Vardeman, David - Suddenly, This Summer

1966, Roberta toils in the stacks. Librarian in a small Iowa town.
She had nursed her invalided / hypochondriac mother for years, until Mom died, followed by Roberta’s brother’s suicide.
Such is the backstory – the period of thankless normalcy – until the serial killings begin.
Understand, Roberta is convinced she knows the killer‘s identity, convinced it is someone she knows personally.
And she sets out to bait him, trap him, kill him.
Vardeman’s novel lulls you, tightening the narrative screws every few pages.
Roberta takes risks, endangers her life even, as she herself grows loopier by the day.
When a mass murder of nurses occurs in Chicago, her stability shakes for good.
Gripping psychological thriller, quite outside the normal tropes.
Fans of this author typically scoop up new titles immediately.