Thank you Viking for the gifted digital ARC!

I'm not sure I can adequately put into words how much I enjoyed this book. It is completely captivating, devastating, and oddly charming. Abigail Dean puts on a masterclass in storytelling with this one. I laughed out loud, I cried, and I breathed several sighs of relief. The pain felt by both our main characters, Edward and Isabel, is so gut-wrenching, in two completely different ways.

The serial killer in the book will definitely sound familiar to true crime enthusiasts. For me, hearing this story told from fictional victims' points of view made it impossible to look away from. This one will be sticking with me for a long time.

The Death of Us US pub date is April 15.

An interesting love story. This couple has definitely been through the wars in thier decades long story. I enjoyed it despite the bleak premise.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I found this to be kind of boring and slow. It just didn’t grab me. Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for this copy for read and review

Thank you so much to Viking for the free ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This one is out April 15!

Psychological Thriller/Crime. Edward and Isabel are a happily married couple in their early 30’s living in South London. One night, an invader breaks into their home, threatens Edward, and rapes Isabel. 30ish years and countless rapes and murdera later, the invader is finally caught and pleads guilty to all counts. Now divorced for 10 years, Edward and Isabel reunite at the trail to listen to others’ impact statements - and give their own. As Edward reflects on the events of the trial, Isabel takes us back through their relationship, the attack, and how their marriage eventually fell apart in the aftermath.

For anyone who followed/read about the Golden State Killer, I think you’ll enjoy this book. It obviously drew a lot of inspiration from that real life case - a cop who terrorized residents in LA, first through burglaries, then escalating to rape and murders and was eventually caught through an ancestory DNA company - but it told the story of an ordinary (fictional) couple who’s lives were rocked in the aftermath, which you never really hear about in real life when it comes to a prolific killer/rapist. Although this book obviously covers dark themes (and details the assaults) at its root I would still say this is a love story between Edward and Isabel. Beautifully written, heartbreaking, and hopeful. This one will stick with you.

I loved this book! The author did such a great job showing the ripples a serial killer makes in the lives of people. She did a fantastic job foreshadowing events to come, too. The characters were plotted out greatly and were believable. Definitely not characters you see often in novels. I highly recommend!

3 dark stars

This is my first read by Abigail Dean, and I must admit I struggled with it.

Edward and Isabel are a couple that can’t seem to stay away from each other, but I’m not sure they are happy together either. They eventually marry, and Edward wants to start a family. Written from dual viewpoints, we get to read the thoughts of Isabel and Edward.

In a dark part of the book, we learn about the South London Invader, a man who is breaking into homes and terrorizing victims. He evolves from attacking single women to attacking couples and then later to killing. If this is triggering for you, be warned that the violence is fully described.

There is a detective, Etta, who commits herself to catching the Invader, and she is a character I rooted for in the book.

The Invader breaks into Isabel and Edward’s house on a summer evening. We later get the full description, and it is harrowing. They each deal with it in different ways but don’t fully work through the trauma. It is no wonder this tears apart their relationship and, eventually, their marriage. I believe that is what the title refers to, but it could also be interpreted differently.

The South London Invader is eventually caught and on trial, and much of the book deals with the impact statements from those he attacked. This is dark content, indeed. Isabel and Edward support each other during the trial.

This one provoked many thoughts in me, but I didn’t warm to the characters. Other readers have rated it very highly, so you might like it.

Disturbing and thought provoking but….

When Edward and Isabel are thirty years old, they become the latest Victims of a serial killer, dubbed “The South London Invader”. He preys on “happy couples” watching them painstakingly for weeks so that he can plan the perfect attack.

ONE NIGHT CHANGES EVERYTHING.

Each deals with the traumatic event differently. Isabel wants to TALK an about it-with Edward, with the press, and with Etta-the Detective in charge-and it is a story that all of London wants to hear!

Edward doesn’t want to talk about it at all.

Twenty-five years later, Nigel Wood is caught, and Edward and Isabel, now divorced will reunite for his sentencing. It is an opportunity to deliver impact statements and perhaps to finally get closure about the relationship that they lost as a result of the crime they endured.

The story unfolds from the POV’s of Isabel and Edward. Isabel’s chapters are written like it is her IMPACT STATEMENT chronicling the PAST, while Edward’s chapters cover the PRESENT timeline.

The premise is interesting, but I DID NOT find the book to be a thriller, or suspenseful as advertised. Instead it reads like a character study-with the CHARACTER being the MARRIAGE, and the pace was extremely SLOW.

The story is supposed to demonstrate that a traumatic event like this can destroy even the strongest of marriages, yet I DIDN’T find their love story to be epic at all. Edward is a bit dull, and Isabel is a bit cold. If the descriptions of their intimacy, using the crudest of terms (C word) is supposed to convince us of their love-it didn’t work for this reader.

Early reviews seem to be split between high praise and the opposite, with few in between-and I am one who struggled to get through it.

⚠️ TW: Graphic descriptions of rape/assault

Expected publication date: April 15, 2025

Thank You to Viking for the gifted ARC provided through NetGalley. As always, these are my candid thoughts.

This book was NOT what I expected in the best way. This is a deep, devastating character study of a couple before and after a horrific violent home intrusion and all of the intense feelings that remain decades later.

As we follow Edward and Isabel’s love story, there’s a feeling of impending doom knowing what’s to come. We flash back and forth between present day as their attacker, the South London Invader, is being sentenced in court.

The Death of Us, in some ways, reminded me of Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll in the sense that they both focus on the victims and the impact unspeakable violence had on them as opposed to the killer.

Truly a heartbreaking story, told in such a beautiful way. It took me a bit to get into it but once I did, I couldn’t put it down.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC!

I had no idea where this story was going, but I knew from the very beginning I was going to enjoy trying to figure it out! The uniqe style of second person storytelling made this fun too!

