The Serial Killer's Son Takes a Wife - Michael Libling

The Serial Killer's Son Takes a Wife

By: Michael Libling

Paperback | 5 September 2023

At a Glance

Paperback


RRP $29.69

$27.25

Aims to ship in 30 to 35 business days

Can killing be passed on from father to son? Like high cholesterol, male pattern baldness, or a career in confections? 

It's something Bobby Blessing worries about a lot. He's not just the owner of an ice cream parlor. Bobby is also the son of The Brittle Butcher-a serial killer marking time on Florida's Death Row. 

For years, Bobby has kept to himself, leaving his nightmares and his hometown far behind, while working hard to keep his family's disturbing past at bay. (Yeah, his mom is quite the treat, too.) 

Then, one snowy night, the enigmatic Cori Widdoes turns up with a craving for ice cream, and Bobby's life takes an abrupt turn. For the better. Love and marriage soon follow. Bobby is happier than he has ever been. 

Problem is, nothing good in his life lasts for long. Ignoring history is one thing, forgetting it another.

When rumor, hearsay, and mistaken identity target his life, his wife, and their livelihoods, ultimately escalating into violence, Bobby chooses to confront his demons head-on-both the real and the imagined. 

He and Cori return to the town that had shunned him years earlier. And, almost immediately, idyllic Hillsdale degenerates into batshit crazy Hellsdale with a body count to match. 

Watch your back. Lock your doors. Be courteous to everyone, no matter who, no matter what. Yes, everyone. 

Don't say you weren't warned.

Industry Reviews

Praise for The Serial Killer's Son Takes a Wife

"The Serial Killer's Son Takes a Wife is sharp, funny, thrilling, and endlessly original. Michael Libling gives Riley Sager a run for his money!"-Nicholas Kaufmann, bestselling author of The Hungry Earth and The Stone Serpent

"It's the Coen Brothers meet Thomas Harris ... and I can't recommend it enough."-Lawrence C. Connolly, Nightmare Cinema and Prime Stage Mystery Theatre

"Only a writer as flat-out funny as Michael Libling could remind us that 99% of 'slaughter' is 'laughter.' And only a storyteller with the genius of Michael Libling could somehow, amidst gasps and giggles and plot twists galore, make us care."-Paul Witcover, author of Lincolnstein and many others


"The Serial Killer's Son Takes a Wife is a terrifying novel that thrusts the reader into hairpin twists and turns right up to the last moment. Michael Libling is a gifted author, and his skillful prose, along with the stories unexpected developments, made it impossible for me to put this petrifying book down."-Sheila Williams, editor of Asimov's Science Fiction

"What if Patrick Bateman from American Psycho had been a family man? What would his son be like? Libling answers that question in this terrifying and darkly humorous tale of hereditary horror."-Ian Rogers, author of Every House Is Haunted

"Michael Libling writes like that affable stranger on the next barstool buying you drinks as he charms you with his stories. Next thing you know, you've woken up in a bathtub full of ice with your kidney missing."-William Shunn, author of The Accidental Terrorist

"Michael Libling is a brilliant writer. Anyone who's read his first novel, Hollywood North, knows this already. His second, The Serial Killer's Son Takes A Wife, is just as brilliant, giving us, as it does, the same breathtaking mix of riveting ideas and heartfelt humanity that makes all of Libling's work so memorable."-Bruce McAllister, author of Dream Baby and The Village Sang to the Sea

"Libling, a major writer, takes chance after chance and surmounts them all."-Barry N. Malzberg, author of The Lone Wolf crime series, Bend at the End of the Road, and many others

"The Serial Killer's Son Takes a Wife is a raucous, deceptively dark road trip that tantalizes and twists until it's too late to go back."-Tanya Gough, author of Root Bound, founder of StoryBilder.com

"What do you call a book that digs into the mind of a serial killer's son with belly-aching laughs and rapier wit? Wonderful!"-James Ladd Thomas, author of Lester Lies Down and Ardor

"The Serial Killer's Son Takes a Wife by Michael Libling is an experiential and heart-stopping mystery soaked in the supernatural."- Timothy S. Johnston, author of The Shadow of War

"Michael Libling has a genius for inserting a blade ... the healing surgeon, or the nurse of death?"-Clark Blaise, author of This Time, That Place

More in Horror & Ghost Stories

You Like It Darker : Twelve Dark New Stories - Stephen King

RRP $34.99

$19.95

43%
OFF
The Gathering - C. J. Tudor

Paperback

RRP $34.99

$28.50

19%
OFF
Murder Road - Simone St. James

Paperback

RRP $34.99

$28.50

19%
OFF
The Hollow Dead : Gravekeeper - Darcy Coates

RRP $24.99

$21.75

13%
OFF
Berserk: Deluxe Edition, Vol. 12 : Berserk - Kentaro Miura

RRP $84.99

$61.90

27%
OFF
Weyward - Emilia Hart

Paperback

RRP $32.99

$26.95

18%
OFF
Stitches : Junji Ito - Hirokatsu Kihara

RRP $27.00

$22.95

15%
OFF
Bunny : TikTok made me buy it! - Mona Awad

RRP $22.99

$20.35

11%
OFF
The Witchfinder's Mark : A Samuel Hawke Story - Paul M Clark

FREE SHIPPING

RRP $29.99

$4.50

85%
OFF
The Night House : A spine-chilling tale for fans of Stephen King - Jo Nesbo
Empire Of The Vampire : Empire Of The Vampire - Jay Kristoff

RRP $22.99

$20.35

11%
OFF
Monstrilio : A Novel - Gerardo Sámano Córdova

RRP $29.99

$24.90

17%
OFF
Dracula : Penguin Classics - Bram Stoker

RRP $17.99

$16.75

Universal Monsters : Dracula - James Tynion IV

RRP $44.99

$40.50

10%
OFF
Toilet-bound Hanako-kun : First Stall - AidaIro

RRP $180.99

$162.90

10%
OFF
The Story Spinner - Barbara Erskine

RRP $34.99

$28.50

19%
OFF
A Novel Love Story - Ashley Poston

RRP $22.99

$16.95

26%
OFF
The Haunting Of Hill House : Penguin Modern Classics - Shirley Jackson
The Walking Dead : Compendium 3 - Robert Kirkman

FREE SHIPPING

RRP $107.99

$97.25

10%
OFF
The Dead Romantics - Ashley Poston

RRP $22.99

$20.35

11%
OFF