I think this is what would have happened if Lila on season 2 of Dexter had a child with Dexter...they would have created Cordelia. While not a bad thing, necessarily, it did follow a set guideline of been there done that. I wanted something a little more original .
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC

Thanks to Poisoned Pen Press and NetGalley for this copy of "This Girl's A Killer."

I'm going to echo other reviewers who have said it's hard to believe this is a debut novel!

So Cordelia kills bad guys, Diane is her best friend, and Samantha is Diane's daughter. They're such great characters and you'll love them.

Cordelia is a meticulous planner and leaves no detail to chance. Until something unforeseen happens.....

I kept giggling and then thinking "Am I supposed to be laughing at a vigilante bad guy killer?" Yes, yes I am!

What a wild, fun read! This was a debut from Emma C. Wells, and she absolutely nailed it!

Cordelia Black is the definition of a badass female protagonist. By day, she's the picture of success as a pharma rep, but by night, she's dishing out her own brand of justice to men who deserve it. The way she balances her two lives—and the tension that builds when things start to go wrong—made it impossible to stop reading. I loved how fiercely she protects her chosen family, even when it means facing some hard truths about herself.

Thank you @poisonedpenpress and @netgalley for the chance to read this advanced reader copy. I seriously can’t wait to see what’s next for Cordelia. If you’re into strong, morally complex female leads, this one's for you!


#thisgirlsakiller

This was a Wild ride! I loved it so much and will be forcing this book on everyone I know this Fall!

Enjoyable Read

Who would have thought a book about a serial killer could be so cute? A pharmacy sales rep uses her best-selling sleeping pill to drug and then murder men that she deems as bad guys (in all honesty, she is right). She then drains their blood, sells the body to a creepy guy who sells the parts, and uses the blood to paint pictures that represent the murdered men. It could be gruesome and probably is, but it is written in a light way. It is still not for the squeamish as there are descriptions of decomposing bodies, and not for those who need everything to make sense, as that certainly doesn't happen. but it is a fun, light read. There are plenty of holes if you want to think about it (what happened to McSmiley?), but this isn't that kind of book. It is a beach read that is best enjoyed without engaging all of your brain. I loved it.

This book is so unserious.. It turns out This Girl's a Killer is a dark comedy, not a thriller. And it's chaos and comedy to a point where Cordelia Black, our MC serial killer comes off as inept and accidentally successful. Dexter Morgan and Scarlet Clark would eat her for lunch.

Cordelia is a pharmaceutical rep whose #1 selling drug (and #1 for drug for taking out bad men) comes under scrutiny just as the news gets wind of a slew of missing dudes. Her bestie starts dating a new guy that Cordelia instantly dislikes and immediately becomes a target for Cor's side hustle. What's a serial killer to do?

I got what This Girl's a Killer was doing and I will not be surprised if it gets optioned for TV, but ultimately it wasn't really for me.

Great book! Read it super fast! I loved it!! I hope to read more by this author and I will be on the search for more thrillers by Emma! I was so happy with how it ended! Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the ARC copy!

I devour female serial killer stories! Cordelia Black is a sassy, independent, and successful pharmaceutical rep by day who has an addiction to designer shoes. But by night, she has a dark “hobby”; ridding the streets of bad men in violent ways. She is fiercely loyal to her best friend, Diane, and her god daughter, Samantha. So when Diane’s new boyfriend hits Cordelia’s “bad man” radar, problems start to brew. And when the Louisiana news reports that there is a serial killer on the loose, Cordelia’s highly controlled world begins to completely unravel.

In spite of the violent nature of this story it does not feel overly dark. If you, too, love a strong female serial killer and enjoy a Finlay Donovan vibe then this book is for you!

Thank you Netgalley, Poisoned Pen Press, and the author for this eARC in exchange for my honest review. This book will be available for purchase on October 29, 2024

Excellently rompy. Cordelia Black is exactly my kind of unlikeable narrator - the kind I like to call “overly reliable.” She’s a misandrist murder harpy with only enough room in her heart for her best friend and her goddaughter. I think readers who enjoyed You by Caroline Kepnes and Jane Doe by Victoria Helen Stone, as well as anyone who’s liked any of the murdery women movies that have become so popular lately - Birds of Prey, Polite Society, I Care A Lot - will really like this. My one complaint is that there’s a slightly magical-realism-esque element that is never explained but very central to the plot and to Cordelia’s character. I didn’t know what to do with that.
Oh, and just so everyone can rest easy: the dog does NOT die.

I don’t know why I waited so long to read this, but I am so happy I did! I absolutely loved this book. A female serial killer killing bad dudes had me sold from the start, but the book’s pacing was great and I absolutely loved the characters! The story was well written and really engaged me from beginning to end! I will definitely be reading more from this author.

While I loved the premise of this book, the pacing felt off. Much of the book was spent on the inner dialogue, with the fmc alluding to her traumatic past and worrying about the future, all while reiterating how she always has a plan. While probably a realistic scenario for how a normal person would deal with accidentally killing a person, it was not conducive for this novel's premise or pacing. I would've appreciated more details about fmc's backstory and less despair despite her taking no action to remedy the situation.

Overall a good book, but could use some more paring down.

This was thoroughly entertaining and a great story. I am a big fan of women k*lling bad men as a book trope so I've read quite a few of these stories and this one is one of the top. Cordelia's character was complex and we learned about her quite a bit through her own unraveling. I liked that the focus of the book was on her "hobby" as so many with this trope still like to focus on other plot points and romance. There was a small romantic aspect but nothing that took away from the story, instead it lent itself to the exploration of Cordelia's character.

