When I read the description of this book I thought the plot sounded really interesting. In the blurb it says that nothing is what it seems.... and they weren't kidding! My head was spinning right from the first sentence.
"Ted McKay was about to put a bullet through his brain when the doorbell rang, insistently."
He waits because he knows he can't shoot himself while someone is at the door. Then he hears someone yelling for him to open the door. They tell him they know he's in there. He waits for them to leave. However, the person keeps ringing the bell, banging and yelling for Ted to open the door.
Thankfully his wife and children are out-of-town.
As he's waiting for the person to go away he notices a note on his desk. "Open the door. It's your only way out" the note says. He has no idea where this note came from but the thing that freaks him out is that it's his handwriting on the note. How could that be? He has no memory of writing it. Ted gives in and opens the door. The man introduces himself. His name is Justin Lynch and he tells Ted he'll explain everything if he will let him come in. Ted slams the door but then the man says something that makes him open it right back up...
"I know what you're about to do"
How could this man possibly know what Ted was about to do?
Justin says he knows that Ted wants to kill himself. Before Ted can say a word, Justin tells him he has a proposition for him. He's inviting him to join a very special organization. A sort of suicide club. However, in order to be a part of this group Ted will need to kill two men. Then in return someone will kill him. The reasoning behind this is that it's easier for a family to deal with someone being the victim of a tragedy than if the person committed suicide.
But why two murders? And how did they find out that Ted even wanted to kill himself?
Ted decides that he'll do it. However, things do not go as planned. The intended victims aren't exactly like Justin described. Then weird things start happening. Ted begins having bizarre dreams. He feels like he's being watched and that he wasn't given all the information he would have needed to make a proper decision. Was that on purpose? Is Ted being manipulated somehow? From there, things get even worse and he starts to feel like he's losing his mind.
Dr. Laura Hill is Ted's therapist and she feels like she can help him. Through his meetings with Dr. Hill we are given some insight into Ted's past, his family life and some, very dark secrets.
I will stop there as I will be heading into spoiler territory if I say much more
After such a fantastic beginning I did feel the book start to drag a bit. It was interesting, but it felt like there was a lot of details and extra stuff that could have been left out. Also seemed like there were some holes in the plot which made things a bit confusing.
I enjoyed the book but it was completely different from what I was expecting, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. There were a lot of good twists and turns that kept me turning pages. Just when I thought I had the real story it would take off in another direction. I would just start to understand a character and their motives....but then I'd be thrown way off again.
I was pretty satisfied with how it all came together and how the author wrapped things up....but the epilogue did baffle me a bit. I may have to check around because I'm curious about what happened. I almost feel like I'm missing something big.
****Note**** There wasn't a lot of gruesome violence in this book but I will warn readers that there is a scene with an animal that is upsetting. I was able to skip over it but I thought it was worth a mention.
Thank you NetGalley, Mulholland Books, and Frederico Axat for providing an advanced readers copy of this book for me to read in exchange for my honest review.
This most unusual psychological thriller is one that grew on me slowly. The first section is very confusing. Ted McKay the main character relates recurring episodes about being interrupted in killing himself and then killing two people except that the details keep changing so that it's not clear if he is hallucinating or dreaming. About a third of the way into the book, Ted's situation becomes clearer but there is still a mystery as to how he got to that point or what has actually happened so it became very compelling to read on and find the answers. To understand that we have to go back in time to Ted's early years and experiences and a much earlier murder. I did enjoy the book more once it became clear what was happening to Ted and did not expect the major twist that came late in the book. I think my initial confusion would have been better if I hadn't read the blurb (and title!) as it gives the wrong idea of what the book is about (ie 'killing the next one'). The translation from Spanish must be exceptional the text flowed perfectly in English. I have to say the point of the epilogue (especially the possum in the flowerpots) totally escaped me so if anyone can enlighten me, I'd greatly appreciate it!
Acerquem-se os amantes dos thrillers, para juntos desfrutarmos desta magn铆fica overture:
X est谩 prestes a suicidar-se no instante em que Y bate 脿 porta!...
