Book Review: Kill for Me, Kill for You by Steve Cavanagh

 

Book: Kill for Me, Kill for You

Author: Steve Cavanagh 

Pages: 368

Read on: Kindle 

Read in: ~3.5 hours 

Plot Summary: One dark evening on New York City’s Upper West Side, two strangers meet by chance. Over drinks, Amanda and Wendy realize they have much in common, especially loneliness and an intense desire for revenge against the men who destroyed their families. As they talk into the night, they come up with the perfect if you kill for me, I’ll kill for you.

In another part of the city, Ruth is home alone when the beautiful brownstone she shares with her husband, Scott, is invaded. She’s attacked by a man with piercing blue eyes, who disappears into the night. Will she ever be able to feel safe again while the blue-eyed stranger is out there?

Things I Liked:

1. The very inspired-by-Strangers-on-a-Train premise is what got me interested. It is not that I haven't read or watched movies with a similar premise but I do enjoy it when authors add their own take to this age-old premise. In this book, Steve Cavanagh has added his own little twisty-and-turn-y take on this simple 'swapping of murders' plot, which is what makes this book so, so good! 

2. I love when we get to know our protagonists in crime thrillers- get to know them a little beyond that surface that ~300 pages allows in this genre. Amanda's story is just heartbreaking. She is struggling to survive after her daughter and husband died in quick succession and her grief is compounded by the fact that her daughter's killer is free and thriving in spite of fairly solid evidence against him. Amanda wants revenge once justice is denied to her but in spite of wanting that man dead, she is not able to take that big step of killing him. Her struggles with grief and desire for justice are both very well depicted in the book. 

Wendy is also an interesting character. She has let her grief fester for longer and is hard and cold in some ways. She immediately suggests swapping murders and agrees to kill Amanda's daughter's killer without any hesitation. 

Then we have Ruth, who has attacked in her home and almost left to die by a serial killer dubbed Mr. Blue-eyes. He was never caught and the police had no clues - forensic or otherwise- to even begin to identify him. Ruth has not felt safe since her attack. She doesn't step outside the hotel room she's been living her, doesn't go anywhere without her husband and is terrified all the time. Her fear and anxiety are so palpable and they leap off the page. Her story takes an interesting turn when she comes face-to-face with a man, who looks just like the guy who attacked her. 

Then we have our lead detective on the case, Detective Farrow, a man committed to the job and someone, who looks out for Amanda and stops her from doing self-destructive things. He is one of my favourite characters in the book. 

3. The plot twists are several and some you can, perhaps, see coming but some will take you by surprise! I always love it when crime thrillers can surprise me given I read so many of them and most of them tend to be very, very predictable and easy-to-guess! 

4. The ending is very satisfactory and does, however, leave one or two things a bit open-ended. Makes you think and wonder about a few things as well, which is not bad at all. 

Rating: 4.5/5