Elle Castillo’s podcast on unsolved murder cases has gone through the ceiling since she started talking about Minnesota’s famous The Countdown Killer, short TCK. Two decades before, a series of missing and then found murdered girls shock the area of Twin Cities, obviously, they were chosen for their
age thus forming a countdown. Only one girl could escape and in this way, the place where she had…mehrElle Castillo’s podcast on unsolved murder cases has gone through the ceiling since she started talking about Minnesota’s famous The Countdown Killer, short TCK. Two decades before, a series of missing and then found murdered girls shock the area of Twin Cities, obviously, they were chosen for their age thus forming a countdown. Only one girl could escape and in this way, the place where she had been hold captive was detected just as two dead bodies. The police believed that the killer was one of them even though both persons have never been identified but the fact that no more kidnapping happened seemed to prove it. However, the new popularity seems to have triggered him to restart - or is it just a very good copycat? No matter who, when Elle’s best friend’s daughter is abducted, Elle knows that she is responsible and in charge of finding the girl.
I really liked the perspective of the podcaster who goes through old materials and builds her own theories on what could have happened. A big fan of true crime podcasts myself, I enjoy listening to podcasts - no matter if the case has been solved or not - and I find it interesting how at times a new perspective of somebody without formal training in investigation can lead to new clues. Amy Suiter Clarke’s protagonist Elle in “Girl, 11” is therefore quite some sympathetic character whom I liked to follow from the start in her quest to find TCK.
All cases of young persons being abducted and killed are followed by the public impatiently, if it happens to be a whole series, people are even more into it. The character of TCK was interestingly created since he did not chose random victims but acted meticulously, even obsessively, to a strict programme. Elle’s investigation is led by her gut feeling, but from the start, you know that there is much more behind it, the author thus creates double suspense, on the one hand, the hunt for the killer, ln the other the question why Elle herself is that obsessed with especially this case.
A suspenseful thriller which accelerates its pace increasingly and also has some fascinating psychological aspects on both sides - the killer and the investigator - to offer.
