I Killed You Once

by Dawn Merriman

Can a dead serial killer still hunt me?
The body of the young woman left near my remote cabin looks like my murdered daughter. Even the mark carved in her chest is the same - the same scar carved into my own chest. He left her for me to discover - a grisly gift.
For two years, I’ve survived alone, hiding to protect myself from the grief of losing my family to the serial killer I hunted as a detective. The ghosts of my dead family keep me company, visiting nightly, keeping me sane – or maybe not.
The dead girl in my woods is not a ghost. She's as real as her blood on the snow and obviously killed by the same man that butchered my family.
But that man has been dead for two years.
Who – or what – hunts me now?
Can I find the courage, the faith and the sanity to conquer him again?

PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED AS "MARKED BY DARKNESS"
------
A haunting mix of adventure and psychological thrills. Explore the limits of what one woman can endure and still triumph. A reading experience you won't forget.
Thriller readers, like you, are saying, “Takes you by the throat on the first page and grips you until the wow of an ending.”
Clear your schedule and delve into a world of secrets and bravery in this addictive suspense thriller. The masterful first book in the Maddison, Indiana Thrillers series. Book 1 – I Killed You Once
Book 2 – Inheriting Elyse
Book 3 – Cage of Invisible Bars
Book 4 – 13 Doors
Book 5 - Jars of Things ------- Enjoy this short My dog, Indy, turns on the wooded path, unsettled and blocking my way.
I push past Indy and jog over the small hill and around the turn in the trees.
I should have trusted the dog. The body propped against a tree is most certainly dead, but she’s not an animal.
Skittering to a stop, I slide down the snowy path and land on my rear.
The young woman sits against the tree, her dark hair, so much like Lilly’s hanging over both shoulders. The hair frames the mark carved on her chest.
The Roman numeral two.
For a moment, I think I'm seeing Lilly. Maybe she’s just playing a cruel trick on me.
But this young woman is really here, and Lilly never is.
My chest hurts, and I gasp for air. Indy paces next to me, whining, urging me to leave.
I crawl to the young woman instead, taking in details with my long-unused detective's eye.
The bloody mark on her chest has already frozen into tiny clinging crystals.
Her pink sweater has been cut down the front, opened to showcase the mark. Her jeans are in place, and I can only hope she hasn't been sexually assaulted. Mercifully, Jesse Franklin hadn't raped his victims, but Jesse Franklin has been dead for two years.
She wears no shoes, but her socks are soaked and dirty. She'd been forced to walk here through the snow, terrified and freezing. My heart aches for the woman in a rush of emotion that nearly breaks me.
I don’t touch her or get too close, preserve the snowy crime scene. Two sets of footprints lead to the tree from the direction of the access road nearby. Only one set of prints lead out. It was too easy for someone to leave the girl on my path.
My path.
The realization sinks like a stone.
Whoever did this knew where he left her. He brought her here for me to find. A killer has been in my woods. A killer who knows just how to torture me.
I'm on my feet and sprinting back towards the cabin before Indy realizes I'd intended to move.
I run like the devil is on my heels.
Because he is. -------- Find out what happens next, enjoy I Killed You Once today.

317 pages, Paperback

Published February 2, 2020

About the author

Dawn Merriman lives in northeastern Indiana on a small pig farm with her husband and teenage children. She enjoys animals, auctions, reading, snorkeling and writing small town murder mystery novels. Dawn Merriman completed her first novel in Middle School and a few others in High School and college. She won 1st place in the Northeast Indiana Young Writers short story contest in 1990. After a writing hiatus to raise her children, she published her debut novel, "How Murder Saved My Life" in 2019.

Reviews

[Tracey Light · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story itself was good, I enjoyed it overall. But I did audio book and the computer generated narrator was awful. Stick to the paperback for this one.

[Judi Coleman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I will never listen to another book with Ai speaking. It was hard to listen to as well as it took a paying job from an actor.

[Debbie DiFiore · Rating 4 out of 5]

story about an ex detective lives isolated in a cabin due to the deaths of her family. She lives with her dog indy, her pet pigs and chickens. She is afraid to leave her property. The serial killer is dead but her psyche is very fragile. Then she finds a body on her property and the game is afoot. The serial killer is dead right. Well then there is a copycat at work. She still talks to her family and,sees them every night in her cabin. It broke my heart. Indy the dog is amazing. There are a lot of twists and turns but I won't spoil it except for the two mentioned below.

