In 2005, Kerri Rawson heard a knock on the door of her apartment. When she opened it, an FBI agent informed her that her father had been arrested for murdering ten people, including two children. It was then that she learned her father was the notorious serial killer known as BTK, a name he’d given himself that described the horrific way he committed his crimes: bind, torture, kill. As news of his capture spread, Wichitacelebrated the end of a thirty-one-year nightmare.

For Kerri Rawson, another was just beginning. She was plunged into a black hole of horror and disbelief. The same man who had been a loving father, a devoted husband, church president, Boy Scout leader, and a public servant had been using their family as a cover for his heinous crimes since before she was born. Everything she had believed about her life had been a lie.

Written with candor and extraordinary courage, A Serial Killer’s Daughter is an unflinching exploration of life with one of America’s most infamous killers and an astonishing tale of personal and spiritual transformation.

I've always been a fan of reading about true crime and this book didn't disappoint. I really feel for Kerri Rawson and wish she didn't have to go through this, but she does write an uplifting and hopeful message to those who have gone through trauma themselves.

Thank you #NetGalley for the ARC of #AserialKillersDaughter
Pub Date: 29 Jan 2019

Because this review copy I was given didn't have a cover, I won't be able to photograph it for my instagram. But I will be mentioning it in my stories because this book was AMAZING. I will be recommending this book to any crime junkie like myself because BTK (Dennis Rader's) daughter is someone we have all wanted to hear from. She gives us a deep insight as to what her father was like with his family, what he did in his free time, how he suddenly got a green thumb and turned her little room into a greenhouse, and even how he collected stamps for a short period of time. When we think of serial killers, we often only think of the victims they physically harmed or killed but his family were also victims. I can't wait to share this among my peers, especially some of my other bookstagram friends who love true crime.

Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.

This was an inspiring story of a young lady and her family who were thrown into the spotlight unwillingly.
The story of the other victims of crime, who are many times over looked as real “victims”.
I have read many True Crime books and we often delve into their pasts to try and find out what went wrong and if there were signs of what wouod become a heinous tragedy for so many people.
It is sad that more often than not the the families that the murderer leaves behind are almost vilified in a way as well.
We need to remember that they are grieving as well.....except that they are grieving in shame. They are often treated as if they knew what was going on....they could have stopped it. If only they paid attention.
Kerri Rawson is brave. She is a survivor. No doubt about it she will never be the same, however she suriviing with a little help from her family and her faith.

It is a serious and terrible sorrow when others must carry the burden and fall-out of someone else’s criminal acts. “The Serial Killer’s Daughter: My Story of Faith, Love, and Overcoming” (2019) fortunately is a rare and highly articulate memoir written by Kerri Rawson. Rawson’s father, Dennis Radner, the self-identified BTK, ruthlessly murdered 10 people, (2 victims were children) in Wichita, KS. (1974-1991). Radner is serving 10 consecutive life sentences for these crimes in the Kansas El Dorado Correctional Facility.

In February 2005, Rawson called her husband Darian to let him know that a man was outside their Michigan apartment building clearly looking at their window, she was frightened, until the man identified himself at her door as an FBI agent. Unable to call her mother, or other family members, she learned the horrific truth that her father was apprehended for the notorious BTK crimes that for decades had terrorized residents of her Kansas home town. Her seemingly loving devoted father was a married family man, a military veteran, a dedicated church official and Boy Scout leader-- the BTK monster committed multiple heinous murders, he was believed to live in the community undetected for decades, leaving clues and taunting the authorities. Rawson’s life would never be the same after she learned her father’s vile and sickening truth: that he confessed to the BTK murderers. The shock and terror of her father’s crimes would haunt Rawson, her family, friends, associates, and community for years afterward. Rawson experienced symptoms of severe anxiety from trauma, depression, and PTSD.
Although Rawson suffered from occasional night terrors as a child, her life had been normal and ordinary. Enjoying a close relationship with her parents; she did well in school, and went camping and hiking with her father and brother. In her teens, she turned to her Christian faith and spirituality to sustain her in grief after the death of her beloved cousin, Michelle (1996). Many parts of the book read like a novel, slowing the storyline down somewhat, yet there is no correct way to tell a story like this.

