The Girl Who Lived: Megan's Story

by Paul Dale Anderson

Overview

Megan Williams returns to Twin Rivers after five years in a mental hospital to take final revenge on the men who raped and mutilated her. But the tiny Illinois town has grown into a bustling Chicago suburb near the end of the Metra line, and Megan isn't the only serial killer now leaving dead bodies littering the streets. Can Megan keep her sister safe and still exact her revenge? Or will Megan's actions make Susan, Tim, and Elsie targets? The Girl Who Lived, the sequel to Spilled Milk, is a fast-paced psychological thriller unlike anything you've read before. Not for the faint-hearted or squeamish, this is the story of what happens when a girl who was brutalized and left for dead gets a second chance at life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780937491195
Publisher:	2am Publications
Publication date:	01/05/2017
Pages:	308
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.69(d)

About the Author

Paul Dale Anderson has written dozens of novels and hundreds of short stories, mostly in the thriller, mystery, horror, fantasy, and science fiction genres. Paul has also written contemporary romanc-es and westerns. Paul is an Active Member of SFWA and HWA, and he was elected Vice President and Trustee of Horror Writers Association in 1987. He is a current member of International Thrill-er Writers, Author's Guild, and MWA. Paul has taught creative writing at the University of Illinois at Chi-cago and for Writers Digest School. He has appeared on panels at Chicon4 and Chicon7, MidAmeriCon2, X-Con, Windy Con, Mad-con, Odyssey Con, Minncon, Stokercon, Thrillerfest, the World Horror Convention, and the World Fantasy Convention. Paul was a guest of honor at Horror Fest in Estes Park, Colorado, in 1989. Paul is also an NGH Certified Hypnotist, an NGH Certified Hyp-notism Instructor, a certified Past-Life Regression Therapist, and a certified professional member of the International Association for Regression Research and Therapies. He earned a BA in English from Loyola University, an MS Ed in Educational Psychology from Northern Illinois University and an MA in Library and In-formation Studies from the University of Wisconsin.

Editorial Reviews

2017-02-06
After spending years in a mental institution, a woman has revenge on her mind in Anderson's (Claw Hammer, 2016, etc.) dark thriller. Megan Williams was institutionalized five years ago after she killed one man and castrated three others who raped and disfigured her. She earns her freedom by telling her psychiatrist that she knows right from wrong—just what the doctor wants to hear. However, she still plans to murder the survivors of her last attempt at vengeance, which occurred after she'd spent one year in a coma and another undergoing reconstructive surgery and physical therapy. Shortly after her return to Twin Rivers, Illinois, cops find the body of a castrated man and suspect Megan of the crime. Newspaperman Tim Goodman, however, connects the new murder to five of the dead man's associates, who are all inexplicably missing. With police watching her, Megan puts her retribution on the back burner. Meanwhile, she's leery of her older sister Susan's new beau, Harry Berg. The mob-linked drug dealer hopes to launder money in Twin Rivers, and he's also in the process of meting out payback to those who've wronged him. Soon, the dead bodies are stacking up, and Megan is in danger of arrest. Anderson rivetingly presents his protagonist from a first-person perspective, which clearly shows her instability. As she reveals more details of her attack, it seems as if she's continually reliving it, which gives the book's title a sad twist. As a result, readers will initially have sympathy for Megan, but it may subside as the story progresses; at one point, Megan says she that she tortured multiple men, all strangers who picked her up at bars, as practice for her revenge; after butchering them, she says, she "showed them mercy and slit their throats to make certain they died." Still, the story's intensity rises with each new murder victim, as each puts Megan or someone she knows in potential danger. Anderson, meanwhile, does add glimmers of hope, as when he shows that Megan regrets at least one of her killings. A relentlessly gloomy but memorable tale that explores questions of morality.

Kirkus Reviews