Abigail Dean’s unflaggingly engrossing “The Death of Us,” with its depiction of a couple dealing with the aftermath of a brutal attack on them in their own house, put me in mind of the 2001 disappearance of Washington intern Chandra Levy, and specifically how a commentator at the time said that while he didn’t think congressman Gary Condit, with whom it had been suspected Levy had been involved, had anything to do with her death, he did think that Levy would still be alive if she hadn’t come within Condit’s orbit.
Which I took to mean that sometimes a relationship can be so fraught, so the occasion for almost spontaneous combustion, that it might not be the occasion in and of itself for something truly horrific but might, with its particular circumstances, help create external conditions conducive to a horrific outcome.
With Chandra, for instance, you have to wonder if, but for her involvement with Condit, she would have been doing whatever she was doing the day she disappeared – indeed, if there was something about the relationship that she was trying to get away from.
Rank conjecture, granted, such speculation about a real-life figure, but altogether permissible about fictional creations such as author Dean’s Isabel and Edward, who, without question, had they not been sharing a particular house on the day of the attack, wouldn’t have fallen victim to their attacker, one Nigel Wood, who, we’re told, was no opportunistic seizer of the moment but rather one who meticulously planned his attacks and would have taken copious note of their daily comings and goings at their house.
Indeed, there's an express recognition from Edward that not only might his and Isabel’s particular situation have helped make for the particular circumstances of the attack, but, in an even more illuminating supposition, that there was something about Isabel that made her a catalyst or lightning rod for situations with the potential for horrific outcomes. In mentally remarking, for instance, about how things would have been different if he’d married someone else, he thinks, “things would have been different, and not just in the obvious ways … where they might have lived, the nature of their family. … there was something inherent in Isabel that made her the kind of person things happened to, an incessant extremity of pleasure, suffering, joy.”
And even more pointedly: “If he had not married Isabel, Nigel Wood would not have chosen him.”
It's a notion given voice to by Isabel as well when she says, “sometimes I wish I’d never met you,” as well as by Edward's second wife, Amy, when she says, “it's just the two of you, making each other miserable.”
Not that Isabel and Edward were completely bad for each other; indeed, it’s the particular horror of the assault that it ruined something that, as both Edward and Isabel acknowledge, for all its difficulties, was in fact overall a good thing.
But it's not just Isabel and Edward whose lives are upended by the attack but also
the initial detective on the case, Etta, who comes to obsess about catching the attacker and, in one of the book’s more genuinely affecting moments for me with how I’d come to genuinely like her, is knifed in a scrape with him that puts her in the hospital where, when Isabel comes to visit and asks how she’s doing, she’s put off by Etta’s lover, who, irate at Isabel for being the occasion for Etta’s precarious state, tells her, “they had to carry her guts behind her to the ambulance, that’s how (she’s doing). Please don't come back.”
For all the affectedness of Etta's situation for me, though, it's unquestionably Isabel who dominates the novel, with her sections being the most stylistically innovative as she imagines herself talking to Nigel as she formulates her impact statement after he is caught.
“I would like to know if your memory accords with my own about what happened,” she addresses him in her mind, going on to express disappointment upon learning the mundaneness of his name (“what did you expect, Adolf?” Edward asks) as well as the humdrum details of his upbringing.
An estimable character, Isabel makes for some of the pithiest utterances of the novel, as when Edward perpetrates some devastation on a table, and Isabella responds with “What did the coffee table ever do to you?” Or when Etta thinks that a shelf falling on her might have been Nigel's doing and Isabel responds with, “what a way to go, crushed by a f … ing file cabinet.” And when Edward remarks on how he looks a bore in a picture in the newspaper, Isabelle responds with, “a little constipated, perhaps.”
But not just with Isabel’s utterances does the novel’s prose shine but also in general, as when Edward is surprised by the dilapidated state of a friend he hasn’t seen for a while, “with his clothes besmeared and his eyes the color of rotten teeth.” Or when he has settled himself into the hotel where he will stay during Nigel’s sentencing hearing and discovers that his suitcase had “found its way to his room.” Or again about Isabel: “I opened the door and stepped into the years.” And in a particularly engaging sentiment for me as a writer, Isabel finds words to be as “close to divinity as anything else I knew in this world.”
Especially engaging to me as a writer, then, Dean’s novel, though not without its occasional hiccup. While the stylistic technique of Isabel’s sections, for instance, is strikingly innovative, it can make for momentary confusion – more than once it was a while into a passage before I realized that it was Nigel and not Edward that Isabel was referring to. And it takes a while for a reader to get clear on the identity of some of the secondary characters – a character named George, for instance, who turns up now and again in earlier pages, is a secondary detective assigned to the case, and I don’t think it gives away too much to reveal that Nina, who also appears only occasionally in the opening pages and who a reader might come to think is Edward and Isabel’s child, is in fact the daughter of a couple slain by Nigel who has ended up being looked after by Isabel and George.
And there’s the usual issue with topical references testing a reader’s familiarity with the matter at hand – how many readers, for instance, will pick up on “Thomas Harris” being the creator of Hannibal Lecter, for all the appropriateness of that character to Dean’s novel.
Still, overall a commendable achievement, her novel, and one of the most compelling I've read in recent times.

This book was WONDERFUL! So suspenseful. Something that hooked me early on was how Isabelle and Edward spoke to each other early on in their dating lives. Dialogue can be one of my biggest pet peeves in a book, but their interactions were so witty, unique, and made their relationship instantly more interesting as a reader, which made me care about them more when the invader came in. Speaking of, the slow burn teases of his crimes was so intriguing instead of just going right into it. I think my favorite line was when one of the victims on the stand summed up her trauma by saying she used to be more fun. What an iconic line. My fav book of the year thus far, easily.

This is not your typical serial killer story. In fact, it is a love story, it is a survival story, it is an emotional roller coaster. If you have read Abigail Dean before you will know that she has a unique style and is very much character oriented in her stories. It is a slow burning tale but believe me when I tell you that you will not want to put it down. I read this in less than 24 hours, completely invested from start to finish.

Isobel and Edward were happy and in love when one night changed everything. Their home is invaded and they are attacked by the man in the mask. This is the story of Isobel and Edward, before and after the invasion. It breaks them, it brings them together. But things can never be the same. 25 years later they reunite to face their attacker in court for his sentencing, finally being caught after terrorising the capital for so many years.