- Ser谩 um vendedor? -- interroga-se X - Vou aguardar que se canse e desista!
Por茅m, desistir n茫o est谩 nos planos de Y, que aumenta a cad锚ncia, e bate agora desenfreadamente 脿 porta!...
Perturbado, mas fiel 脿 sua decis茫o, X mant茅m-se im贸vel enquanto o seu olhar inquieto varre os objectos no seu raio de vis茫o, at茅 estancar num bilhete escrito na pr贸pria caligrafia, com os seguintes dizeres:
"Abre a porta. 脡 a tua 煤ltima sa铆da!"
Que intrigante!... X encontra um bilhete escrito anteriormente, dirigido a si mesmo, como que a prever a situa莽茫o presente?! Ou ser谩 que o autor do enigm谩tico bilhete, fora outrem que n茫o X?! Cedo, come莽amos a divagar!...
Bem!... Adiante: Entretanto, Y persiste em bater desenfreadamente 脿 porta, at茅 que finalmente, influenciado pela leitura do pr贸prio bilhete, X abre a porta a um Y desconhecido, que alega saber as raz玫es que o levaram a apontar uma arma 脿 t锚mpora!...
Ora digam l谩, se este come莽o n茫o 茅 promissor?!
E 茅 um promissor cumpridor!
S茫o 5 estrelas cintilantes!!! 馃グ
Livros que nos agarram na capa e libertam na contra-capa, s茫o raros e procuram-se 馃槉馃槏 N茫o deixem escapar este 馃槈馃憤
TL; DR: If you dislike gratuitous, graphic animal torture scenes, this book is not for you. If you really dislike sticking with a book despite multiple plot problems and two-dimensional characters just to see if there is some kind of payoff, only to be hit by a gratuitous, graphic animal torture scene in the final pages, well, you should run like hell.
I'm sorry, I just didn't love this book. I did read the whole thing, even though I was frustrated with the two-dimensional characters, the plot that turned out to be so different from what I expected reading the blurb, the endless dream sequences (I loathe dream sequences), etc, etc, because I wanted to see how the author got out of the hole. After I saw how he got out, I wish I had just given up 50 pages in. This book had a lot of promise with little payoff and the whole thing seemed...sloppy. I can't really say more without giving important stuff away so I'll leave it at that.
SPOILERS I was frustrated that the loose ends never got tied up in a way that made sense to the story, or had significance relative to how much buildup there was. And the little bombshell about Arthur also seeing the possum just wasn't shocking enough to be treated like it was. I am not really sure what the author was trying to convey with that reveal. That Arthur is also crazy? Mike and others were able to see animals, too. Or that the possum is real? I don't find possums scary so that has no impact either. Maybe if it had been a Canada goose... It was just a "so what?" moment for me, rather than the jaw-dropper I think the author thought he had. We got to spend a lot of time with Justin in the flashbacks, but I still don't know why any of that was necessary. Their friendship wasn't really remarkable or noteworthy and I never felt the author did a good job of explaining why Ted beat Justin. Also, I didn't care. Neither one of them ever felt like more than a cardboard cutout. I felt like we spent a lot of time with Dr. Hill peeling the onion of Ted's psyche, and what it revealed, layer by layer, was a hotbed of "meh."
Also, the unexpected kitten torture scene in the last 5% of the book was shocking and unnecessary. In this scene, a man named Randall Forster is giving an introductory speech about Dr. Laura Hill's book about a serial killer, and he describes an incident in the killer's youth when he killed a kitten in front of his playmate. This killer had already been well established as pig with no redeeming qualities so the kitten torture description was 100% gratuitous. I also had trouble buying it that Randall would have gone into such graphic detail speaking to a group of people who were basically there for a book signing. Not simply mentioning that the killer's young neighbor knew he was capable of murder because he saw him torture animals. That is sufficient for anyone to know. No, Randall gives the audience a blow-by-blow, detail-by-detail description of how the kitten was tortured--almost like a training manual. Yes, I found it offensive but the problem was, no one would actually do that in real life. And if they did, people would get up and walk out. NOBODY WANTS A KITTEN TORTURE TUTORIAL AT THEIR BOOK SIGNING, RANDALL. It was ridiculous in the context of the scene. I could go on, but I am done.
