Meghan, Brecia and Skye have just one thing in common. They were all murdered by the same man.

He hunted them online, masquerading as an eligible bachelor. Then he played the perfect gentleman – a thick layer of charm and a thousand-watt smile hiding the fact that his first dates end in shallow graves.

He’s got away with murder three times now.

The only thing that could keep him from killing again? The women he murdered.

Meghan, Brecia and Skye might be dead, but they’re not gone. They’ve found each other. And they won’t rest until they find a way to stop him.

The haunt is on.

IN A NUTSHELL
‘Ask for Andrea‘ was wonderful: original, skillfully plotted, and perfectly narrated. It was a much-needed book that focused on the victims rather than the serial killer. Packed with empathy, anger and suspense and leavened with a little hope and a lot of compassion.

I passed over this book when I first saw it. I’m not a fan of serial killer stories, and I couldn’t imagine what the ghosts or murdered woman could do to stop the killer. I picked it up because a number of people whose tastes I share recommended it to me, telling me that it was remarkable. They were right. It was original, beautifully written, cleverly plotted, and deeply engaging.

The thing that surprised me most was that the story was almost unbearably sad. Having the ghosts of three young women linger, getting to know how they think, what they regret and who they left behind, brought home the scale of the evil the serial killer was inflicting on the world.

I liked that although the plot and the pacing made the book a tense read that made me eager to know what had happened to these women, how they might be brought together and what, if anything, they could do to prevent more killings, the main focus was on who the women were and who they might have become. What I found to be most compelling about the book was that it created a powerful emotional engagement with the three women. This was a book about the women whose lives were ended too soon, not about the twisted man who killed them. The story was empathetic rather than sensational or exploitative, and written without a wasted word.

The focus wasn’t limited to the three dead women. It was widened to include the wife of the serial killer and her two young daughters and the female police detective who prioritised finding the killer. We did learn about the serial killer’s background and mindset, but mainly as a means of demonstrating the threat men like him pose to women.

I want to read more by Noelle Ihli, starting with ‘Forget You Saw Her’ (2025), a prequel that tells the story of the Andrea, who appears only as a name on a poster in the 2022 novel, and ‘The Last to Drown‘ (2026).

I recommend the audiobook version of ‘Ask For Andrea’ narrated by Allison Delaney. She enhanced my enjoyment of the book and made the dead women feel real to me. She differentiated the voices of the three women so well that I had to check whether there was more than one narrator. Click on the YouTube link below to hear a sample.

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