This short novella (billed as a novel) appears to be either entirely AI generated, without any proofreading by a human. It is that, or it is the worst-written story I have ever encountered. It does a great disservice to the genre of crime fiction and is likely only a harvester of email addresses for someone with ill intent.

The putative author, E.N. Williams, has three published “crime fiction” stories since the summer of 2025. None have more than three reviews. All are listed as novels, but all are far short of novel length. The Perfect Murder is the shortest, listed as 44 printed pages. I aquired a copy from a free story group promo from Bookfunnel. Please don’t be fooled into downloading this item and giving up your email address.

Most group promos on Bookfunnel are legit, and real authors use them to distribute books and short stories for free or at a big discount in order to attract readers and build their newsletter list. That is great, and you can get some wonderful material by browsing them. But, sometimes, a bad apple will slip in.

The story here makes little sense, the police characters behave nonsensically, the text is littered with copy editing errors, wrong verb tenses, odd language, and ridiculous dialogue. It is as if a first draft of a story from a third grader who knows nothing about how police work or about story construction.

The big twist at the end is the lamest soap opera trope in the book, which is poorly executed.

Overall, a bit of detritus not worth the time spent swiping the 44 pages. I felt the need to post a warning and finished the whole story to confirm my suspicions, although I would have stopped after chapter one and a dozen notes about major problems. You have been warned. (Avoid the other two short novellas by this author also – Hacked and Betrayed and Murder in the Family.