A Kiss Before Dying is stylish, smart and remarkably suspenseful. I can't remember the last time I read a book that gave me the same kind of heebie-jeebies all the way through.

Levin wrote it when he was only 23, and although there's no sign of immaturity in his assured, urbane prose, his tender age must have been a factor in the book's structure: the plot is so audacious in its initial implausibility that it must be the work of either a young writer who feels invulnerable, or a very experienced writer who knows through long experience exactly what he can get away with. In any case, Levin build up his symmetrical if unlikely structure with elan; it's just sufficiently believable to allow all of the book's other manifold excellence to shine: sharp dialog, crisp description, and tight, active scenes, one after another.

My only gripe: the book's third act is just slightly off in comparison with the totally creepy parts I and II. ( )

www.thebookpond.se ( )

This book feel off the library shelf in the fiction section as I was walking by when I was using my college library to study. I picked it up, checked it out on a whim, and loved it. Twisty plot lines! The movie starring Matt Dillon and Sean Young can eat it! It probably shouldn't even bee called A Kiss Before Dying, it's hardly at all like the book and certainly not even close to as good. ( )

The book is so much better than the movie. ( )