Killer Personality

Killer Personality by Steven Fisher is a mind-bending story told through the alternating viewpoints of Kevin and Olivia. Kevin is an emotionally secure man searching for a committed relationship. On the other hand, Olivia is a beautiful and intelligent woman with startling secrets hidden in her past. Both characters meet each other at the Living Room Grill in Philadelphia and form an instant romantic bond. Unbeknownst to Kevin, Olivia has already done extensive research on him using black market data. She even presents herself as the ideal girlfriend to Kevin’s friends. Nonetheless, Gary—Kevin’s best friend, who is a police officer—senses that he knows Olivia from a previous investigation. This unforeseen event prompts Olivia to do an unthinkable act. Eventually, Kevin secretly begins to dig into Olivia’s past and realizes that most of her backstory is false. How will this riveting story end?

Killer Personality is an electrifying psychological thriller about seduction and danger that will keep you on the edge of your seat from start to finish. Through Kevin’s and Olivia’s compelling performances as prey and predator, Steven Fisher provides readers with a dark but entertaining depiction of themes like self-identity, trauma, and the thin line that separates adaptive behavior from pathological behavior. The pacing and narrative buildup amplify the psychological suspense woven throughout the chapters. Olivia’s shocking inner monologues are nicely paired against Kevin’s gradual realization about the woman he fell in love with. Ultimately, this is a character-driven tale that raises some fascinating questions about the cause of personality disorders and violent inclinations in persons who exhibit these traits. It is both an in-depth exploration of the human psyche and a chilling journey. Psychological thriller fans are guaranteed to enjoy this exhilarating novel.

– Richard Prause, Readers’ Favorite

 

“Killer Personality has a narrative that spins together a cohesive web, ready to trap any reader into its compelling plot. Although there are a lot of different points of view and perspectives, the details are tied together into a cool mystery that it pays off. The victims and the reasoning for Olivia’s odd behavior (like talking to a deteriorating skeleton) makes more and more sense as time goes on.

Author Steven Fisher does such an excellent job of expanding and dissecting Olivia as a character—both as a perpetrator of multiple crimes and a victim of a horrible childhood. Olivia is brought to the page with depth and complexity, a must for a book centering on the little-often heard female serial killer. While her motivation for love and the affection of men initially come off as cliché, her dismembered past, coming up sporadically, adds layers to it. Her apathetic killer persona ends up complementing Kevin’s more emotional perspective, subverting tropes in a really interesting way.

Some characters repeat plot points a little too often, which can slow down the usually speedy reading experience, but luckily, the action is almost always right around the corner to pick it back up again. All in all, Killer Personality is lifted by its killer qualities: a new perspective, a fantastic villain, a multilayered mystery.

Thriller readers will be glad to have found this action-packed quest for justice.”

– Jadidsa Perez, Independent Book Review

 

“Steven Fisher regularly shifts perspectives between Olivia and Kevin, identifying these pivot points so that readers can easily flow between these disparate personalities and lives. He creates a bond that seems solid before bodies are unearthed and the horror begins to pile up, involving readers in Kevin’s predicament as Olivia’s allure is countered by his growing horror over her true nature.

Even more pointed and revealing are moments in which Olivia (aka Susan) presents the experiences of her past which impact her sense of choice, responsibility, and the emerging consequences of her attractions and actions:

All my life, it had felt like I had been on the run or ready to run. I had experienced no peace since I left the town where I had been born. I had lost my father and sister. I had lost every man I had tried to love. I suddenly realized that Eddie was the only man who had never left or disappointed me. But it was better this way.

As she becomes part of a team, seemingly falls into a better life, and navigates pitfalls and possibilities, Olivia’s persona comes to light in deeper ways that belay any possibility of simply identifying her dangerous choices and ways of thinking:

They say that time flies when you’re having fun. The next six months were the most fun of my adult life…I explored museums all over the city and felt like I was growing and learning every day. I lived in a cool apartment near to everything I needed. I even began to think about putting myself out there for a social life.

Readers might anticipate feeling more connection to Kevin than Olivia, but the real surprises are delivered through Olivia’s shifting perspectives, which chart her growth and her failures alike:

Every person in my life I erased would be found. That didn’t bother me. The world knows what I am, even if they don’t know who I am and why. That Kevin! He had gotten under my skin, and I guess I did want him to know me.

Libraries interested in a tale of growth, revelation, and uncertain connections with love and life will find Killer Personality as alluring as its characters. It’s filled with action, psychological inspection, and important points of discussion for book clubs and reading groups.

Audiences will appreciate how Fisher builds killer connections via a head-turner of a woman, a man who enters her odd, threatening world, and the makings of a persona whose outer appearance masks an inner danger that reaches out to touch another with unexpected results for them both.”

– D. Donovan, Midwest Book Review