The Death of Us

A Novel

By: Abigail Dean

Narrated by: Claire Skinner, John Hopkins

“A page-turner par excellence, written with unobtrusive brilliance, [and] full of sharply observed lines . . . The Death of Us lives up to the hype.”
—Stephen King

“The Death of Us is astonishingly good—Abigail Dean’s the real thing.”
—Mick Herron, bestselling author of Slow Horses

“A devastating exploration of the long-term effects of violence . . . [b]y focusing on the victims rather than on, say, the drama around the police investigation, this wrenching book subverts the normal conventions of a serial killer novel. It’s an unusual and effective approach.”
—The New York Times Book Review

It’s the night we never talk about.
It’s the story the world wants to hear.
But this isn’t the story of that night. This is the story of us.

Together, Edward and Isabel move to London. They are young and in love, occupied by friends, work and fun. But late on a spring evening when they are thirty years old, their home is invaded by a serial killer. In the wake of this violation, each tries to come to terms with a night that changed everything—and their marriage begins to crumble.

Twenty-five years later, their tormentor is caught, and Edward and Isabel reunite for his sentencing. Isabel has waited years for the man who nearly ended her life to be brought to justice. Edward has tried to think about anything else. As they prepare to deliver impact statements in the public eye, it is time to revisit their love story. Will they finally be able to confront the secrets, longings and lies that tore them apart?

Or will the horror of that night be the death of them?

A captivating portrait of a marriage and its implosion, The Death of Us digs into the stories we tell ourselves about love—and everything love can bear.

Abigail Dean understands human psychology like so many authors try to do but fail all the time!

I love how Abigail Dean can make the most mundane parts of marriage and life take on a deeper and suspenseful meaning than other authors are able to do.

Really liked this book except for gross noise narrator kept making

I really liked this book, but the female narrator kept making this disgusting swallowing noise. It is so loud and occurs fairly frequently.

Just Okay for me

Overall premise of this book was interesting. However, it is lengthy for what the book is about. I don’t have a problem with admitting that I skipped through various scenes because of the cursing and the sex scenes. Language doesn’t usually make me skip but when the “c” word is consistently used I do. One word I don’t like and do not understand why people use it when there are soooo many other words to choose from.

I felt it all

All of the characters expressed and lived their trauma in so many different ways and I understood and connected with each and everyone of them so well written

5+ STARS!

Before hearing about The Death of Us on the podcast, Sarah’s Bookshelf, Live, I was not aware of Abigail Dean. It was described as the “crime novel that hit me hardest”. So true! The narrators did an amazing job with this book. It was as if it was written with them in mind. My next book will definitely be from Dean’s backlist.