Rawson was especially careful to tell only her story, there is little written about her mother Paula, who was granted a quick divorce from her husband (m.1971- 2005) without the customary waiting period. Unable to sell the family home, an unidentified buyer bought the property and the house was torn down. Several years would pass without Rawson writing to her father as she engaged the necessary services of a specialized trauma therapist. Rawson also wrote about avoiding the shadows of silence and shame, of further spirituality, forgiveness and mercy, as her courageous journey of healing moved forward. Rawson graduated from Kansas State University, she and her husband Darian live in Michigan with their two young children. ** With thanks and appreciation to Thomas Nelson Books via NetGalley for the DDC for the purpose of review.

As much as I wanted to like this book, I just couldn't get into it. I found it to disjointed and it didn't hold my interest.

I don't think I would've picked it up had I known it would be so... Jesusy. Far be it from me to tell anyone how they should deal with their trauma- it just wasn't for me.

Once I started reading, I couldn't put it down so it was an easy, quick, and interesting read. It followed her life before her dad was arrested and her life after and what she went through afterwords in the aftermath of finding out her father was a serial killer and wasn't who she thought he was. Her life descended into a living hell of anxiety, depression, PTSD, night terrors and having to somehow live with the fact that her dad was indeed a serial killer. It does a good job of showing how a person can be like Jekyll and Hyde, how someone could live a double life, and lie and betray not only to their family but everyone around them. She talks about growing up with a man that she loved and then the other man that she didn't know, that was a stranger to her, like he was two people in one.

It reminds me how sometimes you can never really know someone and also how someone can put on a show/pretend/act/not let their true self out, whatever you want to call it, and hide part of themselves from others. It also shows how there's a good and bad side/light and dark side to everyone. His family and everyone around him was duped, played, "pawns in his game". I liked this book because it helps to show the psychology and nature behind these types of people and because it talks about true crime/violence and the real effects of it on his family, and how his own family is also a victim of his crimes and how it has hurt and affected them as well as the families of those he murdered.

Be warned though because at times this was a really hard and uncomfortable read when it went into the murders he committed. Luckily she didn't go into a lot of graphic details but it is disturbing enough even without the details.

It feels weird giving a 5 star rating to a book about such a terrible topic, but it gets 5 stars because I think it was a good book, even thought it's a horrible and hard topic. Thank you to Netgalley for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I was interested in this book because I'm a true crime fan and I also enjoy memoirs. I thought this would be a perfect fit. It was not really a true crime novel at all but it was a memoir. Since I am from Kansas I liked that she mentioned places and things that most Kansans would be familiar with. Since BTK is from Kansas, that true crime story is especially fascinating to me. I made it about halfway through and just wasn't interested enough to keep reading. The first half of the book was mostly about the author's childhood and early adulthood and there was very little mention of the murders. There was an extremely long story about a camping/hiking trip she took with her dad but nothing really happened during the trip. By the time I got to the part where she finds out her dad is BTK it was about half-way through the book and I could tell the story was going to be mostly about the author and her pain. I do feel sorry for her and I'm glad she has faith to help her with her pain but unfortunately I wasn't really that interested in that part of the story. You can tell that the author wrote this book herself but it could use a bit of polish and tightening up.

Kerri Rawson's life was forever changed on February 25, 2005.

FBI.... Your dad.....B.T.K....

That's how Kerri found out her father was the notorious Wichita serial killer known as B.T.K. Dennis Rader chose that name for himself when he began writing letters to the police to claim his murders. He called himself B.T.K. because it stands for how he killed his victims.
"Bind. Torture. Kill"

He hid this side of his life from his family for 31 years.

He was married.
He had two kids.
He was the President of their Church.
He worked down the hall from law enforcement for Y E A R S and no one knew.
No one knew he had created a shed with a false back so he could hide his "kill kit." No one knew the hallway and closets in their house had false bottoms. No one could have ever expected this to happen in their tiny neighborhood and Kerri definitely didn't think her dad could be behind it.

In Kerri's book, "A Serial Killer's Daughter" she doesn't really focus on the crimes B.T.K. committed. She decides instead to focus on her father, the man she knew and loved; not the monster she was just introduced to. In a way, she humanizes him. She remembers the man who hiked the Grand Canyon with her. The man she worshiped as a child. The man who held her tightly when she was sick and looked over her family. The man that taught her how to live.

Looking back it seem as though she was slowly realizing everything that he taught her was to protect her from people like him. He taught her to always ask for a badge when officers introduced himself/herself. He taught her to place a broom handle in the track of her sliding glass doors to prevent it from opening. Little did she know that was because he killed a woman by coming into her house through a sliding glass door.

Dennis Rader was just an average guy, raising his family, and hiding a dark secret.
But after years of therapy, separation, forgiveness , and quite literally the Grace of God, Kerri found a way to forgive her father for everything. She believes that God will forgive him when the time comes, so it only seems fair that she forgive him too.

