“The world of beloved influencer, Gemma Fitzgerald, seems ready to implode when the body of her brother, Max – who disappeared 18 years earlier – is washed up on a beach. Everyone thought Max had taken his own life the night of his twenty-first birthday party, but Gemma knows the truth – she is responsible for Max’s disappearance.

With the police bearing down from one side, and her glamorous lifestyle hanging by a thread, it seems the devastating truth is about to destroy Gemma’s life and take her away from her precious little boy.

Gemma has created a dazzling world in trying to forget that fateful night. What if it’s all been a lie?”

Hello and welcome to damppebbles. Today I am delighted to share my review of The Night I Killed Him by Gill Perdue. The Night I Killed Him was published by Penguin on 10th July 2025 and is available in audio and digital formats with the paperback to follow. I chose to read a free ARC of The Night I Killed Him but that has in no way influenced my review. My grateful thanks to the team at Penguin for sending me a proof copy.

The Night I Killed Him is the third book in the Shaw and Darmody crime series. I wasn’t aware it was part of a series when I first started to read, and honestly, it didn’t even dawn on me until I was a fair way into the book. Which I think goes to prove you can read this book as a standalone. There are occasional mentions of past events, which, as a newbie to this series, I felt a little clueless about. But it didn’t spoil my overall enjoyment at all. I just had a few questions that I wasn’t able to get answers to. I’m sure if I started at the beginning of the series with If I Tell and read in sequence, those questions would be answered.

Influencer Gemma Fitzgerald has it all, according to her Instagram account. The perfect life, a gorgeous house, the perfect husband, and the most precious, perfect little boy in Ferdia. But scratch the surface and you’ll soon see the truth. Eighteen years ago, Gemma’s brother, Max, disappeared on the night of his 21st birthday. So when his body suddenly makes an appearance in the harbour, the entire local community is shocked. It was thought Max had committed suicide, having failed to get into the Olympic sailing team. But the evidence left on his decaying body tells a very different story. Max was clearly murdered and sent to a watery grave. With everything to lose, Gemma’s life as she knows it starts to spiral. Because Gemma knows a lot more about what happened to Max that fateful night, and revealing that truth could lead to the death of everything, and everyone, she holds dear…

The Night I Killed Him is an atmospheric crime thriller with great characters, a dark and unsettling undertone, and a wonderful sense of place. This book surprised me, in the best way possible. I don’t know what I was expecting (clearly not the third book in a series!), but it delivered in spades. I thoroughly warmed to the two lead characters – Detective Garda Laura Shaw and Detective Garda Niamh Darmody. I liked their working relationship, and I liked their friendship. They are very different people. Laura seems to be the more sedate, the more considered of the two. Whereas Niamh seems to have a bit more fire to her, a bit of sass. I loved how wonderfully Irish the book is. I’ve read a fair amount of Irish crime fiction over the years, but this book felt the most authentic to me, and I adored that.

Would I recommend this book? I would, yes. I very much enjoyed The Night I Killed Him. I found myself becoming more and more gripped as I progressed through the book. It’s clear from the start (and from the blurb) that Gemma had something to do with Max’s disappearance, but to what degree? It was intriguing to see how everything played out. How all the pieces gradually fell into place. The book was a lot darker than I initially expected. Life for Gemma really isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. My heart often broke for the woman, and for the child she once was. I found the subject matter hard going at times, having to take mini breaks here and there to take a tiny breather. I was straight back to the story though, keen to find out whether Shaw and Darmody would solve the case. Along with a high-pressure investigation, both detectives have their own personal issues to deal with, really giving the reader something to get their teeth into. All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed The Night I Killed Him and will definitely be keeping an eye out for the first two books in the series. It’s an authentic, gritty, dark crime thriller that held my attention from start to finish. I loved the dialogue, the characters and the gorgeously dramatic denouement, which was perfectly penned. I’m looking forward to reading more by this author in the near future. Recommended.

I chose to read and review a free ARC of The Night I Killed Him. The above review is my own unbiased opinion.

The Night I Killed Him by Gill Perdue was published in the UK by Penguin on 10th July 2025 and is available in audio and digital formats with the paperback to follow (please note, the following links are affiliate links which means I receive a small percentage of the purchase price at no extra cost to you): | amazon.co.uk | Waterstones | bookshop.org | Goodreads | damppebbles bookshop.org shop | damppebbles amazon.co.uk shop | damppebbles amazon.com shop |

A teacher by training, Gillian is based in Dublin.  She began writing when her daughters were young, sitting with a notebook at the top of the stairs waiting for them to go to sleep. Her first children’s book, Adam’s Starling, won the Eilís Dillon Memorial Award in 2002 and was described by the Irish Times as: ‘an impressive debut – genuinely moving.’ It was followed by the publication of her Conor stories in the O’Brien Press Panda series. These have proven hugely popular and she often visits schools, libraries and book festivals where she brings the stories to life with dance and drama activities.

In recent years Gillian has begun writing for adults and two of her crime novels If I Tell and When They See Me have been published to much acclaim. Her third novel The Night I Killed Him will be published in July 2025.