This is highly emotional as you would expect. People react differently to trauma and things don’t always make sense. It is hard to read in places, but it does have its bright spots. I thoroughly enjoyed it .

Thank you so much o Penguin Group Viking for my copy in NetGalley to read. I wish I had read it sooner.

I simply could not wait to get my hands on Abigail Dean's next book, and I'm so happy I was able to read an advance copy. No one writes like her. She has a knack for writing about violence in a way that gets right to it, but is also driven by empathy and heart. I'm already looking forward to her next book.

Edward and Isabel have a strong marriage and true partnership, until their world and relationship is shattered when an intruder breaks in and commits acts of violence.

This was such an interesting take on a serial killer just like the Golden State Killer. I’m assuming it was based on his spree and later arrest as is was extremely similar. The entire story is from the victim perspective; both husband and wife. While a lot of it focused on the crime and investigation, there was so much more to it as well. This is not a fast read and you’ll need to take your time with it. I found the court room scenes very interesting.

“You didn’t kill me, and you didn’t rape me, and we all survived you. I’ve always been very thankful for that. But by God. By God. It sounds like a small thing, I suppose. But I was so much more fun before I met you.”

The Death of Us comes out 4/15.

Isabel and Edward’s lives changed when they survived a devastating home invasion. Now divorced, they meet when the perpetrator is finally caught and and they attend his trial. The story is told by both of these characters and it’s a compelling and sad tale.
I enjoyed reading about their early relationship, even though I knew something horrible would happen (if that makes sense). I wanted to believe that maybe, with their attacker finally being caught, that would help them heal and close the door on this painful chapter.
Well written, and a reminder that people can and do overcome a lot, even if it takes years. It is a slow burn, but one that definitely highlighted the aftereffects of a crime.

This story was heartbreaking to follow as the author takes you through the characters journey of the aftermath of trauma and the impact it has on their relationships. The story was beautifully written and I enjoyed the read. The pov was unique in that it follows the main characters through a healing journey as it advances through the stages of hardship. Solid 4 star read.

This book tells the story of Isabel and Edward, who are the victims of a brutal home invasion in their 20's, and follows the years of their life after the horrific event. It's told in alternating perspectives, Edward in the current timeline, but Isabel's perspective being told as if she is telling the story of her life with Edward, and the attack to the attacker himself, which was different than anything I've read before. I thought it worked really well.
The story itself is complex, heartbreaking and raw. The author did a great job writing characters I was able to connect with. I felt really invested in their story.
Thank you to the publisher for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

This is definitely a book for mystery lovers looking for a read that is emotional, deep and dark.
I enjoyed it for the most part, but felt it was a bit too slow of a pace for me to want to pick it up and read. I like books that keep me one edge and want to read every chance I get, and unfortunately this one didn’t do that for me. That being said, it was still a well written story and just because it wasn’t a favorite of mine, doesn’t mean it won’t be for you!

Thanks to the publisher for my ARC

Emotionally charged and intense! This is the story of Isabel and Edward and their journey from young, hopeful love, the destruction of their relationship, and the years after. At 30 years old, their lives are ripped apart by a brutal home invasion. Nearly thirty years later, they are reunited for the perpetrator’s trial. This powerful, slow burn, psychological story is told in alternating timelines and POVs as we learn of their life together, the breakdown of their marriage, and the aftermath they each experience as victims of a violent crime.

Thank you Netgalley, Penguin Group Viking, and the author for this eARC in exchange for my honest review. This book will be available for purchase on April 15, 2025

I wouldn’t call this book a mystery thriller, but more a psychological character study of two individuals, together and apart, who come together decades later after a traumatizing event pulled them apart. I appreciated the ebbs and flows that the author weaved between past and present, the build up of their relationship, marriage and the deterioration thereof, in juxtaposition of a reckoning that is unfathomable pain. I thought the book was a little slow for me, but it could have been the mood I was in for something more faster paced. I loved GIRL A and eager to continue to read and support Dean’s work.