This story had great potential, and maybe I would have liked it more if I read it in physical form, because the narration for this was not great. Just the sound quality. It sounded like I was on a phone call, and it was really distracting.

The Killer She Knew is everything that is advertised, but also so much more murdery and dark!

Emma has just moved to start fresh with her sick mother, and as a ghost writer started a new and exciting project. A book that is a diary of a serial killer which she is writing for Nick, a doctor from England. But things start to go off the rails when Emma's sisters murder starts to become pertinent to the story. What is fact and what is merely fiction?

This was a twisty, turny dark mystery that takes you on an absolute journey! Bouncing between narratives and timelines, you question the truth right up until the very end. For such a short novel there was so much plot!

If you enjoy thrillers and mystery then you should really check out this story. It is dark though and the characters are slightly abhorrent. While there is not a lot of gore, it is descriptive and emotional. So if you do not like this type of story then I suggest you do not pick this one up because you will not enjoy it.

The audio of this book is what really let me down. There were two different narrators, which I usually love in an audiobook, but it did not work this time. The female narrator narrates so much faster than the male narrator and is very difficult to understand. I enjoyed the male narration but that was the minority of the audio. This is one of those books that I think is much better as an eyeball read than an audiobook.

I really liked how convoluted this story was and how the timeline and POVs skipped around. There was a lot of depth to the plot because of it. I enjoyed how the story started and how it ended. I will definitely be telling my thriller and mystery lovers about this one!

An interesting mystery,, that tied up well although the distinction between narratives was a tad blurry at times leaving me to re-listen to some parts several time.

The Killer She Knew by Zee David
Narrated by Millie Hearts & Omar Abou
Publisher: Audio ARC provided by Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op
Genre: Mystery & Thrillers, Novellas & Short Stories, Women's Fiction
Published: December 9, 2024

The Killer She Knew by Zee David is the first book I've read by the author. I thought the twists and turns were fascinating and kept me engaged. I loved the ending!!!

I enjoyed the narration by Omar Abou, but really struggled with the narration by Millie Hearts. I found her to be monotone and almost DNF'd the book because of it.

I'll definitely give the author a second chance. I'm not sure if I struggled with the book because of the narration or because of the story.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

<i>Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.</i>

2.5 stars rounded down

The audio for this just took away from the story completely. I had a hard time getting into the storyline and based on other ratings, think it would have been more enjoyable as an ebook for me.

I had a really great time listening to this book! It was such an interesting mystery, with this lady dealing with her sister's death, and the way her mom is treating her while her mom is of poor health and they need a nurse to take care of her. That she ends getting this ghost writer gig, from the perspective of a serial killer? Yeah, it was really interesting!

I did have an audio ARC copy of this book, and the female narrator's parts weren't the best quality, they were tinny, like it was recorded in an echoey room, and a bit hard to understand and I think I lost a few details that would've helped understand the mystery better. The male narrator was normal, but the female narrator, well, it's an ARC, maybe it could be re-recorded.

We did get a variety of perspectives which really helped anchor this story, to get all this different ways of looking at what had happened, from a sister of a victim, a mother of the victim, and from the killer, it seems, though I did wonder if it was the killer's perspective or the perspective of the killer in the book. There was a good chance that the book was based on the actual killer's perspective, which I wanted to know what was going on!

All the twists and turns of this mystery was so interesting, and I loved how it turned out! That was pretty satisfying, because this book was a bit about people who aren't the best, who get away with not being great, so I really enjoyed how it wrapped up!

This was a fantastic mystery and I had a great time reading it!

The Killer She Knew follows a ghost writer, Emma, who works to solve the death of her sister. I enjoyed the story and the twist at the end. The timeline got a little confusing jumping between the present and past since the change wasn't always mentioned. I think this book would have been better read as a physical book rather than audiobook.

Additionally, the audio quality for Emma's pov wasn't very good and it was hard to hear when the listening speed was increased.

Overall, I enjoyed this short mystery. Some parts were rushed especially at the end, but l liked the story line and would read more of this author's works!

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a copy of the audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

The Killer She Knew by Zee David has an intriguing premise and a solid mystery at its core, but the audiobook falls short due to a lackluster narration. While the plot offers some engaging twists and turns, the narrator's flat delivery and inconsistent pacing detract from the suspense and emotional weight of the story. This makes it difficult to connect with the characters or fully immerse yourself in the tension. Despite its potential, the audiobook experience diminishes the overall impact. If one is interested in the story, reading the book might be a better option.

This has the potential to be a solid book, but the narration and audio quality made this nearly unreadable for me. I hate giving a negative review for something like audio quality, but this might be the worst quality audiobook and narration that I have ever encountered. The story is interesting and compelling with solid ideas and dialogue. I like how short it is as well. But it was incredibly hard to get into it since I felt like I was listening to someone talking on the phone with poor connection. I think that I would have enjoyed the book so much more had I not been fighting to understand what the narrator was saying. It largely took my focus away from the story and made it feel much harder to comprehend and put things together. I’d love a chance to listen to this again if the audiobook version is improved.

Thank you Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op for providing this audiobook for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

I think this book has a lot of potential, but it isn’t exactly what it was advertised to be.

I would like to thank NetGalley for the free audiobook in exchange for an review.