The only critique I have of the story was Cordelia's backstory. A lot was referenced and we got small tidbits, but I wanted a bit more to understand how Cordelia came to be.

Overall the story arc was well done and the focus of the plot was great. I'd definitely recommend this to fans of books such as They Never Learn and Bad Men.

This Girl’s a Killer comes with a trigger warning about the details you can expect reading about a serial killer. Honestly I got hardcore Dexter vibes from this book and I wasn’t mad at it in the slightest! It had me in a tight grip racing through it.

Cordelia has the perfect life, she’s a pharmaceutical sales rep and a serial killer by night…but she meticulous and only goes after bad men, so she follows a sort of code… see what I mean by Dexter vibes? Cor will do anything to protect her tribe, aka her best friend and her Godchild. Will she continue to get away with her twisted vigilante lifestyle?

Wow wow wow I loved this book. I cannot recommend it enough. Not only was it well written, but the main character and her internal dialogue? Absolutely incredible.

This Girl is a Killer is the sordid story of a woman named Cordelia Black, a skilled sales rep working for a popular pharmaceuticals company. But she is also a killer. She seeks out men she deems to be monsters posing under their nice-guy personas. Well they are monsters and she’s made it her mission to disappear them off the face of the earth.
Everything is humming along nicely until the medicine that she’s been selling is pulled off the market because of some bad side effects. It happens, but the problem here is, that it’s the medicine she uses to make her victims unconscious in order to bring them back to her ‘workshop.
Cordlelia’s long time best friend Diane, is dating a guy, Simon, that sets off Cordelia’s alarm bells even though he seems really normal. He actually is one of those monsters and ends up on the wrong end of Cordelia’s knife. Now she has a dead body in her refrigerator, cut up into many parts, and she needs to dispose of it and soon. After all how long can one stare at a severed head staring out at her from the lettuce drawer, while getting a snack from the same ice chamber?

Cordelia’s inner demons and her fear of being found out for who she really is will keep the reader anxiously reading. Do you want her discovered or do you want her to keep on ridding society of pedofiles and abusers?
Cordelia has gotten away with ridding humanity of a few predators, but how long can she evade the law.

Overall, this is an entertaining read with dark tones, some graphic situations, lots of suspense, and tense moments. The tension is broken with dark humor and a cute dog named Mango.

I don’t think the author is done with Cordelia, and expect to meet her again.

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
ARC review • Simply put, from the introduction and warning, you gather female Dexter vibes. 

Cordelia Black is a pharmaceutical rep by day and ridding the world of bad guys by night. She will do anything to keep her best friend, Diane, and goddaughter, Sugar, safe from the creeps of the world. 
Sugar is a firecracker, a spunky preteen. So I was sad when I finished and felt like she didn’t make much of an appearance after about halfway through the book. The last 1/3ish kept me on the edge of my seat, needing to know what was going to happen next.

I really enjoyed this! I loved the concept of a female Dexter type character, and add in some feminine rage - so I immediately was hooked!
I found this to be a quick and easy read, but that being said, there was still so many twists and turns I didn't see coming. I had a great time with it and would recommend to thriller lovers

This was an interesting thriller. My favourite genre at the moment, especially when the main character is a female. The FMC is a pharmacy rep by day, killer of men by night and she's totally badass. There are talks of a serial killer in the area but no one has been able to figure out who is behind the killings. The fmc feels alot of emotions and loves those close to her deeply which I loved. I loved that she ends up dating a cop... plot twist! I loved that even though the themes in the book are dark, it was still relatively light with alot of humour. Given this, it didn't feel like a typical thriller, it could have had more suspense. I found it slow in some areas but overall a good read. Thanks again for the ARC

Super easy full of twists and turns read! Definitely recommend! Thank you to the author, NetGalley and poisoned pen press for the arc.

Cordelia is a female Dexter. She unalives men who are monsters. I found her character to be quite interesting. The way her brains ticks and sees "smoke" in her targets eyes was fascinating. This book was very easy to read. I found the twists and turns to be great. A fantastic read!

Thank you to NetGalley and poisoned pen press for the gifted copy.

3.5 - great while reading it but not very memorable

This was fun because it was the complete opposite of other thrillers--I was super stressed while reading, not because Cordelia was in danger, but because of her questionable actions toward others.

Cordelia Black is a confident, charismatic pharmaceutical sales rep who has a pretty dark hobby: putting a stop to people who did heinous things but were let free by the justice system (or were just plain sketchy). She is fiercely loyal to her best friend Diane and her daughter Samantha. At the start of the book, Cordelia is just as put together in her murders as she is in her wardrobe, but Diane's new boyfriend throws her off so much that she could be found out as a serial killer at any time.

I thought this book was super thrilling and stressful in a fun way. It's exactly as I expected from the blurb--a confident woman and her revenge on terrible men. The novel was very fast-paced and I was able to finish it in one sitting. Objectively, Cordelia isn't the best friend for Diane and maybe shouldn't murder people the way she does, but it was interesting to read her POV and get her justification for her behavior. I think this would make for a fun fall/halloween thriller.

The author gives some vague trigger warnings at the start of her book, so follow that for specifics. All I'll say is be prepared for some pretty graphic violence on Cordelia's part toward men who probably deserve it.