Despite what its sensationalized title might imply, The Serial Killer Guide to San Francisco is an engrossing story about family bonds and legacy, rather than just one about seeking a multiple murderer. Michelle Chouinard (The Detective Jo Fournier series) delivers a clever mystery with appealing characters who elevate the innovative plot in this first book of a planned series.
Since she was a child, Capricorn "Capri" Sanzio has known that her grandfather William Sanzio, nicknamed Overkill Bill, was a convicted serial killer infamous for his brutality. Capri's father always refused to discuss his father, who died in prison still proclaiming his innocence. But this family history fascinated Capri and led to her choice of career: founding a successful "Killer Crime Tour" company in San Francisco, Calif. Still, Capri has long avoided doing a podcast or writing a book about her grandfather, but when her wealthy ex-mother-in-law, Sylvia Clement, announces that she's no longer going to pay tuition for Capri's daughter, Capri must consider both to raise the money. Her family history and present circumstances intersect when rising socialite Katherine Harper, and then Sylvia, are both murdered in ways similar to Overkill Bill's methods, suggesting a copycat has emerged. The murders spur Capri to take a closer look at her family, including reinvestigating her grandfather's case.
Along the way, Chouinard includes interstitials from the Killer Crime Tours' guide to San Francisco, featuring historical snippets about lurid sites in various neighborhoods around the city. Trying to prove a convicted killer's innocence might border on cliché, but Chouinard tackles the trope with a fresh energy and finds new avenues to weave it into the plot. --Oline H. Cogdill, freelance reviewer