To be honest, I'm not sure if it was the lack of character development, the writing, or the poor audio quality, but something prevented me from fully enjoying the concept behind it.

Emma’s voice really should be re-recorded—it was hard to understand her, which made it difficult to immerse myself in the story. Zach’s voice was much better, but I don’t understand why his POV came so late in the book. We spent almost 50% of the time with Emma, and then suddenly, we have a new voice.

The time jumps, the structure, and the (sudden) dual POV all wasted the potential of the story.

I also noticed in chapter 28, the sentence “I carefully walk around, heading to Mum’s empty bed and looking over everything as if I’d notice anything different” is repeated two times in different tones.

Emma is a ghostwriter and moves Nick into her home to write his novel. Emma also lives with her sickly mother, who is cared for by Mia, her nurse. The story is told from Emma’s POV (present day) for most of the first half of the book. Then multiple POVs are added with various timelines. While the ending was technically “twisty” it seemed rushed and forced, especially since I failed to connect with the characters to really get too invested.

Audio specific:
Due to poor audio production I couldn’t listen at a higher speed like I typically do. It was difficult to hear the narrator and the voice didn’t match the story’s intended accent. The sound was echo-y. The female narrator gave the male character a very monotone voice. The male narrator had much better quality, but was only used for a couple chapters, which made it confusing why they even choose to have two narrators for his limited chapters. The voice acting didn’t feel like it matched the story/characters. All the female characters sounded the same. Unfortunately, this is the worst audiobook I’ve listened to.

Audio ARC provided by Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op.

I really hate giving such low reviews, but I just couldn't make it through this book. The story was interesting, but audio quality was really challenging. Additionally, the male character's voice made me cringe. EVERY.SINGLE.TIME!

The narration is good but the audio quality is pretty poor. I played some other titles on my shelf to compare and this sounded very echoey and far away in comparison.

I wasn't enjoying the experience so sadly I couldn't continue.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the ALC

Thanks to #NetGalley and #VictoryEditingNetGalleyCoOp for the book #TheKillerSheKnew by #ZeeDavid. Emma is a ghost writer and has taken in a man named Nick, so she can write his serial killer story. As she writes, it brings back the memories of how her sister was murdered years ago. Is she starting to confuse things with what happened to her sister? Is she safe?

Emma a ghost writer, is struggling with the death of her younger sister. Feeling guilty for her death and that she was never cared for as much as her younger sister was.

Nicholas, the man she’s writing for has a mysterious way about him. Emma starts noticing an odd connection between her life and his.

I was granted an audio version of this book and fully enjoyed it. The only issue I had was the quality of the audio is very poor.
4 stars

Available January 2025

Thank you NetGalley and Victory editing for this copy for an honest review.

Seeing a thriller on audio that's less than 5-hours long? Sign me up!

First, I will say this audio production is rough. The female narrator sounds like she's using a cell phone with poor reception. I got used to it for the most part, but it was hard to overcome. The male narrator's recording sounded higher quality. And personally, I wish there would have been British narrators if it took place there as they characters used "mum" rather than "mom" and other vernacular.

I thought the story had potential as the reveals were interesting. I can't tell if it was partly due to the audio quality, but there were times it felt choppy.

I wonder if I would have enjoyed this more if I had read the physical copy.

WOW WHAT!? OK OK HOLD ON!!!!! This book had me in a Chockhold!!! The one of the most twisted book I listened to this week! The Twists and turns was wild! I loved it!

I did take a star off because of the voices idk what was up with that! It was annoying at times

The narration is wonderful but I think she could have recorded in a better space or maybe someone needed better recording equipment. It was absolute fine though! The background sound was just off.
Lovely story and narration though!

I listened to the audiobook but think I would have preferred an e-book for this. The audio wasn’t well recorded. But the story was good. Starts off with the death is a young girl. Then goes to her ill mother and ghost writer sister 10 years later. A short book but it packs in some good thriller aspects. 3 1/2 stars for me.

Thank you to NetGalley for this advanced copy.

Ugh, I HATE leaving so few stars for new authors, and for Netgalley, but, honesty is the key word and I cannot give more.

That said, this review is for the audiobook, and much of my dislike of the material could be completely connected to the incredibly poorly done audio. I would encourage you to check out the reviews which were for the printed/ebook material. Those folks had a completely different response to the work and seem to have given 4 or 5 stars routinely.

I requested this based on the publisher's writeup which told me the main character was a writer (a plus), and after moving to a new town (love new places which will be explored) the novella is in the mystery/women's fiction genres. At only 4 hours on audio, it was a no brainer.

After starting the shockingly amateurish audio, I just kept repeating the mantra "I can do ANYTHING for only 4 hours." I repeated that a lot. I do not understand the mechanics behind producing an audio book, but this one sounded like a newbie reader took a 1980s cassette player, found a tunnel, sat down and started reading. It is a hollow sounding presentation that gets in the way of the story. I actually have been listening to audiobooks since the 80s when the listener was limited to cassettes, and this production is still worse than anything I've ever heard. And the icing on the cake is that at whatever volume you choose, be prepared for a sonic boom level sound every time the narrator expresses excitement in the reading.

Please publisher and author, take this advice with the concern I truly feel - do not release this audio version as planned in January 2025. Just don't.