THE RISK by S.T. Abby: I'm Rooting for a Serial Killer and I'm Not Sorry ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Well, folks, I've officially lost my moral compass, and I'm completely fine with it. S.T. Abby's The Risk had me cheering for a woman who tortures men over multiple days, and honestly? I'd do it again.
This is the first novella in the Mindf*ck series, and it's a wild, bloody, steamy ride that ends on a cliffhanger so brutal I may need therapy. Let's get into it.
⚠️ TRIGGER WARNINGS ⚠️
Before we go any further, let's be responsible adults:
Sexual assault and gang rape (graphic, off-page but heavily referenced)
Extreme torture and mutilation (on-page, detailed)
Serial murder (obviously)
Explicit sexual content
Gaslighting and manipulation
Graphic violence against men and women
Stalking behavior
If any of these are a hard no for you, skip this one. If you're still here, welcome to the chaos. 🩸
🚨 SPOILER WARNING 🚨
From this point forward, I will be spoiling EVERYTHING. The full plot, the ending, the twist, all of it. If you want to go in blind, bookmark this and come back after you've devoured it in one sitting like I did.
You've been warned.
What Is THE RISK About?
The Risk follows Lana Myers, who appears to be a quiet, unassuming woman running an online buy-sell-trade business. What the world doesn't know is that Lana is actually Victoria Evans, a girl who was brutally gang-raped and left for dead ten years ago by a group of men from her small hometown of Delaney Grove.
They thought she died. They should have made sure.
Now, Lana is systematically hunting down every single one of them, one name at a time. She's undergone ten facial surgeries, trained in martial arts, and uses forensic countermeasures to make the FBI believe their killer is a size-12-footed male. Clever girl. 👏
Enter Logan Bennett, FBI profiler and certified good guy. He meets Lana at a coffee shop, is instantly captivated, and doesn't realize he's literally dating the serial killer he's hunting.
The romance is sizzling (the man breaks protocol to find her address, and I'm supposed to be mad about that?), but the tension comes from Lana trying to keep her murder room hidden while Logan snoops around her life.
Meanwhile, there's a second case: the "Boogeyman" serial rapist, and Lana accidentally-on-purpose helps Logan profile the guy. Because nothing says romance like using your serial killer expertise to help your FBI boyfriend catch another serial killer.
📖 FULL PLOT SUMMARY (WITH COMPLETE ENDING) 📖
The novella opens with Lana at a coffee shop, where an arrogant dude named Craig tries to hit on her and gets shot down. A polite man in a modest suit pays for her bill and leaves his card. His name is Agent Logan Bennett, and he accurately profiles her as a lonely woman with a painful past. Lana immediately clocks him as FBI based on his vehicle and demeanor. 🔍
Then we get our first kill scene. Lana travels to an abandoned barn, suits up with weighted backpacks and size-12 boots to create fake male footprints, and sneaks into the home of a man named Ben while he's showering. She slashes his Achilles tendon and corners him. Ben doesn't recognize her at first—ten facial surgeries will do that—but when she says "Want to play?", he realizes she's the girl he and his friends left for dead. Lana informs him he took three turns during the assault, so she'll collect three pounds of flesh over three days. Then she chokes him unconscious with wire.
Meanwhile, Logan and his FBI team are analyzing crime scenes across Boston, Denver, Long Island, Maine, and Virginia. Five male victims, all single, fit, attractive, promiscuous, and all from the same tiny town of Delaney Grove (population 500). Agents Elise and Leonard head to the town to investigate.
Lana and Logan start texting and calling regularly. She tells him her parents died in a car crash and she grew up moving across nearly thirty states. He has his colleague Hadley run a background check on her—it comes back completely clean. (Because she's legally dead, Logan. That's how dead girl identities work.) 💀
Lana continues her mission. She infiltrates the home of her next target, Tyler, and plants hidden cameras, identifying a soundproof room for future use. She works with her best friend and partner-in-crime, Jake, who helped her fake her death and assume the identity of Kennedy Carlyle, a wealthy heiress who died in a car accident the same night Victoria was attacked.
Logan surprises Lana at her house (by breaking protocol, because romance!), and they have their first intimate encounter. He notices significant scars across her body, and she blames them on a car accident. He doesn't push.
Lana tracks Tyler and another target, Lawrence, to New York City. She eavesdrops on them discussing the past, expressing zero remorse for what they did to her and her late brother Marcus. Lana and Jake coordinate an abduction, transporting both men to an isolated underground cellar. Lana reveals her true identity as Victoria, and they torture and mutilate both men before killing them. It's brutal. It's cathartic. It's everything.
Meanwhile, the Boogeyman case heats up. Logan shares the file with Lana, and she provides crucial profiling insights—pointing out that the crime scene was cleaned with specific surface-appropriate cleansers, indicating a janitorial compulsion. Logan reports this to Hadley, and the FBI identifies the suspect as Gerald Plemmons, a paid-under-the-table cleaner.
But Plemmons escapes capture and flees to Washington D.C., where he murders a judge's wife and carves "Boogeyman" and "Logan Bennett" on her chest. Jake warns Lana that Plemmons will target her to get to Logan. Lana's response? If he comes for her, she'll become his ultimate nightmare. 💅
The book ends with Logan returning to Lana's house after the investigation. He notices a trace of blood in her hair. She covers by saying Jake cut his finger. Logan leaves.
Then there's a knock at Lana's door. She tucks a concealed firearm into her waistband and opens it.
Standing there is Hadley Grace, the FBI technical specialist.
Hadley holds open a case file and says: "Tell me why the hell you stole the identity of a dead girl."
CLIFFHANGER. I literally threw my Kindle across the room. (Gently. I'm not made of money.)
The Real-Life Mystery Surrounding S.T. Abby
Here's where things get chilling.
S.T. Abby was the pen name of Christie Michelle Owens, an author who also published as C.M. Owens and Kristy Cunning. She died in July 2021 at the age of 37. Reports say she lost her life in a domestic dispute—shot and killed by her husband, who claimed self-defense, alleging she tried to stab him with a knife.
The irony is staggering. Owens had previously said the pen name S.T. Abby literally referred to the word "stabby." She created a pseudonym joking about stabbing, and then allegedly died in an incident involving a knife.
I don't know them. I don't know the real events surrounding her death. I'm not here to speculate or cast judgment. But I will say this:
If you or anyone you know—men or women—is in an abusive relationship, please get out. Please seek help. There are resources. You deserve safety. You deserve to live. 💔
I wish Owens hadn't lost her life in such a tragic way. Her writing was sharp, addictive, and unapologetically dark. She had a gift.
Final Thoughts
The Risk is a 5-star read for me. It's fast-paced, the dual POV works perfectly, the kills are creative and visceral, and the romance is genuinely hot despite the obvious moral catastrophe. The cliffhanger is effective without feeling cheap.
If you like dark romance, revenge fantasies, and morally gray heroines who make you question your own ethics, this is your book.
Just... maybe don't read it before bed.
📚 If You Liked THE RISK, Try These:
Butcher & Blackbird by Brynne Weaver — Two serial killers fall in love. Dark rom-com energy.
Sidetracked by S.T. Abby — Obviously, continue the series. Book 2 is even bloodier.
Mindf*ck Series Box Set — If you're going to binge, just get all five.
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn — For the unreliable narrator and morally complex protagonist vibes.
Have you read The Risk? Are you Team Lana or Team Logan? Let me know in the comments! 👇
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