Stuff I Read: Dead Girls by Graeme Cameron

Two months after failing to capture a serial killer, a detective in rural England develops sporadic memory issues from head trauma caused by their confrontation. But when the killer’s kidnapped former victim resurfaces, the detective puts herself back in the killer’s crosshairs to find the woman before he does. Graeme Cameron delivers another smart and darkly funny thriller with his 2018 sequel, Dead Girls.

Dead Girls features Detective Alisha Green from Normal, who was let for dead in a nameless serial killer’s home, her skull cracked open after a fight with the man. Two months later, she lies about her recovery and is back on the job, itching to find him. However, the trauma has left her short-term memory in tatters, and she’s unable to reliably recall the events of even a few days before, making her partner and their captain doubt her fitness for the job. But when Erica—a young woman who was formerly trapped in a cage in the killer’s basement—resurfaces and is branded an accomplice, something doesn’t add up for Ali, and finding her could be the key to locating the killer and ending his murder spree once and for all.

Dead Girls is a darkly funny police procedural, and at the center of it is the three-way, cat-and-mouse game between Detective Green, Erica, the serial killer (whose current alias is Thomas Reed). Reed is much cleverer than we were led to believe in Normal. In the previous book, the killer seemed to bumble his way into trouble and charm his way out, while Dead Girls paints him as brutal, cunning, ruthless, and deadly. I enjoy how the change in viewpoints from the first novel plays with that perception.

The fact that there’s a prior novel is important. The story plays out sequentially from the end of Normal, opening minutes after that first book’s ambiguous ending. Almost all of the plot threads and character arcs bank heavily on having read and enjoyed Normal. If you hadn’t, Dead Girls won’t make much sense. Without that context, it would be difficult to care about what happened to Ali, Erica, or anyone else.

Dead Girls is such a great follow-up for Normal that you don’t realize the previous book’s ending was a cliffhanger until the beginning of this one. However, enjoying Dead Girls is intricately tied to whether or not you read—and liked—Normal. Tread carefully here.

Pros: Solid characters, Great plot. Rewarding closure for anyone who liked the previous novel.

Cons: Definitely not a stand-alone novel. Heavily reliant on the first book to know what’s going on.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars.