Kill For Me Kill For You
Steve Cavanagh
Today’s #RecommendedRead is the brilliant standalone thriller Kill For Me Kill For You, by Steve Cavanagh.
Cavanagh is best known for his Eddie Flynn legal thrillers, which I have reviewed previously. However, he has also written some standalone thrillers, including the superb Twisted.
Unlike the Eddie Flynn series, this is not a courtroom drama. Rather it is a clever play on the premise of the classic Hitchcock film/Patricia Highsmith novel Strangers on a Train, where two apparently unconnected strangers agree to ‘swap murders’.
Cavanagh’s characters acknowledge the influence of the film early on; he isn’t trying to pass the idea off as his own.
However, that ingenious premise is only the starting point for the story and it soon diverges and becomes a highly original story with some very clever twists that skilfully hoodwink the reader. As always, the characters are well-rounded and developed, and is told through the eyes of more than one protagonist. The motives for the crimes elicit sympathy from the reader, even if one might not agree with their actions.
I recommend this book for fans of thrillers that take a clever existing premise and use it as a jumping off point for something new and original.
I very much looked forward to this when it was published back in the summer and it took a lot of self-control to avoid buying it immediately, instead asking for it for Christmas, and it was really worth the wait.
The question is, will I exercise the same restraint when the latest Eddie Flynn is released?
Cavanagh is best known for his Eddie Flynn legal thrillers, which I have reviewed previously. However, he has also written some standalone thrillers, including the superb Twisted.
Unlike the Eddie Flynn series, this is not a courtroom drama. Rather it is a clever play on the premise of the classic Hitchcock film/Patricia Highsmith novel Strangers on a Train, where two apparently unconnected strangers agree to ‘swap murders’.
Cavanagh’s characters acknowledge the influence of the film early on; he isn’t trying to pass the idea off as his own.
However, that ingenious premise is only the starting point for the story and it soon diverges and becomes a highly original story with some very clever twists that skilfully hoodwink the reader. As always, the characters are well-rounded and developed, and is told through the eyes of more than one protagonist. The motives for the crimes elicit sympathy from the reader, even if one might not agree with their actions.
I recommend this book for fans of thrillers that take a clever existing premise and use it as a jumping off point for something new and original.
I very much looked forward to this when it was published back in the summer and it took a lot of self-control to avoid buying it immediately, instead asking for it for Christmas, and it was really worth the wait.
The question is, will I exercise the same restraint when the latest Eddie Flynn is released?
