Peter Miles Has to Die by Katie Collom review – A revenge thriller with depth
More than a revenge thriller, Peter Miles Has to Die is about the danger of consequence and learning to live with your actions.
Peter Miles Has to Die by Katie Collom: The key details
- Publish date: 12 August 2025
- Genre: Thriller
- Publisher: Bantam
- Series/standalone: Standalone
- Length: 320 pages
Blurb: Peter Miles has to die. And Dylan Darcy, Priya Shah, and Isabel Guerrero—a bartender, a nurse, and a student—have to be the ones to kill him. As they see it, this local cop deserves death for murdering their best friend and getting away with it. All they need to do to pull off the perfect crime is stick to their carefully prepared plan.
So that’s exactly what they do. Murder, it turns out, is surprisingly easy when you’re fueled by revenge. What comes after is the hard part.
As the dry Texas heat gives way to cooler weather, their blazing rage is replaced by a chill fear. Because there’s a fallout that comes from settling the score against someone like Peter, and it could cost them more than they’ve bargained for. When the lead investigator on the case starts sniffing around for a cop-killer, the three friends are not feeling as confident as they did on that fateful night. And when they start receiving death threats, it weakens their resolve even further . . . but it’s too little too late.
What they don’t realize is that this detective has her own reasons for wanting to get to the bottom of Peter’s murder. Reasons that don’t involve them at all. The investigation ramps up, and so does the pressure, leaving Dylan, Priya, and Isabel to wonder if ending his life may end up costing them theirs.
As the guilt of what they’ve done settles in their bones, they realize there’s no going back. Someone is going to have to take the fall.
Peter Miles Has to Die by Katie Collom: The review
When your best friend has been brutally murdered but the justice system isn’t going to act, what do you do? For Dylan, Priya and Isabel, there’s only one answer: to take matters into their own hands.
A few months earlier, their beautiful and talented friend Beck died at the hands of local cop Peter Miles. Not according to the police, but the women know he’s to blame. As far as the law is concerned, Miles is an innocent man. But when he becomes a regular in the bar that Dylan works at, she knows she can’t just let him carry on walking around.
So with the help of Priya and Isa, Dylan comes up with a plan to kill him. And it’s actually pretty easy. But it’s what comes after that is the hard part. They’re instantly suspects in a murder case, and if there’s one thing the police don’t like, it’s cop killers.
This is a dark and foreboding tale about dangerous men, corrupt police, and how scary it can be to be a woman trying to make your way through the world. It’s wonderfully written, and considering it is Collom’s debut novel, it feels seriously accomplished. Set in the 90s, it captures a place and time perfectly, with some great characterisation that brings Dylan and her friends right out of the page.
More than a revenge thriller, Peter Miles Has to Die is about the danger of consequence and learning to live with your actions. It doesn’t always feel fair but it’s always believable and realistic. It’s a wonderful read and well worth your time – I got through it in two sittings, which might be some kind of record for me!
Thanks to Love Books Tours, Bantam Books and Penguin Random House for kindly supplying me with a copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.
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