When Capri Sanzio got divorced a decade ago, she parlayed the knowledge she'd gained over her life about local serial killers (being the granddaughter of one herself) to start a company that gives "serial killer tours" of San Francisco. When her mother-in-law is found dead, the second victim in a week killed with Carpi's grandfather's signature, she worries that she and her daughter are suspects since they argued with the woman shortly before she was killed. Capri sets out to find evidence to exonerate them, while also taking the opportunity to re-investigate her grandfather's case, and his claim of innocence. I liked the characters and the pacing of the story. The mystery shares the spotlight with the city by the bay but is not outshone; red herrings are deftly thrown in the readers path and whodunit is logical yet difficult to predict. An impressive first novel --I'll definitely be keeping my eyes open for Chouinard's next book!

Capri Sanzio, granddaughter of serial killer "Overkill Bill" Sanzio, operates a company hiving serial killer tours
of San Francisco. When a woman is killed, the method resembles that of "Overkill Bill'. Needing additional
money for her daughter's college expenses, Capri is interested in pursuing her deceased grandfather's claim of
innocence, When her ex-mother-in-law is killed, Capri ends up investigating both present and past murders.
Family secrets are revealed and the real murderers exposed.
Fast paced read filled with twists and turns.
#TheSerialKillerGuidetoSanFrancisco #StmartinsPress #MinotaurBooks #NetGalley

Michelle Chouinard's not-quite-cozy mystery brings a sense of levity to the City by the Bay, even as the main character becomes an amateur investigator. Capri has made a path for herself, owning a San Francisco tour business with a true crime angle and shepherding her grad student daughter into adulthood -- despite being the granddaughter of a convicted murderer. When two copycat murders occur, including that of her own mother-in-law, Capri leaps into action, fighting to prove the innocence of those she loves, as well as herself.

I always enjoy a San Francisco-based story, and I especially liked how the narrative is interspersed with "tour guide" synopses of real-life historic crimes that happened around the city. Characters are well-fleshed out, and the mystery is just convoluted enough. The last few chapters felt a bit rushed -- I anticipated a cliffhanger leading to a sequel, but I was struck by how much was wrapped up so quickly.

This was a really fun mystery! It was more on the light and cozy side, and I enjoyed the fast pace. I loved Capri and thought it was so fun that she owned a tour guide company that did tours of serial killer hot spots! Her true crime knowledge made her pretty good at investing the copy cat killer, as well as trying to exonerate her grandfather, whom she always felt was innocent. I enjoyed the relationship between Capri and the lead detective, and I thought the twists were good!

Thank you, @Netgalley and @stmartinspress, for the #gifted e-arc!

The Serial Killer Guide to San Francisco by Michelle Chouinard offers a captivating twist on the cozy mystery genre. With its intriguing premise, the story draws you in from the start, featuring relatable characters that feel both fresh and familiar. The vibrant backdrop of San Francisco adds an extra layer of charm, enhancing the overall experience. (I received an advance ready copy and all opinions are my own.) This book is a delightful blend of suspense and humor, perfect for mystery lovers looking for something uniquely entertaining!

A Serial Killers Guide to San Francisco by Michelle Chouinard is a great murder mystery inside another murder mystery. The novel takes place in San Francisco with Capri Sanzio as the main character. She is a strong woman who took charge of her life and found a unique way to make a living for herself and her daughter.

Capri Sanzio runs a company called Serial Killer Tours. She helps people discover San Francisco while telling them all about various murders and creating a creepy atmosphere to add to the allure. It doesn’t hurt that Capri’s grandfather William ‘Overkill Bill’ Sanzio was a convicted serial killer. She believed he was innocent.

However, her father-in-law called asking for her help, because his wife is missing. It doesn’t help that the night before she called Capri’s daughter and told her that she was going to have to pay her own way through college from now on. Capri comes over and helps look for Sylvia and then into her desk figuring out what is going on. She discovered that they are flat broke and not the ‘old rich’ that they displayed. Then the body was discovered. It isn’t too long before Capri and her daughter are considered suspects.

The novel was interesting. I enjoyed the investigation into the new and the old murders. I loved the understanding of the rich old school versus the newer rich. Capri and her friends were really interesting characters. The book moves right along and it is difficult to put down. I think Michelle Chouinard is a great storyteller as evidenced by this novel. A Serial Killers Guide to San Francisco is a fun read!

Thank you, NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press | Minotaur Books, for providing this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

The Serial Killer Guide to San Francisco caught my attention from the time I read the description! I’ve traveled to San Francisco a few times, so I found the combination of detective mystery and city tour highlights to be an entertaining touch. The story was well-paced, and I liked how the story balanced the main characters with interesting side characters. I can see this being the start of a series, and if it is I look forward to seeing what mystery Capri solves next!

I’ll be recommending this book to:

- Anyone looking for a solid mystery without an overwhelming amount of tension
- Fans of mysteries with amateur/informal detectives

*Welcome to San Francisco, a city with killer charm* 4.5 stars, rounded up to 5!

I was really excited to read this one, and it did not disappoint! This was a fun and cozy murder mystery with a good mix of drama and suspense! I love true crime so I loved the idea of the true crime tours, and San Francisco was the perfect setting for this story.

This book had a few laugh out loud moments and also had my heart pounding with the twists and turns! I really enjoyed this book and will definitely be watching out for more books by this author!

Capri Sanzio is the granddaughter of a San Francisco serial killer. She has never believed her grandfather was guilty of the murders, and her father refuses to even acknowledge or talk about his father.

When two women, one of whom was Capri’s, ex mother-in-law, are murdered in a copy cat manner, Capri must put her journalistic skills to good use. Especially since she and her daughter are on the suspect list. Can Capri find the killer to both clear herself and her daughter from suspicion, and maybe even clear her grandfather’s name? Not the killer has any say in the matter.

While this is being a marketed as a novel, it reads like a cozy mystery. And I loved it! Being a tour guide that takes visitors on guided tours of serial killing locations in San Francisco, this certainly leaves the door open to expand this into a series. It is well written, uses a little fact, along with a lot of fiction, and delivers one heck of a mystery. Please, turn this into a series!

As I had hoped, San Francisco is a star in this new mystery from Michelle Chouinard. The mystery is neatly layered and Capri, our main character, essentially has two mysteries to solve and both have affected her family.

Here are some things I really liked about this new release:

🎥 There are some classic Hitchcock elements that are incorporated into the narrative in overt and more subtle ways. Since I just finished The Hitchcock Hotel, I loved those connections.

👪 Capri I determined to help her family through the current murder crisis and also overturn the conviction of her grandfather. Having grown up as the granddaughter of a serial killer gives her a unique lens on murder.

🌁 You can't set a story in San Francisco without fog. There are not one, but two characters who find themselves in a foggy perilous position.

🌉 Capri's business provides virtual and in-person tours around San Francisco. The author gives us some factual pages about the different areas and we also learn some additional city trivia from the characters.

Thank you to St. Martins Press and NetGalley for a DRC in exchange for an honest review.

I love going on tours when I visit a new city, so this book instantly caught my attention. It was an interesting twist on a murder mystery story. I really liked that there were different generations involved, it made the story more complex.

Capri is the granddaughter of a convicted serial killer who does serial killer themed tours of San Francisco. A copycat to her grandpa starts murdering people, and she begins investigating when the cops start treating her and her daughter as suspects.

Pick this up if you love:
- mysteries
- puzzles
- true crime

The only criticism I have of this one is there is a bit too much inner monologuing of different theories for the murders. It got a bit tiring. Otherwise, it was fast paced and I needed to know what happened. I had a guess half way through, but I was wrong.

This book reminded me of the Finlay Donovan series / Good Girls Guide to murder. It was a cozier mystery and it was your basic "whodunnit" except this time we are trying to solve two mysteries. And one of them our FMC, Capri, is related to the serial killer Overkill Bill. I enjoyed trying to solve two mysteries and for a while I was stumped on the main mystery but eventually I did figure it out.

I think I would've enjoyed this book more if the pace was faster. I felt the medium pace made me feel a bit disconnected from the FMC, get a bit bored here and there but it was still an entertaining book. I enjoyed the armature sleuthing, the San Francisco killer facts (history blurbs as if we were on the tour!)

While I don't think this book has changed the "whodunnit" genre, I do think that this is a good cozy murder mystery for those who like a more "calm" vibe when it comes to their mysteries!

Capri lives in San Francisco and spends her days giving serial killers tours around the city. It’s a sensitive subject, because her grandfather, Overkill Bill, was an accused serial killer. She thinks he’s innocent. Then one of her family members is murdered in a copycat manner to Overkill Bill. She’s determined to crack this case and find evidence of her grandfather’s innocence.

This has many laugh out loud moments, as Capri is super sarcastic. I loved the detective as well. This was a whodunnit versus a scary thriller, and I really enjoyed it!

Thanks to Net Galley, Michelle Chouinard, and Minotaur books for the ARC! Pub date 9/24/24

Genre: Mystery

Synopsis: The granddaughter of a serial killer is giving tours in San Francisco when someone close to her is murdered and a copycat killer is suspected.