A serial killer killed her whole family In front of her and that was,pretty traumatic. it was an awful scene. And later in the book her animals are killed. That slayed me. I couldn't believe it. It was her pet pigs and chickens. I took that worse than when she found the dead body on her property. It was a good read but I did figure out the twist early. It was still worth the read. I really like this author.

[Marbeth Skwarczynski · Rating 5 out of 5]

I Killed You Once (FKA Marked by Darkness) by Dawn Merriman is a suspense novel that grabs the reader from the first page and doesn't let go until the very end. It swings from beautifully heartfelt to bone-chillingly terrifying.

Maribeth has created a safe little world for herself. A log cabin in the middle of the woods is perfect for her, her dog, chickens, and pigs. Throw in some back-breaking chores and bow-hunting, and she has enough to fill her days. She doesn't have to fill her nights. That's when the ghosts of her family visit.

Two years before, the case she'd worked with her partner, Samuels, didn't stay neatly within her work hours or responsibilities. It ended up following her home, destroying her and her family in the process.

But now, something has invaded her safe space. Or has her mind finally snapped after two years of near solitude?

I Killed You Once is an absolutely brilliant novel that deserves to be its own TV series or movie.

[Michelle Rainaud · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was the first audio book I listened to with virtual voice. Although the female voice was decent, there was little fluctuation and emotion where it really needed to be it. The other down side was the make voices were exactly the same as the female voice. Made it tough to distinguish who was talking at times. Lastly, and it’s a pet peeve, the virtual voice wasn’t able to differentiate between words like “bow” as in “Bow and Arrow” and Bow… as in the “bow of a boat”. It only used “Bow” of a boat… when it was a bow and arrow.
The story itself was odd. I think Maribeth’s tragic story and her strength is captivating but her family “dynamics” is so excessive that it lends itself as less believable.

[Judi Haley · Rating 5 out of 5]

When her whole family is murdered and she was left for dead, Maribeth leaves her job as a detective and settles in a large acre farm with no access to anyone but her sister. She stays away from people and the world around her. She lives with the pain every day that she was responsible for her husband and children being killed as the murderer she was investigating, came to her home!!

Now, when she goes out jogging every morning in the surrounding woods with her dog, she finds a body of a woman! The same marks on the dead woman and on Maribeth are the same. How can the killer be back when Maribeth killed him?

Don't miss this one, it will keep you reading into the night!!!

[Arianna · Rating 1 out of 5]

I made it to page 112 and just didn't want to read any more. It did not list this as a romance novel when I read the description but it definitely is. It's written with every cheesy romance novel line you can imagine. And the crime involved is so over the top right away it wasn't even interesting enough to try and slog through the "romance" which should be called "desire novels" instead considering. I really did not enjoy any of the characters either. This wasn't a mystery or crime novel, more a desire novel and that's the back drop.

[Perrin · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredibly well-written story, albeit break-your-heart tough to read. I can't imagine going through what this main character suffered. Surviving. Barely. Ready to give up. Fighting.

The descriptions put me there. I could smell the forest, the barn, the animals, the warm ever-present fire. Feel the cold air. See the charming cabin and the woods. Experience the gut-wrenching pain of extreme loss.

Too many novels I've read are forgotten the moment I turn the last page. Not this one. Maribeth's story will sit with me for a long while.

[Sarah Campbell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this book. But I wish I read it instead of listened to it. It was AI. Which it wasn’t that bad, but there were words and inflections that were just off. I also figured out the story about the killer within the first hour of listening. It was a good book though.

[Anne · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't like AI reader.

[Rebecca · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5/5*

[tina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent read.The twists of emotions and thrills the out come of who done it and the sacrifice to solve the crime.
Didn't much like how it ended but onto book 2 Inheriting Elyse.

[Maryanne Campbell · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story itself was good and I definitely would have rated it higher if not for the AI narration. It was terrible. Inflection was totally off as was a lot of pronunciation.

[Wendell Zetterberg jr · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing book that kept me guessing and creeped me out which is not easy to do.

[Les Rigs · Rating 1 out of 5]

abandoned half way through. if you enjoy hunting and animal slaughter you may enjoy this book. not for me.

[Alison · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have read a few of this authors books and I wasn't disappointed with this book.

Although this was different from what I was expecting, I enjoyed this book. This book had me hooked from the first few pages, and I enjoyed the twists and turns the story took.

[Janejellyroll · Rating 2 out of 5]

This wasn't chilling or a thriller, it's a slow moving mixture of crime and paranormal where the MC spends lots of time alone. Didn't enjoy.