The Killer You Know ★★★

SR Masters, Sphere, R315

Five teenaged friends sit around a fire talking about their future plans. Will, a weirdo, jokes about becoming a serial killer. He will kill three strangers, making their deaths look like suicides. Fifteen years later they have a reunion in the village where they grew up. Adeline, Rupesh, Jen and Steve meet at the local pub but Will doesn’t pitch. The four have not changed much. Nor have their interpersonal relations and power play. Will was always the outsider. The conversation turns to Will’s planned “murder spree” that he said would involve someone found dead at Loch Ness and another at a music festival. For the hell of it they Google the words and find a recent suicide at Loch Ness and at a festival nearby. They believe Will is involved and decide to track him down. This book moves at a slow pace with too much superfluous detail but picks up at its surprising climax.