A Kiss After Dying

A super smart and slick revenge thriller that is brilliantly plotted and with an incredible kick-ass female protagonist. I loved this!

Thank you to Michael Joseph for this ARC. A twisty, pacy thriller with a WOC as protagonist. A story of revenge which, as the saying goes, is best served cold. It’s honestly hard to say much more without giving something away. It was great to see a WOC hell bent on revenge, thus subverting the usual obedient stereotypes. In fact, Banker does this deliberately with the character of Hannah and her interactions with Ricky. The author has a distinctive voice, that very occasionally slips into the male gaze (he writes mainly from a female POV) and the references are very millennial, which I found a bit alienating as a Gen X reader. I could have done with a bit more connection to Hannah’s family; the reason for the revenge plot, so that the reader can feel what she feels simmering beneath her need for vengeance. But overall, the narrative zipped along and kept me turning the pages to see what happened, and that’s exactly what you need in a thriller like this. It’s definitely worth a read.