Thank you to Penguin Random House Canada for the invitation to participate in a blog tour review for Kill All Your Darlings by David Bell.
Synopsis
When a student disappears and is presumed dead, her professor passes off her manuscript as his own—only to find out it implicates him in an unsolved murder in this new thriller from the USA Today bestselling author of The Request.
After years of struggling to write following the deaths of his wife and son, English professor Connor Nye publishes his first novel, a thriller about the murder of a young woman.
There’s just one problem: Connor didn’t write the book. His missing student did. And then she appears on his doorstep, alive and well, threatening to expose him.
Connor’s problems escalate when the police insist details in the novel implicate him in an unsolved murder from two years ago. Soon Connor discovers the crime is part of a disturbing scandal on campus and faces an impossible dilemma—admit he didn’t write the book and lose his job or keep up the lie and risk everything. When another murder occurs, Connor must clear his name by unraveling the horrifying secrets buried in his student’s manuscript.
This is a suspenseful, provocative novel about the sexual harassment that still runs rampant in academia—and the lengths those in power will go to cover it up.
My Thoughts
This is the third novel I have read by David Bell. I have read The Layover and The Request.
Now for my thoughts about Kill All Your Darlings, I really liked the two narrators and the alternating timelines the author used to tell this story. The element of mystery and the plot twist the author held back from the reader until near the ending was well written.
This book is also a timely read in terms of abuse of power with people in positions of authority and people we believe we can trust.
I also appreciated how the author chose to include an epilogue to give the reader a glimpse into the future for Connor, our main narrator in this novel.
My Rating: 5/5
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Book Details
Author: David Bell.
Publisher: Berkley.
Publication Date: July 6, 2021.
Genre: Fiction. Thrillers. Suspense. Psychological Thrillers.
Edition: Paperback.
Pages: 416.