Murder By Natural Causes

📱E- Book Review📱

Murder By Natural Causes
Helen Erichsen

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I absolutely loved this! It was quite different to anything I've read recently and I just couldn't put it down.

I adored Cilla, our main character. She's completely unremarkable in her outwardly daily life....but that's exactly what is needed in her line of work - a dry job assassin.

We follow Cilla in her present day life, working, part time, for Vlad - drug lord, club owner, impaler! - definitely not a man to be messed with.
On the side, she is able to take on jobs of her own but as things develop we see the lines becoming blurred.

I loved that Cilla, although completely invisible, she was the bravest, cleverest and strongest character I've read about in a while.

As the storyline unfolds, we learn of Cilla's childhood and education - born in a very communist Soviet Union, she was whisked away at a young age and trained at the specialist academy 43 where she excelled.
I really felt sorry for her missing out on a traditional childhood but given the status divide, certain areas of life were actually better where she was? It's a tricky one!

This was a complex plot but brilliantly written. I both read the book and listened on audio and loved them both.
The narrator was amazing especially depicting all the different characters and accents. It really brought the story to life and helped to add context to the plot.

The ending was one that leaves us wondering - no spoilers here - but it's a little ambiguous.
I'm really hoping that it's because there is going to be a sequel, but even if not, this is definitely an author that I'll be reading again! Brilliant read!


💕Thank you to the author, publisher and Netgalley for my audio copy - this is my honest review💕

I loved this book and spent the whole day reading it!
Cilla is a contract killer who has had enough. We learn about her childhood which is beyond madness and are brought right up to date.
Its dark and bonkers and i found myself willing her not to get caught!
There was a hint of Killing Eve about it.
One of the best things i've read for a long time.
My thanks to netgalley and the publisher for my copy.

Set in the recent past, this deliciously dark novel will have you coming back for more until it’s fully devoured in one sitting. It’s set not long after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and follows a young woman’s transformation from Soviet Union assassin to drug kingpin’s hitman, to what to do with her life. The story is all told as first person narrative, and as the protagonist is very matter of fact and not given to emotion, the story itself is told in this way, which I found refreshing in its difference to most other books. I would definitely recommend as I really enjoyed this read

“Murder by natural causes” follows Cilla, a 22year old who has been offing people since the age of 14. Over the years she has honed her skills as a killer and is an expert and making deaths look like the result of natural causes.

This book has the British vibes of London England, with a side helping of Vlad the Impaler and a dash of Soviet Russia.

We have training academies, government assassins, shady clubs for the elite and lots of action, plotting and genius.

This was definitely an outside of the box fun read and a great debut!

Thank you to Muswell press, Helen Erichsen and NetGalley for the EARC!

Publish date: today! April 26th

Murder By Natural Causes is the first novel by British bridge champion and author, Helen Erichsen. Plain, ordinary, unremarkable: Cilla Wilson finds these attributes useful in her career as a contract killer. She’s twenty-two, but she’s been killing since she was fourteen. She’s very good at it, an expert at making a death look like it is from natural causes.

Currently, she kills people for the owner of TGR's bridge club in London, Vladimir Haugr, in return for a flat, a retainer and expenses: five jobs a year for the man also knows as Haugr the Ogre or, to those who get on the wrong side of him, Vlad the Impaler. And under conditions she very strictly controls, she does a bit of selective freelance work. Her attitude is pragmatic to the extreme, rather chilling, in fact.

Despite her cut-glass British accent, Cilla is a product of Soviet Russia, plucked from the village school at the tender age of ten, and trained at Academy 43 to become an assassin for the government. The Academy’s training methods produce cold, efficient killers. The children start with intensive lessons on a wide range of topics, then later specialise.

They are trained in all manner of covert killing, but are assessed for their special quality to be harnessed in service to the state. Cilla enjoys botany and its importance in toxicology, making a myriad of poisons from plants in the Academy’s greenhouse. Her favourite subject, though, is English. She is thoroughly immersed in every aspect of English culture, which will eventually serve her well when she eliminates targets overseas. But never neglected is the children’s indoctrination into Soviet state dogma.

After two years doing jobs for Vlad, Cilla starts making preparations to leave: she doesn’t want this to be her whole life, and Vlad’s mercurial moods mean there’s always a chance of falling foul of this powerful, violent man. But, as Smithy, the talented forger whom she sometimes babysits for Vlad says, it’s highly unlikely that he’ll ever let either of them go…

Cilla’s story is told in a dual timeline: one follows young Alexandria’s metamorphosis into the accomplished assassin, Cilla, and how she ends up with Vlad; the other details her present-day activities and her attempt at freedom. Cilla is certainly an interesting protagonist, proving eventually to not be quite as cold-blooded as she first seems, and making it hard not to cheer her on towards her goal.

By necessity of the nature of the protagonist and plot, there’s a high body count and more than a little violence. Erichsen’s depiction of Cilla’s training in Russia is easily believable, and her extensive knowledge of botany and bridge lends authenticity to those aspects of the story. Natalie Pela’s narration is flawless. Original and utterly compelling, this is a brilliant debut novel.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Muswell Press

Murder By Natural Causes is the very assured,and gripping,debut by Helen Erichsen.
Cilla is a different kind of contract killer, an unremarkable young woman adept at blending unnoticed into the background, but with a very remarkable background.
Taken from her home in Soviet Russia as a child and sent to an academy of the dark arts ,she learns the skills of the cold-blooded assassin and is "remodelled" as a young English girl to blend in on covert missions in the UK.

There are 2 timelines to Cilla's story, from her selection and training as a lethal weapon of the Russian State and as a 22 year-old with a similar job but different employer when she's looking for a way out and a more normal life. Needless to say retirement for contract killers involves more than handing in your notice and collecting a carriage clock on the way out and Cilla knows her brutish and dangerous boss will be far from happy.

This is an excellent read that any number of big name thriller authors would be proud to have written. Cilla is a fascinating and enigmatic character, trained to be robotic and cold she slowly discovers things like empathy,attraction and morality ,albeit her own version of such emotions, and decides she wants the life other young women have. I was reminded of Gregg Hurwitz's "Orphan X"'s similar journey, though unlike Cilla that character's skill set doesn't include being able to do an excellent Ken Dodd impression.

Great stuff,an incredible debut and hopefully the first book in a series.