Anthony Good

Michael has lost his wife in a terrorist attack. He is determined to get his revenge – not on the terrorists themselves, but on the politician who he sees as ultimately responsible.

However Kill [redacted] isn’t a predictable action thriller, and Michael isn’t quite the usual gung-ho vigilante. He’s a rather pedantic retired headmaster. As the novel develops, we learn, through a series of disjointed notes apparently prepared by Michael for his therapist, about his life, his family and show more the events that shaped his decision.

Michael is both articulate and evasive as he outlines how his attitudes to discipline and punishment have been shaped during his time as a teacher and an earlier brief career in the police.

He allows us occasional, tantalising glimpses of how others see him, prickly, odd, obsessive. By contrast he shows great tenderness when he describes his memories of his wife. It is a touching illustration of how bereavement not only takes away the person you loved, but the person you were when you were with them.

Michael is at times rigid and authoritarian, at others extremely open to new ideas and learning, particularly in furtherance of his planned assassination. There is bleak humour as we see the odd places this takes him, and the unlikely allies he enlists. Beneath it all is an insistent rise in the tension as he closes in on his target.

At the heart of the novel is a clever dissection of power and responsibility, in politics, in the classroom, in the home. Kill [redacted] is an original and smart literary thriller.
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I received a copy of Kill [redacted] from the publisher.
Read more of my reviews on my blog https://katevane.com/blog show less

Every second was brilliant

Kill (redacted) is an absolutely brilliant book. I started reading it the moment it arrived and did not put it down until I finished it. From the first page to the last I was gripped. The characters were believable and relatable, and the author made no attempt to make the reader like them, especially the main character and that added to the novels realness. Kill (redacted) felt like the series ‘Waterloo road’ meets the film ‘Taxi driver’ I cannot rate this show more book highly enough, I loved every part of it, the cover looks good, and the book feels good to hold, the writing was brilliant and the way the story has been woven together in such a way that the reader is pulled into the story and wants to read on. I also liked the fact there was no page numbers, it felt like the reader was reading the main characters thoughts, and entering his mind. I will definitely be recommending this book to friends and other readers. show less

Quitting at 30%.

There is no plot to speak of, which leaves you with the characterization, and I'm not engaged by Michael.