Dear Killer by Katharine Ewell

 

Rule One—Nothing is right, nothing is wrong.
Rule Two—Be careful.
Rule Three—Fight using your legs whenever possible, because they’re the strongest part of your body. Your arms are the weakest.
Rule Four—Hit to kill. The first blow should be the last, if at all possible.
Rule Five—The letters are the law.

Kit takes her role as London’s notorious “Perfect Killer” seriously. The letters and cash that come to her via a secret mailbox are not a game; choosing who to kill is not an impulse decision. Every letter she receives begins with “Dear Killer,” and every time Kit murders, she leaves a letter with the dead body. Her moral nihilism and thus her murders are a way of life—the only way of life she has ever known.

But when a letter appears in the mailbox that will have the power to topple Kit’s convictions as perfectly as she commits her murders, she must make a decision: follow the only rules she has ever known, or challenge Rule One, and go from there.

Katherine Ewell’s Dear Killer is a sinister psychological thriller that explores the thin line between good and evil, and the messiness of that inevitable moment when life contradicts everything you believe. (Goodreads)

 

I was sucked into this book from the very second that I opened it! I was wary because I had heard and read so many mixed opinions about it, that I wasn’t sure if I was going to enjoy it. I am glad that I decided to give it a shot.

Despite who she is and what she does, I actually quite liked Kit as a character. Like they said in the book, we only ever hear about the victim and their opinions, we don’t really know much about the killer. So, I quite liked the fact that this was told from the perspective of the murderer rather than the victim. Another fact is that the reader finds themselves sympathizing with Kit, which makes us question ourselves. We see that Kit had known nothing else her entire life and she was taught and brought up to kill. It was only the fact that she killed someone without a letter that she began questioning why.

I did feel sorry for Alex. Spending so long trying to figure it out and the answer being right under his nose. At the dame time I found the fact that he sees the good I everything to be quite endearing. It’s a quality that is not found often because people are normally so judgmental. I loved his interaction with Kit and thought that they would have been perfect together in another world.

Her parents really irritated me. I would have also liked to have seen more of why her her mother needed to kill so much. Did her mother teach her like she did Kit? Her dads ignorance and apparent disinterest irritated me; what kind of parent thinks like that? It would have been interesting to read his reaction to his wife and child.

I gave thisn book 4/5 stars and would happily, and have, recommend it to my friends 🙂