Broke college student Riley Marks is obsessed with two things: true crime and the 1980s. That's why Riley has dedicated her life to her podcast, KILLER '80s MIXTAPE, where she gets to combine the two. It might not be a big deal yet, but everyone has to start somewhere. Right?
When the chance to interview Evelyn Rankin, the daughter of notorious serial killer Merle Jacob Rankin, falls into her lap, Riley can't say no. Rankin's crimes were all anyone could talk about in the '80s. This is the big break she's been waiting for.
Especially if she manages to answer the question that Rankin took to the grave.
1984: It has been five years since her father's arrest, and all sixteen-year-old Evie wants is to put the past behind her. What her father did was not her fault, no matter what anyone else thinks. She's moving in with her long-lost aunt and uncle. A chance at a new life. A small town where no one knows who she is. It's nice having normal problems for once.
But when Evie's secret gets out the town turns against her. She is forced to confront her father and his secrets, only to discover there's more to her father's story than she ever imagined.
In the middle of nowhere, armed only with a cassette tape recorder, Riley thinks she knows what she's getting herself into. But neither Evie nor the story she tells is anything like Riley expects. And as the story goes on, the tale starts to turn strange. Strange and... monstrous.
Caught between disbelief and terror, the two young women uncover the truth behind Rankin's murders as they unravel questions of their own.
Who is she really helping?
And why did her father eat his victims' eyes?
