I didn't like this book. The blending of fact and "storytelling" to give you an inside view of the murders was not something I enjoyed. I like true crime, but this one started to fall into the category of "inspired by true events" rather than a factual recounting of the crimes.

I found myself skimming large sections and wishing for it to be over. Sorry Casey Sherman.


I received an ARC from the publisher on NetGalley.

I wanted to like this more than I did, it just fell short for me. I love watching true crime documentaries so I was really looking forward to reading my first true crime book. It seemed right up my alley but appearances ended up being deceiving. This work definitely lives up to its title with the graphic, gruesome details of Tony Costa’s murders. Sometimes it felt like it was done too much when less could have been more. Back to Tony Costa, I had never heard of him before and I found it interesting that the author chose to also highlight two authors along with him in this book—Vonnegult and Mailer—which I honestly could’ve done without. Another case where less could’ve been more, just felt superfluous to me which also made the story a drag to read.

In the author’s note, Sherman states this was a “work of fact told with elements of fiction storytelling.” The way the author wrote the fictional parts overall seemed a bit stilted for me and as such was distracting me from the actual story, making it difficult to read. I felt it wasn’t done well. The book quotes that “in novel writing, you can get by with a lot of fire and smoke.” Unfortunately this novel is a prime example of “a lot of fire and smoke.”

TLDR: This book was too long and insipid—you will probably be better off watching the documentary that’s being adapted from this novel.

Sincerest thanks for NetGalley for a digital advanced copy in exchange for my honest thoughts and opinions.

I live true crime novels. I love to read about serial killers. Tony is a mess and a nasty dude/killer. Unfortunately I think I’m used to the in depth writing and descriptions of relationships through the lens of Ann rule and now I’m spoiled. This is okay- average.

Tony Costa is a charismatic young man who is popular with the ladies. In fact, some of his "groupies" call him Sire. He is living his best life on Cape Cod in 1969. Unfortunately, he is also a serial killer who preys on women.

Kurt Vonnegut and Norman Mailer are two writers also living on Cape Cod during that time and were very competitive with each other. Both have set their sights on Tony as their next literary subject.

This book is based on a true story that did not get much attention, even though the crimes were horrific. The story is very graphic but interesting, Highly recommend this to true crime enthusiasts!

Amazing read about Serial Killer in Provincetown Ma. Being from the area, I am always interested in book such as this. Casey did a great job on the true crime story. Although I received this free from NetGalley - I will be going to buy this in hard cover for my book shelf because it is that good. It is worth it.

**I received this book free from NetGalley.

This book was a bit lack luster. The plot was easily call-able and the characters were whatever. The book description sounded more interesting than the actual book. I would be curious to see what else this author comes out with since one of the enjoyable parts was their voice.

Fairly unpleasant read. While the excursions into the lives of Kurt Vonnegut and Norman Mailer managed to bore me stiff (a problem solved easily enough by skipping the relevant sections), I absolutely LOATHED the actual murder parts. As it turns out, the author had access to an autobiographical "novel" written by serial killer Tony Costa himself and implemented parts of it into the narrative, so we get treated to a major a**hole's reimagined depictions of killing innocent women. Costa is long dead (and good riddance) but it sickens me physically to think that this d*ckwad's self-glorifying, truly atrociously written ramblings now see publication by way of some true crime author who in turn obviously hopes to turn this into good money and a great career.
DNF at 20% because a) it was terrible and b) reading it made me feel awful.

This was not a story I had known anything about. This was a hard read and very graphic and gory, as it should have been due to the subject matter. I will recommend this to any true crime fans

This is the true story of a serial killer, Tony Costa, and his murder spree on Cape Cod. I really struggled with this book. I was surprisingly bored by it. I also never understood the parts about Norman Mailer and Kurt Vonnegut, I think they detracted from the overall storyline. In general, I love true crime but this one didn’t hit the mark for me.

This was a DNF for me around 50% through unfortunately.

Helltown is a true crime book about the serial killer Antone "Tony" Costa in Cape Cod in the late 1960s. I was intrigued because I had never heard of him before and love listening to true crime podcasts so I thought why not get into reading about true crime as well. Unfortunately, this one was lacking for me.

The inclusion of dialogue had me slightly confused. I couldn't stop thinking - how would the know what was being said or what the victims were thinking. It made the story read more like a thriller except it wasn't fiction.

I found myself getting confused by the other storylines with Kurt Vonnegut Jr. and Norman Mailer. They seemed totally out of left field and had no tie to Costa's story (except for I guess to set the stage for the political climate at the time). It just felt random.

I love all things true crime! I do understand what the author was doing with adding dialogue, but I’m not sure it worked in this case. I wasn’t a fan of this author’s writing style, but that’s not to say others won’t enjoy it. I learned a lot about this serial killer and you can tell research was done. Thank you for the arc!

