MICHELLE CHOUINARD'S PAGE: The Serial Killer Guide to San Francisco series

THE SERIAL KILLER GUIDE TO SAN FRANCISCO (The Serial Killer Guide to San Francisco #1)
MICHELLE CHOUINARD
Minotaur Books (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$11.99 ebook, available now

Rating: 3.75* of five

The Publisher Says: In Michelle Chouinard’s clever mystery The Serial Killer Guide to San Francisco, the granddaughter of a serial killer shows readers another side of the beloved city.

Welcome to San Francisco, a city with killer charm.

The chill of a San Francisco summer can be deadly. No one knows this better than Capri Sanzio, who makes her living giving serial killer tours of the city. Capri has been interested in the topic since she was a kid, when she discovered she’s the granddaughter of serial killer William ‘Overkill Bill’ Sanzio. She’s always believed in his innocence, though she's never taken the leap to fully dive into the case.

But now an Overkill Bill copycat has struck in San Francisco. And Capri’s former mother-in-law, Sylvia, just cut off Capri’s daughter’s tuition payments. Needing cash, Capri wonders if this is the time to exonerate her grandfather. The case is back in the news and the police will be looking to understand the past to catch a present-day killer. Capri could finally uncover the truth about Overkill Bill—documenting the process with a podcast and a book—and hopefully earn some money.

Before Capri can get very far, the cops discover the copycat’s latest Sylvia. Capri soon finds herself at the heart of the police’s investigation for an entirely different reason. She and her daughter are prime suspects.

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My Review: Weird premise...descendant of serial killer makes living talking about serial killers despite feeling ancestor was innocent...but played for laughs. Shouldn't work, should it?

It does. Mostly because the serial-killing part is discussed, without strong gore emphasis and in the context of Capri's tours. It still feels...weird. But the way the premise leads to Capri herself being a suspect in a copycat killing is very apt, logical, and still not really expected.

What very much is expected is Capri's love interest in Detective Petito, and blessèdly not Ryan (a tech whiz and co-runner of her tour company). I am really tired of this trope. At least freshen it up, make Petito into Louisa, SOMEthing other than another tedious obligatory heteronormative "romance" grafted onto a story to tick a box.

I admit I was amused that the victim whose fate twigged the cops to Capri was her ex-mother-in-law, who had just cut off financial support for Capri's daughter's education. Nice touch, Author Chouinard. What wore on me a bit was the nature of detail I was presented with...I am uninterested in who made or sold more accurately your leather goods, for example...in an abundance I found tiresome. I did enjoy the San Francisco setting mostly because it was well integrated into the plot and not smashing into me in a deluge of verbiage.

Speaking of San Francisco, as the haunt of tech and thus finance bros, there is significant tech-talk. Again, it's there because it's germane to the crimes and to their solution, it's not inaccurate to my limited understanding...though I'm very certain some of the actions taken are illegal and would get their perpetrator sanctioned, fired, and/or prosecuted, not to mention being inadmissible in a court...so I rolled with it. You may not wish to be tech-talked to, so be aware it's there.

The copycat's identity is consistent with all the clues and the nature of the crimes committed. The mystery resolves in a way I found satisfying, and left room for Capri's return. All in all a read I liked, a series I'll read more of, and if anyone knows a development exec at Hallmark, this series would do good business for their channel in Octobers for years to come.

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A TOUR TO DIE FOR (The Serial Killer Guide to San Francisco #2)
MICHELLE CHOUINARD
Minotaur Books (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$11.99 ebook, available now

Rating: 3.5* of five

The Publisher Says: In Michelle Chouinard’s A Tour to Die For, Capri Sanzio is back, giving a true crime tour her guests won’t soon forget. After all, a tour guide who specializes in serial killers knows better than most that San Francisco is a city with killer charm.

Capri Sanzio knows that when you give serial killer walking tours for a living, unexpected situations are more common than San Francisco's famous fog. So, when one of her guests claims to see a woman being attacked during a tour, Capri remains unfazed. The police search the apartment in question and find no evidence of anything amiss, so they chalk it up to a false report from a true crime fanatic looking to be a part of a case. And Capri thinks they might be right, since lately her tours have been attracting even more obsessives than usual—as it turns out, finding the actual serial killer who committed the "Overkill Bill" murders didn't stop the constant questions about her grandfather's supposed crimes, it only intensified them.

But Capri would never forgive herself if someone is in trouble and she walks away. Plus, something about the whole situation has every one of Capri's investigative journalist instincts going haywire—why would someone lie about seeing an attack? So Capri starts to dig, and when her questions lead to a body, she finds herself at the center of another murder investigation.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: Building directly on the resolution of the first story in the series, we meet Capri as she's about to go on a date with Detective Petito, who piqued her interest most saucily and expectedly...but they really can't go out during a case they're both involved, now can they. So now they're not in that situation, all clear, right?

Wrong. Quelle surprise. Capri's riding high on the back of the first case's notoriety...proving she's not guilty of murdering her slimy ex-husband's mother out of spite is hardly a spoiler, it's a mystery series not Roger Ackroyd redux...and her serial-killer tours of her belovèd San Francisco are booming. Maybe too much so, as one of her tourists insists a murder took place in an apartment near the tour's route. Is an overzealous, eager-to-be-a-witness imagination at work? The police respond to the scene, find nothing, and assume that's the case.

Not so much Capri. She does not dismiss the concern, something's up...so investigation mode activates and off we go. And off goes that date with Detective Petito, of course.

Shenanigans ensue, the scoobygroup works their way through the clues, and the ending is satisfyingly apt. I don't think the second bite of the apple is as fun as the first because the novelty's worn off, I do not care for—or about—the romance, and the scumbaggery of Capri's ex around his late mother's palatial home honestly feels shoehorned in to me.

Will I read the next one? I won't say no, and I'm not counting the days, either.