Mi tercer libro de Axat y uno m谩s que me deja sorprendido. El misterio no cesa en ning煤n momento y cada uno de sus cap铆tulos es una puerta abierta a lo inesperado. La 煤ltima salida, con su ritmo vertiginoso y sus escenas apabullantes, logr贸 captar mi atenci贸n hasta tal punto que se volvi贸 un compa帽ero inseparable en mi vida cotidiana.
Pocas veces he le铆do una novela negra con tantos giros. La historia no deja de cambiar de manera completa el paradigma de lo que se va revelando a medias. Entre la confusi贸n, la desconfianza y los secretos me era imposible predecir qu茅 podr铆a suceder en las siguientes p谩ginas. Axat juega con el delirio como pocos autores saben hacerlo. Y tambi茅n con el lector.
En fin. Aunque demasiado comercial para mi gusto, es una muy buena novela de misterio, que recomiendo absolutamente para pasar el rato. Adictiva, r谩pida, laber铆ntica, ideal para cualquier fan谩tico del g茅nero.
驴Sab茅is esa sensaci贸n de estar en una monta帽a rusa, esperando el segundo en el que caer茅is a toda velocidad por la rampa? Pues bien, este libro se puede adaptar a esta met谩fora; es vertiginoso desde el minuto cero. Y, si bien me ha parecido magistral el modo en que el autor juega con el lector, hay ciertos detalles al final del libro que me han frenado de darle las cinco estrellas.
Hace tiempo que no le铆a algo que realmente me sorprendiera y, sin el 谩nimo de alardear, eso es cada vez m谩s dif铆cil. El autor juega con el lector en forma permanente y ninguna de las teor铆as que uno pueda ir elucubrando tiene sentido al llegar al siguiente cap铆tulo. Me llam贸 la atenci贸n que el autor lograra tama帽a intriga s贸lo con la trama y no, como en otros libros que he le铆do, con una prosa confusa. De hecho me encant贸 el estilo de Federico Axat, directo, centrado en lo que quiere contar en cada cap铆tulo que, por cierto, son cort铆simos. Pero no por ello falto de las descripciones y pistas necesarias para mantener al lector ah铆, pegado a sus p谩ginas, mordi茅ndose las u帽as.
No le pongo las cinco estrellas porque cada vez soy m谩s exigente con esa valoraci贸n y, a pesar que esta novela estuvo a punto, algunas cosillas, a mi gusto, no quedaron suficientemente atadas.
Absolutamente recomendable, tanto para los que les gusta el g茅nero como para los que no. Es imposible quedar indiferente frente a esta lectura.
Un thriller psicol贸gico en toda regla, de los que me gustan. Trama enrevesada y ritmo fren茅tico. Ted McKay es un empresario de 茅xito, casado y con dos hijas maravillosas. Ted no es capaz de procesar como ha entrado en esa espiral, de la que no sabe c贸mo salir. Su mente es un batiburrillo de recuerdos, algunos nuevos e inexplicables y otros antiguos que le cuesta recuperar. No se puede contar mucho m谩s, sin hacer spoiler. Me ha encantado. Una trama muy bien planteada y con un desenlace sorprendente y coherente. El personaje de Ted, fascinante.
Ted McKay has a terminal brain tumor. While his wife and children are visiting her family out of state, he decides it is time to end his life. Putting a gun to his head, he prepares to pull the trigger.
But the doorbell ringing interrupts him. A stranger offers his a deal ... if he will shoot a criminal who walked away from justice before he dies, and also kill another man like himself ... terminally ill and waiting to die, the next man on the list will take Ted's life. It would be so much easier for his family if he dies of a random killing rather than committing suicide.
But is this really what happened? Did he actually murder two men? Why does he keep reliving certain moments of his life over and over again?
This was like riding a roller coaster ride in the dark. It's such a well-written book ... the reader doesn't quite know what to believe. It's a look at a terrified man .. what he will and won't do. Is the brain tumor causing hallucinations? Does he even have a brain tumor?
