I read ‘They Never Learn’ by Layne Fargo on Kindle after fruitlessly waiting to get my hands on a physical copy for months. I couldn’t wait anymore. The anticipation was too much. And the book lived up to the hype. It’s a solid story, one you find yourself rushing through (you want to know what happens) and simultaneously slowing down (you want the story to never end). Centered on a university professor who kills ‘bad’ men, They Never Learn, unlike most other suspense novels, is a thriller that poses a moral dilemma. The social drama aspect of it plays out beautifully and you struggle to decide what morality means in an increasingly hostile world.

Scarlett Clark is an English professor at Gorman University. She is also a serial killer. Scarlett only targets those who she believes “deserve to be murdered”, mostly men who have a reputation of harassing women or haven’t been punished for their crimes. She studies her victims in advance, plots elaborate plans, and stages the perfect deaths. So much so that, though she has been killing since college, she has never been caught.

In Scarlett’s mind, she’s doing the world a favor by getting rid of these abhorrent personalities. But then she gets a little too personal and murders someone she has a grudge against. At the same time, the university puts together a task force to look into all the mysterious deaths on campus. Dr. Mina Pierce who heads the committee sort of figures out that many of the suicides and accidental deaths are actually murders and carried out by the same person. (Curiously, Mina is the ex-wife of Scarlett’s most recent kill.)

There’s also a parallel narrative of a student, Carly Schiller, who comes to Gorman after escaping a suffocating and abusive household. All she wants is to be invisible and survive college. Then she gets to know her roommate, Ashley Hadley, and the two become close. When Ashley is assaulted at a party, Carly becomes obsessed with making the attacker pay.

The dual stories of Scarlett and Carly play out in alternating chapters, and the similarities between them make it starkly clear that deep-rooted misogyny is the harbinger of violence against women. They Never Learn isn’t bone-chilling. But it’s intense. The feminist rage is palpable. And at times, even if you don’t believe in the idea of revenge, it feels strangely cathartic.

3.5 stars

Fiction

They Never Learn

Layne Fargo

Published: 2020

Publisher: Gallery/Scout Press

Pages: 352, Hardcover