Huge thanks to NetGalley, Nelson Books, and Kerri Rawson for finding the courage to tell her story!

This is the introduction to the book:

"On February 25, 2005, my father, Dennis Lynn Rader, was arrested for murder. In the weeks that followed, I learned he was the serial killer known as BTK (Bind, Torture, Kill), who had terrorized my hometown of Wichita, Kansas, for three decades. As he confessed on national television to the brutal killings of eight adults and two children, I struggled to comprehend the fact that the first twenty-six years of my life had been a lie. My father was not the man I’d known him to be. Since his arrest, I’ve fought hard to come to terms with the truth about my dad. I’ve wrestled with shame, guilt, anger, and hatred. I’ve accepted the fact that I am a crime victim, dating back to the days my mom carried me in her womb. I no longer fight the past nor try to hide it. It just is. It happened and it’s terrible. Terrible to dream about, terrible to think about, terrible to talk about. Incalculable loss, trauma, emotional abuse, depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress—these things leave scars. I’ve struggled with forgiveness, fought for understanding, tried to put the ruptured pieces of my life and my family’s life back together. It’s an ongoing battle. But hope, truth, and love—the things that are good and right in this world—continue to fight through the darkness and overcome the nightmares. I am a survivor who has found resilience and resistance in faith, courage, and my sure stubbornness to never give up."

That quite sums the book up in a quite full-rounded way. It's obvious to me that the author has suffered—and suffers—immensely at the hands of her normal father, who is also the serial-killer Dennis Rader, known as BTK.

One of the absolutely best things about this book, is the author's ordinariness, or rather, her being who she is; this book does not suffer from the sensationalism (in spite of the book's title) that usually marrs autobiographies that have been spruced up to gallant or even evade the truth, in service of tabloid fodder. She writes about her usual days before knowing her father's BTK, as in this paragraph:

"In January 1974, Dad murdered Joseph and Julie Otero and their two youngest children, Josie, age eleven, and Joey, age nine. The three older Otero children found their family’s bodies after walking home from school."

Another powerful stylistic trait throughout the book, is the author's jumps through time, even in the same paragraph at times, giving way to a kind of stream-of-consciousness feel. Still, most of the book is very coherently written:

"Mom found comfort in the chime that went off in the hospital right after Grandpa died. It meant a baby had been born at almost the exact moment my grandpa passed. Mom told me later that Dad had wept over his father’s body. Wrecked with grief, he had walked hunched over down the hospital hallway. She said, “I don’t think your dad had ever sat beside someone who died before.” When I heard these words, I was filled with sorrow, picturing Dad next to Grandpa’s frail body. Dad was grieved over the loss of his father—he had loved him, very much. It’s impossible for me to reckon that with Dad taking the lives of ten innocent people."

There are a lot of Bible references throughout the book, and still, it's obvious to see that the author has accepted help from other sources, e.g. therapy and family members.

There are several mind-boggling episodes in this book, unlike most serial-killer books that I've read (and I have read quite a few), especially when the author reveals herself as human in all kinds of facets, as here:

"Mom said, “Did you know I was teasing him this fall that he spelled like that guy—BTK?” I grinned a bit at this, trying to stifle a laugh, as I checked Mom’s face."

She was trying to hide a smirk, too, and when our eyes met, we both started giggling. It felt good to laugh.

People died. I’m not supposed to be laughing ever again.

“I asked your dad once why would BTK use a cereal box to communicate with the police—like it was reported in the news. He said, ‘Cereal—like a serial killer.’”

I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at that one.

“Where did he get those boxes? We don’t eat that type of cereal.” And that’s what my poor mom is wondering.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Mom continued: “When I got interviewed, they asked what was behind our hidden door. I asked, ‘What door?’ They said the one in the kitchen behind the table. I said, ‘You mean the door the dryer is behind?’” I snorted, tried to contain it, and gave up, laughing out loud.

Mom and Grandma followed. “The police asked me about safety-deposit boxes—I don’t know why.”

Later, we learned that Dad used secret ones to store BTK items. Mom’s face turned serious, her voice lower.

“Early last year, there was a special about the thirtieth anniversary of the first murders, what happened to the Oteros. It was on TV. Your dad watched it.” Oh. I didn’t know he had watched it."

The letters from and to Dennis Rader are also quite mind-boggling. This one from the author to her father:

We weren’t very thrilled to see your written interview with the local TV station. We also didn’t like seeing your poems and letters on TV. We know you can and will do what you want to do, but we would really appreciate it if you could control that stuff better. Any publicity is bad for the family, especially for the ones that live in Kansas.

