The review part:
I bought The Kind Worth Killing just over a week ago and then proceeded to devour it. It’s actually funny; I was in Barnes and Noble and already had a stack of novels in my arms that I was excited to purchase, and I thought I was done shopping, but the bright yellow spine of this book caught my attention, and when I read the synopsis, I had to have it.
Behold:
On a flight from London to Boston, Ted Severson meets the stunning Lily Kintner. Over martinis, the strangers play a game in which they reveal intimate details about themselves. Ted talks about his wife, Miranda– how their marriage has gone stale, how a week ago he caught her in a stunning betrayal. But what begins as playful banter between Ted and Lily takes a swift turn when Ted claims, half-seriously, that he would like to kill his wife. Then Lily surprises him by saying that she’d like to help.
Back in Boston, Ted and Lily forge an unusual bond and talk about the ways Ted can get out of his marriage. But Lily has her own dark history she’s not sharing with Ted. And Ted is keeping something from Lily, too. But as Ted begins to fall in love with Lily, he grows anxious about any holes in their scheme that could give them away. And suddenly the two are pulled into a very lethal game of cat and mouse, one in which both are not likely to survive when all is said and done.
Source: The back of the book
As far as I know (you can never be too certain with the way people use pen names these days), I have never read anything from Peter Swanson before, and I always enjoy trying out new authors. Overall, the writing was good; it was nothing worth bragging about, but it also wasn’t bad. The story seemed to unfold pretty well, too, and there was at least one plot twist that I hadn’t seen coming.
So where does the 3-star rating come from?
For starters, I found the ending to The Kind Worth Killing extremely underwhelming, even anti-climactic. I was so let down by the ending, in fact, that I’m not even sure I agree with my 3-star rating, but I feel that Peter Swanson earned more than just 2 measly stars, so I’m being generous. Sadly, though, I feel once again that I’ve found a novel that started out with a lot of potential and turned into a rushed project that was completed in a scramble.
The plot twists were a bit soap opera-esque, and while I didn’t see them all coming, I felt as though I should have.
I’d say The Kind Worth Killing is a good read if you’re looking for easy entertainment, but it’s the kind of book I’d recommend borrowing from the library rather than purchasing (sorry, book industry!).
Now for the fun part:
Perhaps I just have an overactive imagination, but sometimes when I’m reading I use faces I’m familiar with to personify the characters I’m reading about. This isn’t a conscious doing on my part; it just comes naturally to me, and sometimes the faces are those of celebrities.
I’m not sure this book has movie production potential, but for a moment, let’s pretend it does, so that I can tell you who I would cast as the main characters.
Based on her physical description and woodsy (for lack of a better word) type of behavior, I pictured Lily Kintner as looking something like Cate Blanchett in The Gift (see below).
