Member Review

This is a lightweight romp with a well paced plot, some interesting ideas, and some good (if not great) characters. The premise that the main character, Charlie, gets sucked into a world of high concept (and quite polite) villainy after the death of his uncle is an excellent set-up for this fish-out-of-water tale.

Charlie is new to the world of villainy, but he has some moments of clarity as he navigates through the potential pitfalls, aided by a small cast of supporting characters. I particularly liked his closest “colleague”, Matilda Morrison - whose pithy and slightly aloof take on a lot of the activity is a nice contrast to some of the more stylised thugs in Charlie’s new circle of acquaintances. If you’re looking for depth and emotion in the characters, then you won’t really find it here - but that’s not what this book is about. The plot unfolds nicely, and comes to a conclusion with all of the loose-ends tied up in ways that you wouldn’t necessarily expect - but I personally would have liked a slightly different outcome.

For me, the talking cats and dolphins were a nice addition (I particularly enjoyed the dolphins) - but other reviewers have mixed opinions about this.

Overall, this was a page-turner for me, with the plot and the enjoyable set-up pulling me forwards through the story.

Thank you #NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for the free review copy of #StarterVillain in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.