The Killing Kind is a gritty, high-octane crime thriller that throws you headfirst into the darkest corners of humanity. Set in a bleak Australian city plagued by a string of grotesque abductions and murders, the story follows Detective Sergeant Paul Anderson, a worn-down, whiskey-soaked investigator trying to hold himself and the case together. When Catherine Elliott, a missing woman thought to be dead, reemerges traumatized but alive, a twisted network of abuse, trauma, and corruption begins to unravel. As Paul navigates his crumbling personal life and the mounting pressure from the public and media, the reader is dragged into a murky world where no one escapes clean.

The opening scene with Catherine crawling away from her captors was raw and horrifying. Hamilton doesn’t ease you in. He grabs you by the collar and throws you into it. The prose is punchy, blunt, and sometimes brutally descriptive. The prologue alone had me clenching my jaw. And while it can be over-the-top in its violence, there’s an authenticity in how the characters respond to their trauma. Paul, in particular, is a fascinating mess. His scenes with Billie—the young bar owner who offers him comfort, and then some, walk a strange line between vulnerable and morally muddy, and I couldn’t look away. The contrast between his broken-down soul and her unexpected tenderness made those scenes oddly tender and uncomfortable all at once.

Just when you’re in the thick of a serious plot twist, Hamilton slaps you with a sharp turn into explicit territory. Still, the character work redeems it. Sharon’s chapter, where she wakes up bruised, broken, and unsure of what happened the night before, was honestly one of the most harrowing depictions of domestic abuse I’ve read. And then there’s Danielle Wise, a detective digging through old social media records, who adds this whole layer of procedural nerdiness that I enjoyed. Her backstory with Bridget was refreshingly open and real, it gave me a break from all the pain without feeling like filler.

I recommend The Killing Kind. This book isn’t shy. It’s for people who can stomach the dark stuff and appreciate characters that feel real even when they’re doing ugly things. If you’re into thrillers that flirt with noir, crime procedurals with grit, and stories where the city feels like a character in itself, you’ll want this on your shelf.

Pages: 266 | ASIN : B0DZPFX5D9