Brian and I have the grace of living in areas where we’re not known; and that’s been a blessing these last three months. Mom and everyone else doesn’t have that grace. We’re asking you to stop this type of communication on behalf of us. I have shared this view with your lawyers, and they were going to talk to you about it.

Mom is having the hardest time with everything that has happened. Brian and I share a different kind of bond with you than she does. It is easier for children to love their parents unconditionally (and vice versa) than it is for spouses. For her own sake, she might need to start distancing herself from you, and you’re going to have to try to understand that. She’s stronger than we all thought and she’s going to get through this, just as the rest of us are. We refuse to let the bad stuff win. Mom shared 34 good years with you, Brian 29 years, and me 26 years. We’re trying to hold on to that—not let the other things define you or us. You should not let that define you either. You’re stronger and better than that.

I love you and I know you’re trying to do the right things. I’m truly sorry your life has turned out this way. I want you to know you’re loved and cared for. You’re loved by your children, family, and most importantly God, whose love and forgiveness is much more powerful and greater than any on earth could be. I’ll write again soon.

Their correspondence changes over time, as the author comes to terms with what's happening while being severely affected with PTSD due to her father's legal crimes.

All in all, I feel the book should have been shortened, but on the other hand, its length does serve a purpose. All in all, this is a very human feel of how it can be to be closely related to a person who's committed crimes that were highly publicised for a while and most likely, due to sensationalistic "true-crime tv series", always be current to serial-killer boffins.

"A Serial Killer's Daughter" by Kerri Rawson is the story of Kerri, not just her dad who is the convicted BTK killer. Before you throw this book out saying oh she is just trying to make her dad look no that is not it at all. She is sharing how she grew up with a man as a dad that she had no idea led a behind the scenes life of being a serial killer. It does start out with her giving some history of her dad's life before he married her mom and their life together before she was born. But most of the book is about her life with her dad and how she thought he was a normal dad. I chose to read this book because we have a tendency as a society that serial killers also create victims of their family. What do I mean by that well their families think everything is normal and that serial killers are someone else. They have hopes and dreams of a normal life and the serial killer especially when they are caught have killed their hopes and dreams. She writes on how she was broken by her dad's arrest and how she did at first did not think it could be true. But over time she had to come to terms with how her dad is a psychopath and that she was also a victim. She never glorifies her dad she just talks about him like he was any other dad but she does realize as the years go on past his arrest that he was emotionally abusive to her family and that was a hard pill to swallow. I liked this book as she focuses on her faith helping thru things and it was a reminder to me not to treat the families or friends of serial killers horrible as most of the time they had no idea and they are victims of the killer themselves. I highly recommend this book especially since we never truly know every person in our lives.


I received a complimentary copy of this book from NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Chilling horrifying heartbreaking read.Kerri Rawson discovers that the father she loves is a serial killer the infamous B.T.K. Killer.She shares with us her real raw emotional journey.She is an amazing young woman this is a fascinating read.
#netgalley #nelsonbooks

I can only imagine how shocking it would be to learn your own father had murdered ten people!! Kerri has done a good job of showing how her shock, pain, and just incomprehension of the father she knew being a killer hit her hard and affected her life.

The writing is pretty good - very descriptive - but seemed a bit repetitive at times. For me, the book bogged down in the middle with so much time and attention going to the hiking trip with her father, brother and cousin. I can see where she wanted to show how he was as a father, but that could have been accomplished in less words and time.

Knowing how the media latches on to any story like this, it would probably be even worse for the family if this had happened now rather than years ago. I felt so sorry especially for Kerri's Mother. The whole family experienced such a loss - of their husband , father, brother, son - and of their innocence. Something like this would make you second guess everything you remember about your past and question how you couldn't have known what he was like. In retrospect, they realized there had been signs of Dennis's abnormality - his sudden anger, choking Brian twice, etc. but no one could be expected to leap to the conclusion from those incidents that he was a serial killer. The family was in no way at fault and yet they suffer for his crimes.

The religious aspects of the book might turn some people off, but they were a saving grace for Kerri.

