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THE SATURDAY NIGHT STRANGLER: The True Story of the 1973 South Wales Murders and the DNA Breakthrough That Solved Them.
252 pages, Paperback
Published December 14, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 6, 2026
This started off so well, the prologue was excellent, and I was looking forward to enjoying the book.
Unfortunately the story dragged on and on. It dragged on. And on. It really dragged on.
The author repeated everything. It was repetitive. The repetition was repetitive.
13 000 men. 11 000 white Austin 1100s. Taxis cost 3£. 16£ weekly wage. Over and over and over. Just when you were sure the point had finally been hammered home, there it was again. It was the same with nearly everything brought up, from mustaches, to eggs being left out, to bus schedules.
At roughly 100 pages in, I started keeping count of certain points that were regurgitated every few paragraphs. From that point onwards there were:
- at least 5 mentions of green nail polish (there had been MANY more before the 100 page mark).
- 3 full detailed recounts of initial police contact with the suspect who was later confirmed as the offender
- at least 11 mentions of the offender's name and info being on an index card, sometimes with the precision that it was stamped NFA
- at least 8 mentions of one father driving past the crime scene on his way to and from work, and that he had learned not to
look toward the trees
Already annoyed with the writing, some little inconsistencies also stood out:
-"Wife confirms alibi. Four words that had sealed the investigation's failure." Wife. Confirms. Alibi. Now, math isn't one of my strengths but I'm pretty sure there are only 3 words.
-shift changes being set in stone at 6-2, 2-10, and 10-6, but then it taking until 7am for the shift to change?
Such a disservice to the victims to tell their story this way. A disservice as well to the controversial and ground-breaking use of familial DNA technology that finally cracked the case.
There was absolutely no reason for such a long text. The author's info included at the end says they work in education; I think students using repetition to hit assigned word counts has become so normalized for the author that he adopted it as a tactic for this book. Had the length been reduced by half , omitting the repetition, it would easily have been a 4 or 5 star read. As it stands my 3 star rating feels overly generous.
I was provided with an ARC copy of this book thanks to Book Sirens and am leaving this review voluntarily.
Unfortunately the story dragged on and on. It dragged on. And on. It really dragged on.
The author repeated everything. It was repetitive. The repetition was repetitive.
13 000 men. 11 000 white Austin 1100s. Taxis cost 3£. 16£ weekly wage. Over and over and over. Just when you were sure the point had finally been hammered home, there it was again. It was the same with nearly everything brought up, from mustaches, to eggs being left out, to bus schedules.
At roughly 100 pages in, I started keeping count of certain points that were regurgitated every few paragraphs. From that point onwards there were:
- at least 5 mentions of green nail polish (there had been MANY more before the 100 page mark).
- 3 full detailed recounts of initial police contact with the suspect who was later confirmed as the offender
- at least 11 mentions of the offender's name and info being on an index card, sometimes with the precision that it was stamped NFA
- at least 8 mentions of one father driving past the crime scene on his way to and from work, and that he had learned not to
look toward the trees
Already annoyed with the writing, some little inconsistencies also stood out:
-"Wife confirms alibi. Four words that had sealed the investigation's failure." Wife. Confirms. Alibi. Now, math isn't one of my strengths but I'm pretty sure there are only 3 words.
-shift changes being set in stone at 6-2, 2-10, and 10-6, but then it taking until 7am for the shift to change?
Such a disservice to the victims to tell their story this way. A disservice as well to the controversial and ground-breaking use of familial DNA technology that finally cracked the case.
There was absolutely no reason for such a long text. The author's info included at the end says they work in education; I think students using repetition to hit assigned word counts has become so normalized for the author that he adopted it as a tactic for this book. Had the length been reduced by half , omitting the repetition, it would easily have been a 4 or 5 star read. As it stands my 3 star rating feels overly generous.
I was provided with an ARC copy of this book thanks to Book Sirens and am leaving this review voluntarily.
December 28, 2025
A good story told poorly. A cold-case serial murderer found through DNA evidence. Each chapter dripped with sniveling melancholy. I had to wash my hands after reading it.
[I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.]
[I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.]
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews