through trauma in their lives because Kerri shares Bible verses that have helped her get through some of the most difficult moments of her life.

Incredible story of a daughter’s life before and after learning of her father’s terrible acts of violence as the BTK killer.

It was an interesting read. The pacing was a little slow, but I respect how the author laid out her reactions to her father being the BTK. If anyone loves true crime, this book is for them. Rarely we get to see what a killer is like when he isn’t being a monster. Rawson opened up and let us all in.

Thank you so much to Nelson Books and NetGalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This story hits pretty close to home for me as I live only about 4 hours away from Wichita, KS. I remember watching the news as it happened and watching the movies based on the heinous crimes, it was stomach-churning. I don’t know how I would have managed if it was my dad that had committed these crimes.

A few parts of this book were confusing to me as the author touched on things that had happened in the past or memories but didn’t really go into details about them.

You couldn’t help but feel terrible for Kerri Rawson as she had to go through this. Her dad was such a well-respected guy in their town, church president, and a Boy Scout leader and he lead this total double life that no one knew about until he was caught. His daughter had to carry the burden and get looked at funny all because of what her father did and that’s what made me the saddest of all, that she was getting repercussions from his crimes that she had nothing to do with.

Her writing style and how she explained growing up with her family in Kansas was so well written and I found myself really liking her. She was so real in her writing and really held nothing back.

This was a very personal book and I commend Kerri for completely opening up her life for everyone to read. It was an enjoyable read and I liked hearing more about this story.

A memoir that reads like a cross between a religious testimony and a true crime book. Understandable desire to humanise her father but it makes for uncomfortable reading knowing that the person in the cell is a real and despicable person with no respect for human life.

The first half of this book details her childhood, seemingly normal, with details about church and family and camping trips. Her childhood seemed fairly normal like an average daughter in middle America. The difference, however, is that while she was growing up enjoying this typical childhood, her father was committing gruesome murders along the way.

The second half of the novel lends itself to be more like the title. It deals with the news that her father has been arrested as the BTK serial killer, and the fall out from that shocking discovery. Even though Carrie was born and raised in Kansas, she really did not know very much about BTK until after her father’s arrest. Her life dramatically changed on the day he was arrested. And the fact that her DNA was used to determine his guilt was an even bigger layer of guilt thrown upon her.

I honestly did not know much about the details of the BTK crimes until I read this book. My quick google search provided terrifying information so I stopped after just a couple of stories. The horrific extent of these crimes would be impossible to reconcile with a loved one as the killer. Not sure how Kerri was able to eventually move on with her life as she described in the book. Kudos to her for her therapy and her ability to process and eventually move on with her life.

If you are a true crime reader, this book is for you.

Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas Nelson Publishing for providing me with a review copy of Kerri Rawson’s memoir. Below is my unbiased opinion.

Kerri Rawson writes: “On the exterior, our family looked like the American Dream, and I’d grown up believing that very thing.” So one can imagine her shock to discover her father, a man she idolized was the BTK serial killer. At 26, an FBI agent appears at Kerri’s home with news that her father has been arrested and charged with the brutal murder of 10 individuals (some were neighbors). The author recounts her childhood, a mixture of idyllic days with some frightening moments of her father’s erratic mood swings. Kerri paints a picture of both blissful years and some troubling episodes. But nothing can prepare her for the devastation that follows.

It is at this point where the memoir turns into one of Christian Faith, healing and spiritual growth. I don’t have anything against those things but I thought this memoir would be more focused on the crimes and court proceedings. The religious aspects were repetitive and a bit heavy handed. While I’m glad Kerri was able to move forward and find inner peace, I found I was stuck in the past, wondering what was the point of Kerri writing this story?!?

I don't think anyone can truly have real empathy for this author, in the sense that it is almost impossible to honestly put yourself in her shoes and feel what emotions she must feel daily. With that being said, I do think having compassion for her and her family in this situation is possible and her trying to understand and grapple with who she knew as a father with who came out in public as this monster has got to be one of the most difficult things a family member of a killer is beyond understanding.
The plus side of this book is the humanity displayed. The real life, normality of daily life intermixed with the extraordinary feat of trying to know how to react as a person or a daughter in this situation is impressive and interesting.
The negatives are the hyperreligiosity and preachiness. I fully understand relying on faith (whether Christian or otherwise) to help navigate your way through anything this unusual and trying, when it becomes too proselytising that it overwhelms the intent of the message, it is too much. I also think there were some pacing issues with this book that could have been fixed.

#ASerialKillersDaughter #NetGalley

Thankyou to NetGalley, the publishers and the author, Kerri Rawson, for the opportunity to read a digital copy of A Serial Killer's Daughter in exchange for an honest and unbiased opinion.
I'm sorry but this was not what I thought this book would be like. While it is heartfelt, I struggled to maintain interest. Not a book for me.

A Serial Killer's daughter was a fascinating book and my Christian and True Crime heart loved it!

It was a little different than I anticipated because I thought it was going to be more mystery and what it was like realizing that your father was a serial killer I still really enjoyed it.

Wow your heart goes out to Kerri and her family! Kerri does an amazing job balancing her life before and after that fateful truthful day. She shares the mixed feelings and emotions she experienced during this revealing time. When you hear about stories in the news regarding murders, you often don't think of the family members of the killer and what they must be experiencing. Kerri shares her life story with us to show how she remembers her father and how she moved forward.

I was looking king for something nonfiction to read and this peaked my interest. I thought it was very well done. I couldn’t imagine growing up not knowing who your dad really was, how scary.

What I liked. What drew me initially to this book was the fact that the author was the daughter of a notorious serial killer, BTK, i.e., Denis Rader. Having read multiple true crime books in the past, I was interested to get a perspective from someone unique to her situation. Usually true crime books are written by third parties who have done extensive research on the crimes and the killer. In A Serial Killer’s Daughter, we not only get to read about the crimes, but we also get to experience the “behind the scenes” look at the killer himself. Family man or monster? Average guy or sadist? Through out the book Rawson struggles to reconcile these two images of her father — yet Rawson admits that her father was volitale, sometimes erupting into anger and violence without much provocation.

One of the things that stuck with me was Rawson’s description of the BTK killer weeping over his father’s death bed. Rawson’s mother said, “I don’t think your dad had ever sat beside someone who died before.” Little did she know… I have to wonder, what is the psychology of a man who can cry over the death of his own father, but then take the lives of 10 people without empathy or remorse? It is truly chilling. So was Rawson’s visceral need to love and/or forgive her father — to somehow separate the man she knew from the deeds he had done — as though they were 2 different people.

“I missed my father. That was one of the first times I’d admitted that. Was it okay to admit I missed a serial killer? That I loved one? I didn’t miss a serial killer, didn’t love one–I missed my dad. I loved my dad….It was always going to be that simple and that hard.”

What I didn’t like. I would have given this book 4 stars rather than 3 had it not been for all of the religious aspects. I understand that Kerri Rawson is a religious person, and it is obvious that religion is important in her life, but she basically wrote in stream of consciousness / internal dialogue. For example:

“I spoke of God’s unending ability to forgive–to love. But I was stubbornly holding out on doing it myself. I didn’t know if I could forgive my dad. ‘God? Are you asking me to forgive him or to write him also–let him back into my life? I don’t know if I can–I don’t know if I can trust him.’ ‘You can trust me–I’m your father too.’ ‘But my father hurt me.’ ‘Yes. Remember Joseph?’

And

“I spent the next several weeks stuck on the couch, stewing over my latest predicament, bawling in pain as I tried to keep my toddler son out of trouble, and wrestling with God. Quiet, peaceful, easy, little life, God. Remember? But God lets nothing go to waste. We need to work on your forgiveness problem–we’ve got nothing but time. I don’t wanna God. Do it anyway.”

Aside from the distraction of reading someone’s internal dialogue, I am not a religious person, so the God references, which happened A LOT, were super annoying. I just don’t understand how the portion in italics above helped to move the story along? This is a book, not a diary, afterall.

Disclaimer: I received this book from Netgally for review purposes.

Lemme start by saying that I admire this girl's strength and my heart completely goes out to her and her family. I can't even imagine how this must have felt.

THAT BEIN' SAID, this was the first true crime book I read about a killer that ended up being a snooze fest!