No spoilers here .. but I warn you ... beware of the possum.
Many thanks to the author / Text Publishing / Netgalley who provided a digital copy in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.
Kill The Next One is the third novel by Argentinian author, Federico Axat. Successful businessman, husband and father, Ted McKay has a brain tumour. He is sitting in his study with a gun. He鈥檚 about to put it to his head when someone persistently knocks on his door. Justin Lynch has a proposition: instead of leaving his family to deal with the stigma of his suicide, he can die by another鈥檚 hand.
He must first kill two people who need to die: a murderer (who got off on a technicality) and another prospective suicide; then someone will do the same for him. Perhaps it鈥檚 a sign of Ted鈥檚 desperation: he finds himself agreeing; he does as he is asked.
Really? This tale seems to be full of holes. Ah, but wait. Read on. It soon becomes apparent that Ted鈥檚 narrative is rather unreliable. Is his perspective affected by his brain tumour? Is Lynch for real? Does the second victim actually want to die?
Axat has cleverly crafted a fast-paced psychological thriller that does not go where expected. Nothing and no-one is what they first seem. Each time the reader believes he has solved a puzzle, the story turns. There are so many twists the reader鈥檚 head will spin: lawsuits for whiplash injury should be anticipated.
Axat鈥檚 novel features a myriad of topics, none of which can be revealed without being a plot-spoiler. Flawlessly translated from Spanish by David Frye, this is a brilliant page-turner.
Ted esta a punto de pegarse un tiro cuando unos golpes en la puerta lo interrumpen. Una nota escrita por el mismo que no recuerda haber escrito. Una propuesta, una realidad dudosa, un thriller en toda la extensi贸n de la palabra, que te mantendr谩 en vilo hasta la 煤ltima p谩gina. A trav茅s de cap铆tulos cortos y con finales inesperados, giros de tuerca y una escritura 谩gil, Axat logra su cometido y nos regala una novela indispensable en el g茅nero que hoy por hoy domina.
It's been a while since I been so encaptured by a fiction novel as I was with this one . To be honest there were moments when I was like WTF did I just read? ... but the more I read on the more twists I was finding and the more it made me feel unsure as to what the ending would be . I had no idea what the e ding would be until the last 10 pages and for a seasoned reader that is very unexpected. The story is unique and complex , it moves in different levels and it keeps you in edge every page .... highly recommend it to anyone with a love for thrillers and crime novels .
Ted McKay had it all, a beautiful wife, two lovely daughters and a high paid job. He has just been diagnosed with a terminal brain tumour.
A stranger makes him a proposition. Kill two deserving people before you die. The first target will be a criminal, the second will also have terminal cancer. After Ted has killed his next two targets Ted will become the next persons target.
I loved this book. With its well written and thought out plot and a different style to most. This is another storyline I got hooked into very quickly.
I would like to thank NetGalley, Text Publishing and the author Federico Axat for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.
As soon as I turned the last page of this novel I had to question (once again) the publisher's decision to a) change the title and b) come up with a dustjacket blurb that hardly matches what goes in in this book, because when all is said and done, the original Spanish title is much more reflective of the nature of what happens here and the blurb points people in a sort of misleading direction. I'm not surprised that so many readers were frustrated with this book, since they were expecting one thing and got something completely different. I bought this one based on the fact that it's a crime novel from Argentina more than for any other reason since I enjoy translated crime, especially from authors I've never read before.
Let's get back to that blurb, referring to the main character of the story, Ted McKay, who as the novel opens, is on the edge of shooting himself in the head to end it all. He's at home, locked into his own study; his wife Holly is away on vacation with their two daughters, and he's even been thoughtful enough to leave a note telling Holly where he's left the key to the study and not to let the kids in after she opens the door. As he works up the courage to shoot himself, a "barrage of shouts and banging" at the door draw his attention, and he knows that "he'd have no choice but to see what it was all about." He opens it to find a man he doesn't know standing there, but strangely, the man, who gives his name as Justin Lynch, who somehow knows Ted's name. Ted slams the door closed once again, but Lynch is persistent and through the door reveals to Ted that he knows what he's about to do with the gun, and if Ted would open the door, he promises not to try to stop him. After a bit of time, Lynch comes right to the point and (quoting the blurb)
"...makes him a proposition: why not kill two deserving men before dying? The first target is a criminal, and the second is a man with terminal cancer, who, like Ted, wants to die."