This was a fun, quirky, cozy murder mystery. Set in San Francisco, I loved all the places and tidbits the authors gives you about the city. My ARC came with a map and pictures that was a really nice touch!
The copycat murders center around tech & data companies which I am not really familiar with but turned out to be interesting. The main character loves solving mysteries and she becomes an amateur detective when the murders hit close to home. It is really fast paced and the murderer reveal happened so quickly I had to go back and reread it. The ending also had another little bonus twist/mystery that was good.

Definitely read this if you love San Francisco & cozy murder mysteries!

Thank you Minotaur Books for the ARC!

This was a little different than what I was expecting, much more serious and to the point than the campy cozy murder mystery I assumed based on the synopsis and the cover.
That being, the story was good, full of history tidbits about San Francisco that really show the author's love of the city and research. There were 2 mysteries in the book, a present day mystery and a historical mystery and both were solved in the story, so it wrapped up well. There was a hint of a romance that did not have a conclusion so I wonder if this is the first in a series or it could potentially just be a standalone that has that will never be vibe. I do get the feeling we have not heard the last from this character though since it seems like she is basically starting her life over during this book which I assume will lead to more San Francisco history and deaths to come. I would probably pick up the next book if I remember the series exists by that point. While this was a solid read, I was not 100% engaged with the story and could put it down and not think about it again, it is probably more for history buffs than the murder mystery buff I identify more with.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

2.5 stars rounded up.

This book started off great. The premise was interesting and I don't think that I have ever read about a protagonist who had a career as a tour guide. I was really engaged in the idea that the MC was the granddaughter of a serial killer and she was simultaneously trying to figure out who was doing the new batch of murders, as well as how to prove her grandfather innocent.

While it is an interesting premise, I had issue with several things in this book.

The MC Capri is supposed to be a 49 year old Gen X'er. However, she does NOT come across that way. In the way she thinks and talks she sounds like a young millennial or even Gen Z'er at times. There is no possible way someone 13 years old than ME talks like this. It just isn't realistic.

Some of the writing is questionable. There's a real sentence in the book where the author says "blue truth-piercing ocular missiles" instead of blue eyes. This kind of writing feels incredibly over-edited and like it is trying too hard to be original. Less is more, no?

It bugs me that Capri is considered a person of interest only because she is the granddaughter of Overkill Bill. The logic doesn't make sense, and I don't think that is how criminal cases work. You aren't a main suspect because of a relation. I felt that was not fully explained.

A lot of the dialogue in the middle of the book is ... boring. It is Capri working stuff out in her head or explaining to someone else her thought process and it just isn't that interesting. A lot of talk of social societies and other things that rich people care about that 99% of people don't.

This is getting 2.5 stars rounded up instead of 2 just because the first 30 percent or so was addicting and very promising. I wish the whole thing had the same vibe.

Michelle Chouinard's debut novel, "The Serial Killer Guide to San Francisco." The story follows Capri Sanzio, a tour guide in San Francisco who is also the granddaughter of a notorious serial killer. When a copycat killer begins replicating her grandfather's crimes, Capri is compelled to delve into her family's dark history in the hopes of solving the new killings and clearing her family's name.

As Capri grapples with financial difficulties, she sees an opportunity to capitalize on her knowledge of her grandfather's case to pay for her daughter's tuition. However, the situation takes a darker turn when her former mother-in-law becomes the latest victim of the copycat killer. Capri and her daughter are thrust into a real-life mystery, reminiscent of a gripping novel.

While the book has its flaws, such as a somewhat simplistic mystery and a protagonist who could use more depth, it effectively keeps readers engaged with its past and present narrative and vivid portrayal of San Francisco's intriguing and slightly macabre past. Chouinard's writing brings the city to life, making readers eager to explore its iconic landmarks.

I would like to extend my gratitude to Michelle Chouinard, St. Martin's Press | Minotaur Books, and NetGalley for providing me with the ARC. "The Serial Killer Guide to San Francisco" is set to be released on September 24th, 2024, and I am looking forward to Chouinard's future works.

Don't let the cartoon cover of The Serial Killer's Guide to San Francisco by Michelle Chouinard fool you, this thriller is an excellent story and has some great twists and turns. When your family's past comes back to haunt you, there's nothing left to do but solve the mystery. 

Capri Sanzio, the granddaughter of a supposed serial killer, hopes to cash in on her family legacy with a podcast and book. When her former mother-in-law is murdered by a killer who was following her grandfather's methods, Capri and her daughter become prime suspects. Chouinard writes best-selling mysteries under a different, unrevealed name.


Click here to check out the book today.

This is a pleasant read with likable characters and interesting facts about San Francisco's criminal history. While it doesn't offer groundbreaking material for the genre, it's an entertaining read.