Kill for Me Kill for You - Steve Cavanagh

What more can you say about Steve Cavanagh that I haven't already said about all his books, notably the Eddie Flynn thrillers, and which should anyway be abundantly evident to any reader? He writes unputdownable thrillers with strong characters, racing plots with clever twists, his writing clear and direct, the plotting never (ok, rarely) resorting to improbable coincidences. Subtlety sometimes takes a back seat, but it's hardly a necessity when you can push the dramatic buttons to maximum effect. Evidently, all of that implies thrilling entertainment. All the above holds true for all Cavanagh's work and essentially it holds true of Kill For Me Kill For You. 

Kill for Me Kill for You starts of by laying out two separate (for now) cases. In one, Amanda White is planning revenge on taking revenge on Wallace Crone, the man she believes is responsible for the abduction and murder of her daughter and by extension causing the suicide of her husband. There is however no evidence linking him to the child other than having a record of offences against young women. Crone is also well-connected as to be untouchable, so despite already being subject to a restraining order, Amanda plans to take justice into her own hands.

For breaching the restraining order, she is threatened with being sued for harassment and subjected to a court order for counselling, encouraged to take part in Trauma and Bereavement group therapy. Like the others in the group she adopts a new name to protect her identity and meets ‘Wendy’, who has a similar story to her own; a murdered daughter, the man she believes to be her killer still at large. If Amanda can't approach Crone herself and Wendy can't get near the killer of her daughter, maybe they can find a way to ‘help each other out’. The acknowledgement of Hitchcock (and Highsmith's) Strangers on a Train is made explicit; kill for me, kill for you.

Elsewhere in New York Ruth Gelman suffers another kind of trauma when she is attacked alone in her home one night while her husband is out with friends. Ruth is seriously injured with knife wounds, but it seems that the attacker has been interrupted, as two other women have recently been murdered using the same methods as her attacker. It's a lucky escape, but after being discharged from hospital Ruth finds it difficult to return to her former way of life. Struggling with panic as she tries to recover, she fears that since she saw his face and heard his voice the killer known as 'Mr. Blue Eyes' will come back for her to finish the job.

You know the drill then. There are two cases laid out here in alternative chapters, and part of the puzzle is keeping you guessing and trying to figure out where and when they are going to come together. Cavanagh drops clues here and there just to make you think you are one step ahead of him, but I can assure you that the author has this well figured out, deliberately leading you down paths and drawing conclusions either to get you to keep on reading to verify what you think is happening, to keep the momentum going, or simply to just trip you up with a clever well-timed twist.

This is one of Cavanagh's strengths as a writer; the structure and unfolding of the plot, the action, revelations and twists are all perfectly calculated for maximum impact. He keeps the chapters short, the end of every one of them inviting you - nay, make that compelling you - to keep on reading. There are inevitably a few too many coincidences involving the investigating police officers, but you'll happily give those the benefit of doubt for the sake of great entertainment, and Kill for Me, Kill for You is certainly that.


Reading notes: Kill for Me, Kill for You by Steve Cavanagh is published by Headline. I read the Kindle edition.

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