Killman Creek

Every time Gwen closed her eyes, she saw him in her nightmares. Now her eyes are open, and he’s not going away.

Gwen Proctor won the battle to save her kids from her ex-husband, serial killer Melvin Royal, and his league of psychotic accomplices. But the war isn’t over. Not since Melvin broke out of prison. Not since she received a chilling text…

You’re not safe anywhere now.

Her refuge at Stillhouse Lake has become a trap. Gwen leaves her children in the protective custody of a fortified, well-armed neighbor. Now, with the help of Sam Cade, brother of one of Melvin’s victims, Gwen is going hunting. She’s learned how from one of the sickest killers alive.

But what she’s up against is beyond anything she feared—a sophisticated and savage mind game calculated to destroy her. As trust beyond her small circle of friends begins to vanish, Gwen has only fury and vengeance to believe in as she closes in on her prey. And sure as the night, one of them will die.

• Killman Creek by Rachel Caine
• Series: Stillhouse Lake, Book #2
• Published by: Brilliance Audio on December 12, 2017
• Genre: Thriller, suspense
• Listening length: 11 hours 55 minutes
• Dates listened: 7.23.2025 – 7.27.2025 (5 days)
• Format: Audiobook
• Narrators: Emily Sutton-Smith, Lauren Ezzo, Will Ropp, Dan John Miller
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• Purchase on Amazon
• ⭐⭐⭐⭐

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This series has me in a chokehold, and I’m loving it! I’m honestly a little surprised that it’s never been turned into a show series. I think it would make an amazing thriller mystery show, don’t you guys? Knowing how it goes, though, whenever books are turned into movies or shows, they’d probably fuck it up royally. They’d change the characters and the plots. It would never be as good. Oh well, wishful thinking, I guess.

Killman Creek is the second book in the Stillhouse Lake series. I liked it (just slightly) less than I did the first book. The pacing was a little slower, and once the big finale happened, I thought it was over waaaaay too fast! I wanted Melvin Royal to suffer!! Like…horribly. And he does! Don’t get me wrong. Sorry for the spoiler y’all. But it was not nearly enough! Ok ok. Enough about that.

This book picks up just 4 days after the last one ends, with Melvin Royal still on the loose. Gwen goes on a hunt for him to protect her children. She knows that he’s coming for her, or for them. When he discovers the location she’s in and gives her a call, she knows that she has to use herself as bait. Gwen decides the last place that Melvin, or any of the internet trolls, will look for her or the children is in the same location they were living previously. They’ll be expecting her to go on the run, like she always has. She can only trust a handful of people, so she puts all her trust and faith in Javi and his partner, Kezia. Leaving the kids with them, Gwen and Sam go on a hunt for Melvin using herself as bait.

Gwen and Sam soon discover that her once-trusted ally, Absalom, isn’t a he or a she, but most likely a they. And if this is true, then Melvin and his depravities barely scratch the surface of the darkness that lies within the group known as Absalom. Gwen again is left wondering who she can even trust anymore, as she is hunted (and found) by Melvin. Melvin seems to have unlimited means of contacting her and her children, always knowing where they are and what they’re doing.

When videos are leaked, showing that Gwen not only knew what her ex-husband was doing, but was actually his “little helper” like many have always suspected, she finds herself without any allies. Even her kids turn away from her in disgust. This part of the book actually broke my heart because I could only imagine how alone she felt. She had done everything to keep her kids safe, and now they immediately turned on her, despite her pleading her innocence to them. I found myself yelling at the different characters as I listened to the story unfold, getting angry and frustrated with them. I hope they heard me! lol

If I’m already dead to the people I love, I might as well die for them.

I definitely don’t want to spoil any of the twists in the book, but the betrayal that Connor and Lanny feel after discovering these videos leads them both to take huge risks and make serious lapses in judgment. The final showdown between Gwen and Melvin is heart-stopping and sickening, and over much too quickly in my opinion. As I stated above, I wanted Melvin to suffer slowly and very painfully for everything that he’d done to innocent women, but mostly for what he had done to Gwen and the kids. He is one sick individual. The scary thing, though, is that he’s only one of many…many sick individuals.

Caine does a great job in her novels with bringing the main suspenseful plot to a resolution for the reader, while also dropping a last little cliffhanger for you at the end. Almost like she’s telling the reader, “I dare you to NOT read the next one!” Her cliffhangers have you itching to dive right into the next one, and I love that. I think that’s why this series has me so hooked. Even though I felt like this book was a little on the slower side when compared to the first, I loved getting the different POVs throughout the book. I enjoyed getting inside some of the side characters’ heads a bit more and understanding what makes them tick. I can’t wait to see what’s in store for them in the next book!