The Tony Costa murder case is fascinating yet very disturbing. If you like reading true crime stuff, this is the book for you. However, this book is not only about the Tony Costa murder case. It also tells the story of how two writers came to be as known as they are today. The intertwining of these stories got to be confusing, and I think would have done better as separate books entirely. Or a second part of the first novel.

This is also a very long book, that about half way through, I was kind of over reading. If you are looking for a quick read, this is not it.

I DNF'd this book at about 35%

The writing itself was not bad, but I really was looking for a non-fiction true crime story. This is written in a style where there are facts mingled in with some fictional narratives. Unfortunately this took away from my reading experience and I could not push through.

My first true crime book & I LOVED IT.

As the author notes "Helltown is a work of fact roof with elements of fiction storytelling." & the blend is absolutely amazing. The storytelling keeps you at the edge of your seat and wanting more, it's a definite page turner.

The fact that it's based on factual events makes it more chilling. I had never heard of the serial killer before or the connected lives of two amazing authors. I kept googling info and became obsessed with this story.

The author is an amazing storyteller!

I was fully prepared to go in to the story of the Cape Cod killer based on the synopsis - but it was not that. I feel like the synopsis promised one thing and the book itself is about another. So I DNF'd it. I don't care about the authors dueling. I don't care about what happened to him in war. I don't care about his daughter dating some boy. I don't care about his expectations for where his career was supposed to go. I don't care about the presidential elections.
Altogether, this book is about "HellTown" with a sprinkle of true crime. It's also about all the other research that was done to flesh out Helltown. But trying to package this as a book about the Cape Cod murder does that whole case (and the true crime community) an injustice.

I'm SO sad, but this book just didn't work for me. Helltown tells the story of Tony Costa and his serial murders in Cape Cod. This is a true crime novel with a lot of dialogue which I can't get on board with.

DNF @ 14%.
I thought this book was about a serial killer but of the 14% I completed, only 4% was about the killer and the other 10% has been about authors I don’t care about. I checked reviews and many others said they skimmed the author sections. If I’m already doing that at 14%, I’m not going to enjoy the other 86%.

I do love me some true crime reads. This read needed to be better and I thought it was going to be so good. The writing is good but the gusto was just not there for me.

Casey Sherman is a juggernaut in New England true crime, but I am not at all a reader of true crime. When Sourcebooks, the publishers of Helltown, asked if they could send me an ARC of his newest book the week it came out, I accepted thinking that I would enjoy this story of a serial killer on Cape Cod. Little did I know that I would be absolutely enthralled with this story that not only examined the lives of the killer, his victims, and the main prosecutor in the case, but also pulled in an amazing portrait of one of my favorite authors who spent a great deal of time on the cape with one of my best friends (Kurt Vonnegut Jr. and my friend Dr. Bill Keough were both security guards in P Town) and the equally famous and controversial Norman Mailer.

The book tells the story of Antone Costa, a young man whose captivating personality overshadowed his drug running and vagrancy to become somewhat of a small-town legend among his friends and compatriots on the cape. His hobbies ended up turning into a vile and terrifying crime spree that I would love to go over but might detract from the sensational and exciting horrors that await you as you dip into the book. That said, alongside this story, we learn about his young, beautiful, kind victims and their relationship with the killer, the District Attorney who threatened to destroy the case with every sensational and fictitious lie he could muster so as to keep his political position in a reelection year, Norman Mailer’s attempts to write about the case in a new book while running for mayor of New York City and living on the cape, and his bitter Cape feud with Kurt Vonnegut and his work on his own Costa stories and books he was working on at the time (and whose daughter had a relationship with the killer at one time and may have avoided the fate of the other women).

Sherman seems to handle the huge swath of time and characters with the ease of a master conductor, weaving several stories that are only incidentally related into a symphony of violence, intrigue, competition, whispers, action, political fighting, and the larger-than-life personalities of two of the most beloved literary figures of the twentieth century. While the book is a fictionalization of the accounts within, it doesn’t take very long to find news stories, YouTube deep dives, and major network specials that manage to piece together the disparate elements that Sherman can orchestrate so well in an incredibly well-written book. Of course, I went and did some research after reading this – I have spent a lot of time in Truro, Yarmouth, Dennis, and PTown my whole life visiting friends and family on the Cape and I was so surprised that I had never heard of such a sensational and horrifying story. In the hands of Sherman, it was a glimpse into a history that seems too horrible to be true in the sleepy villages I know a lot about, all said.

This was an incredible book that is required reading for any true crime enthusiast, anyone who loves Vonnegut, anyone who lives in or around the Cape, and anyone who wants to buckle in for a haunting piece about a community on edge in the midst of a killer among them.

I couldn’t finish this one. Usually a sucker for true crime, I found this particular presentation a bit hard to endure. The double storyline and the factionalized aspects of the crime descriptions were a bit too much for me.