I wasn't really expecting chapters upon chapters on camping, and I also hated how every other page had the word god on it or Bible passages. I get her turning to god, I'm not gonna knock her for it, but damn I wish this had a Jesus sticker on it or something so I'd be warned about how religious it is!

I feel like I'd prefer a story from one of the victims families than this. It just felt kind of, I don't know, almost weirdly biased? Like it makes sense it's her dad, but every time she'd mention something awful he did she'd follow it up with a nice childhood memory, or how he was her hero, ect. Like just admit he was a huge dick. He strangled your brother twice I don't know why you didn't hate him BEFORE this. 😒 I just don't need to hear how amazing he was, I don't care, he's a murderer. Him being a semi decent father to you doesn't change that and it felt like she didn't fully grasp this yet. Idk, just an opinion.

Wouldn't recommend. More for Bible thumpers than true crime fans.

This is the memoir of BTK (Dennis Rader's) daughter. We often don't think about the effects on a killer's family, and Kerri's perspective was very real and down to earth. A newlywed living thousands of miles away from her family, Kerri was completely blindsided in 2005 when an FBI agent showed up on her doorstep and informed her that her father had just been arrested as the infamous BTK killer, an infamous serial killer that had been terrifying the Wichita community for thirty years. Kerri went through a wide range of emotions as she attempted to come to grips with her father's double life. She went into a spiral of grief and anger, all while being thrust into the media spotlight. Her memories of her father became tainted by the realization of the crimes he committed, both before her birth and during her childhood, including the murder of a widow that lived down the street from the Rader family home.

I liked the perspective that Kerri offered. The only other memoir I've read that is similar to this would be that of Sue Klebold, mother of Columbine killer Dylan Klebold. The setup of the book begins with Kerri learning of her father's arrest, and then begins with the story of her parents, her birth, and into her childhood. Kerri doesn't focus much on the murders themselves--you're not getting a blow by blow of each murder Rader committed, but she does touch on his crimes and relates them to her own story and how each crime affected her.

Ultimately, there was one major turn off for me with this book, and that was Kerri's heavy religious angle that got stronger as the book went on. I don't doubt that she was able to find solace in her religion and her relationship with God. Religious memoirs are just not my thing though, and it became a bit trite and harder to relate to.

I was so interested to read this book, but ultimately found it jarringly self-serving. Although it would, without question, be devastating beyond words to discover that one's father is a monster, the author seems to feel that her own victimization is equal to that of those who were tortured and killed by BTK. Of course this horrifying event would shape one's life forever, and I was interested to see how it would reverberate through a life, but the author's tunnel vision allows her to see only her own pain, barely noticing the pain of his victims and their surviving family members.

She repeatedly heaps blame on the FBI for reasons that remain unclear, as if their capturing her father and preventing him from killing more people was a crime against her and her family. I was baffled by her fury with how she was notified; it sounded as though the agents who notified the family were kind and professional and did exactly what they were supposed to do. She is also angry with the media for reporting the story and the judge for allowing it to be told in full. More troubling is the fact that she seems to believe the victims' families had no right to decide whether or not BTK's crimes were detailed in court.

She occasionally mentions the suffering of the victims, but only in an off-handed way. I found it so strange that she thought the judge should ask her family if they thought it was okay to detail the killings in court, in the same way he had asked the victims' families, because her family was the "eighth victim." Although her psychological suffering was immense, it is impossible to view it as equivalent to the suffering of a 15-year-old boy who comes home to discover his parents and his two young siblings tied up and brutally murdered. She seems so caught up in her own victimhood that she cannot see the horror that was wrought upon her father's victims.

In terms of narrative, the huge chunk of the book devoted to a trip the Grand Canyon is flat and unnecessary. Yes, they were a family who went camping together, but the fact that this trip takes up such a significant portion of the book made it seem as though the book needed filler to make it long enough to publish. The idea that her father was living this ordinary life while carrying out his terrible acts was interesting, but there was so little reflection given to this dichotomy. What she went through was truly traumatic, but what the victims went through was far moreso. The equivalency she seems to insist upon, over and over throughout the book, ultimately left me wondering: How do the survivors, the families and friends of those BTK murdered, feel about the temporary media blitz this book generated for the author? Do they feel that she is profiting from their unimaginable loss?