Kerri grows up with her parents & brother in Kansas during the time that the BTK killer terrifies their neighborhood and surrounding community. Years later, Kerri finds an FBI agent at her door in Michigan, and learned that her father was arrested as the BTK killer, and he confessed to the murders. Kerri explains the utter confusion and dismay that their family goes through - her father committed his first murder before she was even born. She openly shares about the PTSD and emotional struggles that she has encounter since her father's arrest. The book was interesting though it's so hard to comprehend what they had to go through, as well as what the families of the victims went through. The flow of the book was a little jagged for me with some flashbacks to youth that seemed a little disjointed to me.

Wow! That is all that I can say about this book. I read this and was amazed at the inner strength that the author possesses. I do not think I would be as strong as her if I found out I was related to a serial killer. This was such an interesting and unique read.

This book is written by the daughter of Dennis Rader, the notorious BTK killer from Wichita, Kansas. Kerri Rawson details the father she thought she had: a protective, church-going, compliance officer through her childhood and early adulthood, until, one cold February day, she is told that her father is a serial murderer. One wonders how the family survived this mind-boggling revelation.
Rawson does a good job of explaining the aftermath of her father's arrest, and how she and her family coped.

As someone who has lived in Park City, KS for the last twenty years, I couldn't not read this book. I've been a true crime reader for 30 years, long before I moved to the area, and having BTK arrested in a place that was home to me was jarring. Reading this book -- one of dozens of true crime books I've read over the years -- and knowing the places she mentions and having lived much of the same life made me think and evaluate. However, I would not actually classify this as true crime, but more of a memoir of a person who in unfortunately thrust into a true crime world. I'm not a devout Christian and much of the faith based parts of the book were not my thing, but the author writes from the heart and gives you her authentic experience. It's great that she was able to finally found peace through her beliefs. This is a story of a childhood, a betrayal, and how she came to be able to find a life with the knowledge of that betrayal. Not necessarily a must read if you're looking for true crime details, but it's an interesting journey to take.

Thank you to Net Galley, Nelson Books and the author for an e-ARC of this title in exchange for my honest review. I will say that I'd purchased a copy, then, the same day received the ARC. I should also say that I am an online sleuth, so I'm more than picky about true crime. That said, I'm afraid this book will be a bit misclassified. If true crime scares you, this won't. I'm also seeing it classified as Christian. Yes, she references God, but I wouldn't call it a Christian title. I think, forced to choose a genre, I think I'd have to go with Memoir. This book touched me to my core. It's so easy to stand on the sidelines and wonder how a serial killer's family "should" have known, or why it happened, but Kerri shows us that it's not as black and white as you'd think. As a daughter, how in the world do you now live your life, knowing your past really was a lie? I hope that Joseph DeAngelo's daughter's (the Golden State Killer) get a chance to read this, or connect with Kerri, because they are all part of a horrifying club you can't wish away. This book is honest, and raw, poignant and well done. Highly recommended.

This is such a sad story. This was a truly inconceivable story. When we watch the stories of Serial Killers, we forget that they not only have parents, but some may even have children.
This is the story Kerri Rawson tells of her life with her father Dennis Lynn Rader, the BTK Killer (Bind, Torture, Kill) He killed ten innocent people, two of them being children over three decades. During this time, he is the head of a family. Loving to his wife, Paula; to bring his daughter Kerri “to ease” when she needed to be soothed, and caring to his son, Brian. Kerri was never uncertain of her father’s love for her.
While she struggles with her faith throughout her life because their family suffers so much loss and their grief is huge, she tells us the story about how she dealt with her life and how her father seemingly dealt with the same circumstances.
You learn that the BTK Killer left behind more then ten victims. His entire family suffered the consequences of his actions.
The question is; will they recover?

A Serial Killer’s Daughter: My Story of Faith, Love, and Overcoming

I approached this book with my mind and feelings completely open and was really surprised how much I came away with from it. Kerri Rawson is fresh and likable as she tells her story of growing up in her family in Kansas. She describes it as just a totally normal, semi-dysfunctional family who works, goes to school, has vacations. Pretty typical family, it seems. She comes across very real as she shares her story and I find it like reading something a friend could be relating about what a really awful period in their life was like. The situation is just so unimaginable, and I just felt horrible for Kerri and her family, and all of the families.

It gets a little bit repetitive on a few things, the spiritual theme, and other items that come up repeatedly perhaps after a while, but if that helped her get through all of what she describes well, more power to her. What I didn’t expect were some of the stories of situations she ended up in growing up with her dad that turned harrowing that she shares. In hindsight, she, of course, sees them differently after she learns of his killing past. I found this book better than I expected and well laid out. I’m glad I purchased this very heartfelt book, as it told so much more than just the BTK aspect of the family. They became real people to me by the midst of the book, not just headlines, due to her writing.