Review:
Sam is the manager of the small town of Woodbrook's hardware store. She's well-liked, although she really only has one true friend, Lola. The two of them have known each other since they were kids.
Sam has one tiny secret: for the past 20 years, she's been going to the city, picking a random person, and killing them. She's killed 40+ people so far. Her one rule is that she never kills in her home town. This is working well for her until someone mucks everything up by murdering a Woodbrook local and putting them on display during a town parade. If Sam can't find the real killer soon and stop them, she might find herself in the position of being blamed for murders she didn't actually commit. She certainly won't be able to continue with her usual method of letting off steam.
You could describe this as Dexter meets Winnie-the-Pooh, although Sam is definitely not Dexter Morgan. She really does pick entirely random victims - for example, she knows absolutely nothing about one of them other than that he was willing to stop and help her with her supposed car trouble. This was a very dark and vicious little read, although the depth of its viciousness wasn't really apparent until the end.
I wish Horvath had developed the mystery a little more. I was all set to keep an eye out for clues, and then Sam essentially stumbled upon the truth.
All in all, if you want a very dark read starring anthropomorphized animals (set in a world where there are actual animals - Sam, a bear, sees several true bears and other animals), that's what you get here. I enjoyed the darkness and appreciated that Horvath didn't pull any punches, although I had a tough time believing that the ending could really work out quite that neatly.
Extras:
A variant cover gallery (squeezed into two pages, so the covers aren't full-sized) and a character sketches gallery.
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