Killen Monsters by MJ Scott– Review

I don’t read crime or thriller all that often, if I’m honest, but author MJ Scott and I had ended up chatting in TikTok comments, I loved the look of the book, and so I downloaded it to read whilst away for my long birthday weekend.

Straight off the bat, the prose hits you like you’ve walked into Sin City if it were set in a bustling, slightly dodgy, very recognisable English city. The novel has all the grit and atmosphere of a film noir, packed with long descriptive sentences that immediately drag you into Beth Killen’s world.

And what a world it is.

We follow traumatised but completely badass Beth Killen, a private investigator carrying the weight of past events, including the fatal hit and run of her father years earlier. Through a slow trickling of clues, the novel lays the groundwork for a mystery that is part cold case, part current investigation, before gradually tying together threads you didn’t even realise mattered into a wider crescendo of:

“FFS, THAT’S WHY.”

Twice throughout the novel I thought I’d worked out where the story was going.

I had not.

Or at least…not quite.

Beth herself is honestly a fantastic protagonist. She lives in her father’s old house, drinks tequila, finds comfort in his old record collection, and walks the line between vulnerability and absolute menace beautifully. I think what makes her so relatable is that she acts on the dark impulsive thoughts many women have but rarely ever voice aloud. Grabbing cat callers by the bollocks springs to mind here.

There were also smaller details that made her feel weirdly real to me. Her attitude towards clothing and fashion, the mentions of Converse and Vans, the general exhausted practicality of her style; it all felt believable to the point where I caught myself mentally comparing her wardrobe choices to my own.

Whilst Beth absolutely steals the show, the supporting cast is just as strong. Lenny, the huge bouncer with a heart of gold who would clearly never let anything happen to Beth, was instantly lovable. Dev, the owner of the Indian restaurant below Beth’s office, keeps Beth fed and the reader hungry throughout the novel, and best friend Viv has exactly the right mix of exasperation, concern and mollycoddling you’d expect from a real long-term friendship.

Also, for a concerning amount of the book, I was fully convinced Viv wasn’t actually there.

The mystery itself is brilliantly handled. I won’t spoil a single thing because the reveals are genuinely part of the charm here, but this is one of those thrillers where the author drip-feeds information carefully enough that the final connections feel satisfying rather than random.

Now, because I review honestly, there were a couple of small things that occasionally pulled me out of the immersion. Some of the prose leans very heavily into long, rolling descriptive sentences, and if you’re not familiar with the genre that can be quite unusual. There is also rape/sexual assault content within the novel which readers with past trauma or sensitivities should be aware of before going in. MJ Scott does make that abundantly clear on page eight, so make sure you read the full list before you start.

That said, none of those things stopped me enjoying the book at all… but maybe I’m just really ‘ard like Beth!

I’ve already recommended it to people verbally without even properly explaining the plot because the mystery is genuinely the magic of this one.

And honestly?

I cannot wait for more in the series.

Killen Mobsters, perhaps?

Until then:Beth Killen, you are absolutely my spirit animal. Ready to read? Find it here