Aunt Tiks's The Killer App

by Avril Maria Serene

A powerful and insidious new threat has quietly emerged from the chaos of the Internet, undetected by the law enforcement community. It proves to be the perfect companion to real-world criminal activity when manipulated by the mind of a hidden opportunist and murderer bent on revenge. When a teenager entangles himself in a bizarre attempt to murder a sitting judge, honestly believing his role was just part of a big joke, the feds aren’t amused. Fortunately, the young man’s neighbor happens to be Lt. Louis Harbin, commander of SDPD’s Homicide unit. Ethics prevent his direct involvement in the federal investigation, but he has a couple of friends who can look into it… and while they’re at it, perhaps they can help explain several recent homicides committed in inexplicable ways.

Freelance investigative journalist Debra Ann Wynn, her forensic scientist husband Paul, Det. Sgt. Marci Robbins, and Lt. Harbin stretch the limits of conventional investigating techniques as they’re drawn into the world of social media and online gaming. What they uncover puts a new spin on what it means to die laughing.

555 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 26, 2025

About the author

7/23/2025: As some of you have noticed and commented, I've recently become a victim of the politics of the times.

Thanks entirely to a literate and appreciative audience, my books tend to draw 4.8 to 5 stars in reviews from those wonderful readers on Amazon who've spent hard-earned money to buy and then read them. They've given me my first real success as a writer, and I am beyond grateful.

Unfortunately, the same books have suddenly come under vicious attack en masse on Goodreads. In the space of a few hours, members of an alt-right echo chamber have dumped hundreds of anonymous one-star "reviews" attacking my work on that website, which has no guardrails for such bullying behaviors.

Still, the quality of my writing speaks for itself (as does theirs).

It's truly a shame we've come to this point as a society. Vbi crvdvs et stvltvs imperat, malvm regit, indeed. Regardless, Debra Ann wouldn't be happy with me if I let it affect how I write or what I have to say, so I won't (those who've suffered similar assaults are going to love "Nero's Fiddle" when it comes out!)

I wanted those who have supported me and my work to know what was going on, and I won't address it any further, other than in my novels.

But a little about me - a San Diego native, I graduated UCSD with a major in Business Accounting, minoring in Creative Writing. After several years as an accountant at a large firm, life took me in a different direction, and I worked as a stringer for several local newspapers.

In the meantime, I kept to my habit of writing short stories in my free hours for family and friends. Over time, Debra Ann Wynn, SDPD Sergeant Marci Robbins, private detective Harry Sanderson, Paul Castro, and other characters sprang to life, based on people I know and love. I began writing my first novel, "The Mourning Mail," in 2022, finishing a year later.

Encouraged by their reception, I wrote two more books for the series, "The Hodin Cabal: Choices" and "Aunt Tik's: The Killer App."

Debra Ann Wynn's world had expanded; I had to incorporate those changes into the first book, changing the title to "Six Degrees from Killing Brian."

Reviews

[L. J. · Rating 1 out of 5]

I joined the giveaway for this book as a means of support and was surprised to find that I won. I, unfortunately, struggled to get through the book and had to DNF it. It’s not for me, sadly; I wasn’t into the story or its writing. To each their own.

[Will · Rating 5 out of 5]

Aunt Tik’s by Avril Maria Serene is a crime/detective story that focuses on investigative journalist Debra Ann Wynn and her San Diego police detective husband. The unfolding crime stories relate to a social media website that tasks lots of individuals to do small pranks that, taken by themselves, seem relatively harmless. The sequential and secretive nature of the various pranks begin to add up to something more than innocent pranks and antics. The story will keep you engaged, and you will not expect each of the twists.
Serene writes in a straightforward style using both narrative and dialogue to reveal the various characters thoughts and insights. She writes in such a way to provide depth to the thought process, intellect and empathy of the main characters. She is a very good writer.
If you enjoy detective and police stories, you will want to read each book in the Debra Ann Wynn Mystery series.

[Mary Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book and the whole punked premise behind it, and the concept that what seems some innocuous pranks is just a smokescreen for a devious plan. The book covers the czar and his team who are tasked with carrying out the various steps in each punk, how the police gradually piece things together to realise there's something more going on and mere accidents are anything but, and then the identification and takedown of the suspect.

I did find it too long and although I enjoyed the story, it didn't grip me as much as I thought it would. I did enjoy the ending.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Serena · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received a free e-copy of this through a Goodreads giveaway; the following is my honest review.

So maybe this just wasn’t the book for me, that happens. I was expecting more of a detective novel with the narrator filling that role for all or most of the story. Instead this was a broader mystery/suspense novel with a larger cast of investigators tossing the case back and forth amongst themselves. It made it hard to invest in any particular character, so I ended up not connecting with the personal information and wanting to get straight to the case details. The narration jumps between first and third person, which I don’t mind by itself, but the writing style was inconsistent. Why was this scene third person omniscient while another scene with the same characters is the narrator being told about it afterwards? It might be clunky, but to me it would be easier to follow and less unnatural to have any scenes the narrator is not there for exclusively in third person; if you need to explain how the narrator knows this information it can be addressed with a quick throwaway “Person X filled me in on the conversation with Y and Z” instead.

The mystery itself was pretty good. My own shoddy memory actually pointed me at the killer before there was really any reason to (I misremembered the username blotto_bill as blotto_bob, so I was suspicious of Robert right off the bat.). This error led me to angrily screaming at the characters to catch up and look at the obvious criminal. This is no fault of the author and I cannot say how much it tinted my experience.

Still my criticisms about the writing style stand and this just might not be my genre. I’m seeing a lot of other reviews saying that so I’m wondering if there is some mismatch between how the author/publisher are describing this and what readers are taking away from it.

[Elisabeth Fowler · Rating 5 out of 5]

surreal

This book kind of reminded me of Squid Game but in a more realistic way. The writing was past faxed and engaging. Highly recommend this read!

[RHESA JOAN MODISETTE · Rating 1 out of 5]

I just couldn't finish it.....

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

I won this in a giveaway
It sounded great and I was excited to start it, however; I don't think it's the book for me. I can't seem to keep focused on it.

[Lynseygibs · Rating 1 out of 5]

Thanks to BookSirens, publishers and author for an ARC of Aunt Tik's: The Killer App.

I struggled so much with this book. I didn't enjoy it, and really fought to keep going through it. Not for me.

[Glenn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disclaimer: I received my copy of this book from a Goodreads giveaway.

If anybody remembers the assassination of Kim Jong-nam (the brother of the current leader of North Korea), where 2 women who thought they were playing pranks at the behest of other people ultimately ended up carrying out an assassination, this book gave me very similar vibes. Instead of a government plot, a rogue website is to blame in this book.

I found the plot's concept interesting. The writing at its strongest in the first 20% and in the last 25% or so of the book; the book dragged a bit too much sometimes between those points and could have been edited down a little bit to make it flow better (it felt a bit longer than it needed to be). The number one thought in my mind is that I would've liked to see more "punks", though; they were easily the strongest and most interesting part of the story. If you're interested in the unique concept, it still may be worth checking out.

Side note, I really liked that there was a unique image paired to the start of each chapter; I wish more books did something like this.