The tradeoff for Ted is that
"after executing these kills, Ted will become someone else's next target, like a kind of suicidal daisy chain."
It's an idea that Ted doesn't necessarily dismiss and he even goes as far to work out a plan but, of course, things don't exactly work out as Ted (or we) expected, diverging in a very, very big way. That bit of plot will come back much later, but in a hugely different way that allowed for an "aha" moment by the time I got there. I can't really go into too much detail here because saying pretty much anything would constitute a major spoiler and ruin the reading experience, but the point is that while we actively start with the blurb's premise in mind, it turns out that that's not really the story at all.
Kill the Next One messed with my head for quite a while, because it is one of those stories where things seem to make sense and yet they don't if you are reading carefully; things tend to move and change quickly here making it even more of a head scratcher as time goes on. Even as things start to become a little clearer, it's like being in a gradually-lifting fog where you can sort of make out shapes but you know that your vision is still a bit distorted; it isn't until the very end that everything comes into focus. The enigmatic on the whole appeals to me; the book is like one giant puzzle where pieces are gradually filled in but there is still a lot of space on the table before the full picture emerges.
It's neither a great nor perfect book by any means with character issues that crop up, lengthy, sometimes over-the-top scenes that could have been pared down quite a bit to give the story more punch, and it seems to me that there were still some things that could have been a bit more fleshed out (especially concerning the real story underpinning everything here), but even with its issues, it has a sort of eerieness about it that for me made it a worthwhile, page-flipping, and entertaining read that I had trouble putting down.
My advice to potential readers: don't look at reviews that give away the show because as you move away from the expected into deeper, darker territory, you really don't want to know beforehand what's coming at you -- it will totally ruin things. While I've seen it referred to as a thriller, it really moves into that territory only toward the end; before that though, it's much more in the psychological category, but even that may be saying too much about it.
Axat has a wonderful way of drawing you in and enticing you with bits of the plot... Then he completely rips the rug out from under you and dismantles everything you thought you knew.
I loved this approach! Kept me eager for more and I adore when a book actually surprises me.
When Ted McKay finds out that he has a brain tumor he decides to take matters into his own hands and end things his own way. With meticulous planning Ted comes to the day that he finds himself alone in his study with his wife and children far away so he is determined to end his own life but just as soon as he begins there is a knock at the door.
Answering the door Ted is faced with an offer to join a suicide circle, he must kill one man that is a criminal and another that is in the same situation as Ted. The offer makes sense as it would be easier on his family to think him the victim of a crime but can Ted actually take others lives?
Kill the Next One is one of those books that while it sounded really interesting the story took a turn that just wasn't a direction that I'm a huge fan of reading. Hopefully without giving away too much of a spoiler I'll just say that this would be a thriller that while you think you are reading and following along with the story the events keep being reset on you. I can see some people loving the way this one is written and the idea behind the story but unfortunately I'm just not one that did.
I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.
Yes well. Kill the Next One was certainly unexpected. But I liked it. Clever. Ok there are some things in here, especially the last bit, that may discombobulate and upset some (and I don't really feel that bit needed to be in there) but overall I found it to be highly addictive.
A game of two halves really. Or 2 and a bit halves. Or something. Starting off with an offer, then heading into fairly surreal territory where you may clutch your head a bit then settling into a rather fascinating psychological study/thriller/something like that which will have you twisted every which way. Really enjoyed it. I like the more out there stuff and this one was out there.
Written very well to keep you immersed into the story being told, I felt for poor Ted I really did. I mean honestly all the poor guy wanted was to kill himself. Then his whole world tilted sideways. Kill the Next One is the tale of why, when, how and where. And many other things.
