A day in my life? You couldn’t have picked a worse day to ask me that, not even if you went back to the day I found another woman’s panties in my (now) ex-husband’s suitcase.

Yesterday, I’d’ve known how to answer. I’d’ve told you all about the true-crime tours I lead in San Francisco, and how they combine two of my three most-loved things: showing people around the city I adore, and keeping the memories of victims alive. I could have gone on and on about how much I love digging into the past to put together awesome experiences for my guests, uncovering all the stories criminals—and sometimes police—would rather they didn’t hear. If you caught me in the right mood, I might even have told you a little bit about Overkill Bill, the convicted-and-executed serial-killer I’d like to prove was innocent, and not just because he happens to be my grandfather.

But today—today the last thing on my mind is tours and monuments, because the one thing I love even more than those came under attack: my daughter Morgan became a suspect in two murders, one of whom was my ex-mother-in-law, Sylvia Clement. I became a suspect right along with her, and much as I wish I could be righteously indignant about that, I really can’t be—if I were the police, I’d suspect us, too. Because last night, the evening before she turned up dead, Sylvia called Morgan out of the blue to tell her she’d no longer be paying for her grad school. Also because, when I found out Sylvia had kneecapped Morgan’s education like that with no warning or reason, I may or may not have called her up to give her a loud, profane piece of my mind. But most of all, because when the police found Sylvia dead in the park, she’d been murdered using Overkill Bill’s unique signature methodology.

So I hope you’ll forgive me, but today I won’t be answering tourist questions about Richard Ramirez or the Zodiac Killer, or even deflecting questions about Overkill Bill. Today I need to figure out how to use all my knowledge about killers and San Francisco and how to dig into the past to figure out who killed Sylvia and why they used the methodology attributed to my grandfather—all before my daughter or I become the next members of the Sanzio clan to be convicted for murders we didn’t commit.

The Serial Killer Guide to San Francisco
Genre: Traditional Mystery
Release: September 2024
Format: Print, Digital, Audio
Purchase Link

In Michelle Chouinard’s clever mystery The Serial Killer Guide to San Francisco, the granddaughter of a serial killer shows readers another side of the beloved city.

Welcome to San Francisco, a city with killer charm.

The chill of a San Francisco summer can be deadly. No one knows this better than Capri Sanzio, who makes her living giving serial killer tours of the city. Capri has been interested in the topic since she was a kid, when she discovered she’s the granddaughter of serial killer William ‘Overkill Bill’ Sanzio. She’s always believed in his innocence, though she’s never taken the leap to fully dive into the case.

But now an Overkill Bill copycat has struck in San Francisco. And Capri’s former mother-in-law, Sylvia, just cut off Capri’s daughter’s tuition payments. Needing cash, Capri wonders if this is the time to exonerate her grandfather. The case is back in the news and the police will be looking to understand the past to catch a present-day killer. Capri could finally uncover the truth about Overkill Bill—documenting the process with a podcast and a book—and hopefully earn some money.

Before Capri can get very far, the cops discover the copycat’s latest victim: Sylvia. Capri soon finds herself at the heart of the police’s investigation for an entirely different reason. She and her daughter are prime suspects.

Meet the author
Michelle Chouinard (M.M. Chouinard) is the USA Today and Publishers Weekly bestselling author behind The Detective Jo Fournier thrillers, the standalone psychological thriller The Vacation, and the amateur-sleuth series The Serial-Killer Guide to San Francisco. She has a Ph.D in developmental psychology from Stanford and was a founding faculty member at U.C. Merced; she loves animals, coffee, amateur genealogy, and anything to do with Halloween, Serial Killers, or the zombie apocalypse.

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