Jeff Povey

The name of this book drew me to it; sounds fun, right?

Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., or Dougie as the Club calls him, is a fraud, a nobody who inadvertently kills the man who attacks him. Assuming he should discover who the man is, he grabs the dead man's ID and does some searching. Come to find out, the dead man is a serial who goes by the handle, Grandson of Barney, GOB for short.

Following a roundabout way, GOB ends up in Chicago at a diner where a group of serial killers who use movie star names as their cover meets regularly. GOB takes on the identity of Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.

Four years into his fraud, Dougie is the club's secretary when a knock at his door reveals an FBI agent who insists that Dougie kill all the club members so that he can walk a free man. Dougie agrees, and his killing spree begins, killing the likes of Cher, James Holden, Burt Lancaster, and so on.

While the Serial Killers Club had all the makings of a fun, albeit dark, comedy, it was just plain ridiculous. Toward the end of the book, I was line skipping to finish it quicker; I don't think I missed anything.

I'm generally not a hater of books, and I can't say I hate this book; it was edited well, and as I mentioned, the plot could have been well-played; it just wasn't.

There is a seat for every bottom and a book for every reader. This one is not mine, but it might be yours.… (meer)

Take Dexter, and divide by Ash, then add to Desperately Seeking Susan, and you’ll get The Serial Killers Club!

After accidentally killing, and assuming the identity of local serial killer ‘Grandson of Barney‘, the narrator follows a personal ad in ‘his’ wallet and finds himself in a room with 18 other serial killers.
It’s a club, a place for killers to share stories, and make sure that nobody is targeting the same person. (It’s happened before – awkward!)
When you’re surrounded by every notorious serial killer from the surrounding areas, each one looking at you expectantly, waiting to hear your story… you’re gonna make some shit up, with a quickness!
Everyone in the club goes by an alias. They choose their names from classic stars, (eg. Errol Flynn & Carole Lumbard), and our narrator becomes Douglas Fairbanks Jr.
Dougie falls into his roll headfirst, and the club becomes his life. He’s finally found a place where he belongs, among friends. The trouble is, Dougie isn’t a real serial killer. Other members have started to notice that there haven’t been any new Grandson of Barney victims since he joined them – ‘Why is that, Dougie?’
He’s suffering from ‘Killer’s Block’ – that’s a thing, right?
If this isn’t enough of a problem, the mysterious stranger who has been following him around reveals himself as the lead agent on the Grandson of Barney case, and he’s got plans of his own.
Doug’s certainly stuck between a rock & a hard place, things can’t possibly get any worse.
“Hahaha!! You silly man!” – says LIFE. “Let’s see… how can I make your life suck just a bit more…” ::dastardly rubbing hands together:: “Oh! I know!… Watch THIS!“
[Enter stage left:] The Kentucky Killer has come to town.
Now – the fun can really begin!

The Serial Killers Club is fun, darkly humorous, and it kept the ‘whodunit’ muscle in my brain working overtime.
I saw a lot of negative reviews on Amazon. The majority of the people who posted one or two star ratings had the same complaint, saying that 'SKC is a ripoff of Dexter'. If that's true, then where are the posts calling Dexter a ripoff? Jeff Lindsay didn't invent the 'Killer killing killers' idea.
“Mediocre writers borrow. Great writers steal.“ - T.S.Eliot
“If you steal from one author, it’s plagiarism; if you steal from many, it’s research.” — Wilson Mizner
* “It’s not where you take things from—it’s where you take them to.”
— Jean-Luc Godard… (meer)