Kim Loomis is a psychopath. On the exterior she is poised and wholesome. She makes it her mission to elevate American Homemakers everywhere. She holds meetings at her home for a select few, where she presides over topics of discussion such as the best way to clean your bathtub beneath a mammoth gilt-framed portrait of Martha Stewart, wearing her best designer dresses. But Kim is dark and terrible. She has secrets that would make the rest of us run in terror, but to Kim, she's just doing what needs to be done to maintain the lifestyle she wants to live.
My biggest problem with the story was that the blurb seems to imply that the story is primarily going to be a showdown between contract killer Melody, and Kim Loomis. If this had been the focus of the story, Melody accepting a job then starting to doubt Kim, then the two of them playing cat-and-mouse as Melody discovers Kim's horrible truth, I think this could have been a much better story. Unfortunately, Kim and Melody do not even cross paths until probably 90% of the way through the book. I liked Melody, and it would have been exciting to see Melody going off the deep end after finding out she'd been duped by Kim and ultimately seeking redemption prior to her retirement by taking Kim down. There was just so much more that could have happened here. But it didn't.
It is fast-paced, it is certainly a thriller and a page-turner. The characters are quite well-written, from the psychos to the side characters. Kaine definitely has a gift for writing. But if you're expecting to see your typical easy-going killer-for-hire go rogue or the bad guys meeting even badder guys and cleaning house, it's just not that kind of story. I was surprised at how many people died with no ramifications.
Usually I'm all for a dark book from time to time, but I enjoy my dark tales with splashes of wit and dark humor. There's no humor here. Just dark. And gory. There aren't really any fabulous plot twists either. Just a straightforward who's-going-to-make-it-out-alive horror story. (And the answer is, um, not many)
If you like a fast-paced horror read, you'll love it. There's quite a bit of gore as far as descriptions of people meeting their doom, some language, and some implied sexual content but nothing descriptive.
It does end with quite the cliffhanger, not sure if there will be another book or if you're just left to wonder.
My biggest problem with the story was that the blurb seems to imply that the story is primarily going to be a showdown between contract killer Melody, and Kim Loomis. If this had been the focus of the story, Melody accepting a job then starting to doubt Kim, then the two of them playing cat-and-mouse as Melody discovers Kim's horrible truth, I think this could have been a much better story. Unfortunately, Kim and Melody do not even cross paths until probably 90% of the way through the book. I liked Melody, and it would have been exciting to see Melody going off the deep end after finding out she'd been duped by Kim and ultimately seeking redemption prior to her retirement by taking Kim down. There was just so much more that could have happened here. But it didn't.
It is fast-paced, it is certainly a thriller and a page-turner. The characters are quite well-written, from the psychos to the side characters. Kaine definitely has a gift for writing. But if you're expecting to see your typical easy-going killer-for-hire go rogue or the bad guys meeting even badder guys and cleaning house, it's just not that kind of story. I was surprised at how many people died with no ramifications.
Usually I'm all for a dark book from time to time, but I enjoy my dark tales with splashes of wit and dark humor. There's no humor here. Just dark. And gory. There aren't really any fabulous plot twists either. Just a straightforward who's-going-to-make-it-out-alive horror story. (And the answer is, um, not many)
If you like a fast-paced horror read, you'll love it. There's quite a bit of gore as far as descriptions of people meeting their doom, some language, and some implied sexual content but nothing descriptive.
It does end with quite the cliffhanger, not sure if there will be another book or if you're just left to wonder.