Kill All Your Darlings by David Bell
Publisher: Berkley Books / Penguin Random House
Publication Date: July 6, 2021
Format: Hardcover - 416 pages
Paperback - 416 pages
Audiobook - 12 Hours 33 Minutes
Kindle - 2573 KB
Nook - 2 MB
ISBN (HC): 978-0593198667
ISBN (PB): 978-0593198674
ASIN (Audiobook): B08N8ZJTY7
ASIN (Kindle): B08MBPPXC3
BNID: 978-0593198681
BNID: 978-0593198681
Genre: Thriller
Buy The Book:
Disclaimer: I bought a copy of the book from my monthly Just The Right Book! subscription.
Book Description:
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.
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.
Book Excerpt: https://a.co/cZXmbw3
My Book Review:
In Kill All Your Darlings, author David Bell takes the reader behind the scenes of a riveting thriller as college English Professor Connor Nye tries to clear his name after he plagarizes a novel that is eerily similar to an unsolved murder, while engaging in a dangerous and deadly cat and mouse game with the real killer.
Kill All Your Darlings is a riveting thriller that easily draws the reader in from the start. The author provides the reader with a fascinating, multi-layered, and richly detailed story set in the small college town of Gatewood, Kentucky. This exciting story takes the reader on an exhilarating roller coaster ride as the reader follows Connor's struggle to move on with his life since the traumatic deaths of his wife and son five years ago. Connor needs to gain tenure to keep his job, and after the disappearance of college student Madeline O'Brien two years ago, he takes her manuscript as his own, and it is published by a major New York publisher. But there is just one little problem, Madeline shows up in town after the book is published and wants Connor to make things right. And if that's not enough, the police take an interest in Connor after his (Madeline's) novel is eerily similar to an unsolved murder that occurred two years ago. Connor has to decide between the risks of coming clean with what he's done or keeping silent, while also unexpectedly discovering a series of covered up sexual harrassment by professors towards female students. Connor and senior college student Rebecca Knox find themselves in a very dangerous cat-n-mouse game with people who want to keep everything buried at all costs.
Kill All Your Darlings is a riveting thriller that easily draws the reader in from the start. The author provides the reader with a fascinating, multi-layered, and richly detailed story set in the small college town of Gatewood, Kentucky. This exciting story takes the reader on an exhilarating roller coaster ride as the reader follows Connor's struggle to move on with his life since the traumatic deaths of his wife and son five years ago. Connor needs to gain tenure to keep his job, and after the disappearance of college student Madeline O'Brien two years ago, he takes her manuscript as his own, and it is published by a major New York publisher. But there is just one little problem, Madeline shows up in town after the book is published and wants Connor to make things right. And if that's not enough, the police take an interest in Connor after his (Madeline's) novel is eerily similar to an unsolved murder that occurred two years ago. Connor has to decide between the risks of coming clean with what he's done or keeping silent, while also unexpectedly discovering a series of covered up sexual harrassment by professors towards female students. Connor and senior college student Rebecca Knox find themselves in a very dangerous cat-n-mouse game with people who want to keep everything buried at all costs.
There is enough drama, secrets, deception, tension, and surprising twists and turns that definitely will keep the reader sitting on the edge of their seat, and guessing how this story will turn out. I loved the drama and complexity of the multi-layered story told in the past and present timelines with alternating first and third person narratives by Connor, Madeline, and Rebecca. The reader can't help but feel for Connor, Madeline, and Rebecca as their stories unfold. The interweaving of the tension and drama, coupled with the unexpected twists and turns that Connor encounters as he goes down the dangerous path of putting the pieces of the puzzle together, while taking the risks that it put on his own life and career is so intense that it keeps the reader on edge until the surprising conclusion. It just doesn't get any better than that!
Kill All Your Darlings is a well-written, fast paced, and intense thriller that will leave the reader wanting more!
RATING: 5 STARS
RATING: 5 STARS
About The Author
David Bell is a USA Today bestselling and award-winning suspense novelist. His most recent thriller from Berkley/Penguin is KILL ALL YOUR DARLINGS. His previous novels include THE REQUEST, LAYOVER, SOMEBODY'S DAUGHTER, BRING HER HOME, SINCE SHE WENT AWAY, SOMEBODY I USED TO KNOW, THE FORGOTTEN GIRL, NEVER COME BACK, THE HIDING PLACE, and CEMETERY GIRL. He is currently a Professor of English at Western Kentucky University.
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