Difficult to say too much. Its one of those books that you can't really describe that well because it has its own vibe and thing going on. Hence my enjoyment I think.
I think this got a little lost in translation because this was all over the place. I had a hard time getting my head around one path of the plot, only for Axat to go and change the direction of the story again! The twists in this weren鈥檛 thrilling or shocking, they were a nuisance! The story was hard enough to follow at the best of times, with the unreliable narrator and dream sequences, so to add a bundle of twists in over and over again just got to be tiring to read. I had to put this down eventually, just because it felt like tons of bits had been edited out of this story, but they still decided it publish it with all the missing parts. Very confusing!
The blurb needs to be changed. It leads you to believe this is going to be a kind of emotional thriller novel about a dying man and an unusual proposition from a stranger but it was nothing like that. Minor spoiler here: the events in the blurb happen within the first 15% of this book.
Thanks to Netgalley and Text Publishing for giving me the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest review.
Dugo mi se nije desilo da moram uzeti papiri膰 i pisati nelogi膷nosti, da se uvjerim da nisam ja ta koja je luda! Svega je tu bilo na po膷etku, te tko ga isfura, kre膰e bolje. Razumijem i one koji odustanu! :P Vu膷e pri膷a, na trenutke sam 膷itala s nestrpljenjem i nervozom.. Brzo 膷itaju膰i da vidim 拧to 膰e na kraju biti. Pla拧ila sam se da 膰e se sve to skupa zbrljati i eto mi ga na! Kada kompleksnu pri膷u zavr拧i拧 u zadnjih 20-ak stranica, bude ofrlje, zbrkano, hladno.. Jo拧 da je kraj bio vauuu, to bih i zanemarila. Ovako, solidno, ali barba mora pojesti jo拧 puno palente!
Wow. This was such an astonishing book. Arguably the best psychological thriller I鈥檝e read so far.
The story starts with our main character, Ted McKay, as he prepares to commit suicide but is interrupted by the door bell. On the other side is a man who offers a way out. The only thing Ted has to do is kill a criminal and a man who wants to die, it鈥檚 like an initiation for the organization, and then someone, who also gets a proposition like Ted, will come to end his suffering and spare his family of the shame and greater pain.
One would assume the book is about that suicide organization that Ted鈥檚 offered to join, and one would assume wrong. It starts like that but it鈥檚 so much, so much more. The story has layer upon layer, and as you think you鈥檝e figured something out you鈥檙e proven wrong. There鈥檚 only one thing that I suspected that turned out to be correct, and even then it was a bit more entangled than I thought and had connections to things I didn鈥檛 even think of.
I can鈥檛 really comment on the writing as I read a translation, but also I was so engrossed with the story that I didn鈥檛 pay much attention. The first part was slow and I had problems getting into it, I鈥檓 glad I pushed through because wow, I loved the way it played out. I liked that the book was split into parts (four of them) and every part showed Ted鈥檚 state of mind.
I had minor problems with the chapters talking about the relationship between the doctors in the later parts of the book; I didn鈥檛 care how that was going to go and after finishing the book I see there was no real reason it had to be in, it was a stepping stool for some other things.
Bleccch! I vote we kill this one. It's a bad time-memory-insanity writing experiment that somehow escaped the slush pile and not only got published, but garnered much drooling blurb praise. I ended up speed-skimming through the second half, a desperate salvage operation in search of something -- anything -- that might justify all the hoo-hah. But that was just more time wasted on this brick. And now my only satisfaction is to write a brief and biting review. I'll show that bastard author!
Yes, there are murders and constant plot shifts that prevent you from knowing what is going on. But this isn't suspenseful writing -- it's disrespectful to readers. Every plot revelation is countered by "new information" in subsequent chapters. And the new info is then spun or disproven, until several hundred pages in, I not only had no clear idea of what was going on, I had no interest in the characters or the events (real or imagined). Bad author! You broke your solemn compact with your readers, and failed to entertain, enrich or enlighten.
One star granted for the promise of the first few chapters. Four withheld because this stunk on ice.