The Twenty: A Thriller

Holland’s second serial killer whodunit, after 2022’s The Echo Man, pales in comparison to that impressive debut. After a corpse is found at an abandoned construction site, too damaged by the elements to identify, Hampshire Det. Chief Insp. Adam Bishop is called in to investigate. Bishop spots the characters “XII” in green spray paint at the scene, and a search of the area uncovers more bodies and more Roman numerals, suggesting the work of a killer keeping count of his victims. Then Bishop’s ex-wife, Romilly Cole, approaches him with a lead: decades earlier, when Romilly was 11, she unlocked her family’s off-limits outhouse to find that her father, Elijah Cole, had used the building to confine multiple women, whom he raped, tortured, and killed. Though Elijah’s been locked up ever since, Romilly is convinced he had a hand in the new murders, and Bishop fears the next victim could be extremely close to home. Holland is better at generating momentary tension than sensibly moving the story forward or ushering it to a satisfying conclusion. The result is intermittently exciting but largely unsatisfying. Agent: Noah Ballard, Verve Talent & Literary. (May)