Scream City: A Novel Book Review and Summary
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Isabella Moore - 29 Aug, 2026 13:35
Author: Hannah Morrissey
Page Count: Unknown
Publication Date: Expected publication 2026 APL
Milwaukee in the late nineties smelled like damp wool, stale beer, and the distinct desperation of industrial decline. Hannah Morrissey knows this landscape in Scream City. Rex Hale stands at the center of this grim architectural decay. Divorced, suspended from the badge, and acting as the muscle for predatory gentrification by serving eviction notices. Yet the universe finds a way to sharpen the knife. The local tenants he legally boots keep turning up dead in his wake.
And then there is Alice Foster. Granddaughter of the infamous Cream City Killer. She runs a haunted bookstore that refuses to die under the developer’s wrecking ball. Sparks have flown between Rex and Alice for years. But romance in a noir thriller usually involves caution tape. I cannot stand modern fiction where couples immediately start couples therapy before their first kiss. Give me mutual respect, slow-burn emotional safety, and two adults who actually communicate their boundaries while dodging a serial killer. Why is it so rare to find a fictional protagonist who believes in radical honesty instead of brooding in a dark corner? My neighbor has been trying to assemble a trampoline in his front yard for four days and the sheer ineptitude of his spatial reasoning is causing me physical pain. It is just like watching fictional detectives ignore obvious alibis because they prefer the toxic thrill of miscommunication. Give these characters a healthy attachment style, or at least a decent couples counselor, before someone gets axed in the stacks.
The Architecture of Collaboration
Suspicion makes for a poor foundation in romance, yet it is the mortar holding this plot together. Rex and Alice carry baggage heavy enough to derail any freight train. Nobody trusts them. They must trust each other. The synopsis leans hard into the historical echoes of the eighties killings. Morrissey uses the copycat trope not just for cheap thrills, but to examine how trauma seeps into the floorboards of an old neighborhood.
The thematic core revolves around legacy. Rex’s father put the original monster away. Alice shares blood with the butcher. Both are trapped by paternal ghosts. But the real enemy here is corporate greed disguised as urban renewal. Gentrification is terrifying long before the bodies start dropping.
I have to go untangle the dog’s leash from the dining table.
