A Gift for Dying by M.J. Arlidge #BlogTour #BookReview

Today it is my great pleasure to be joining the blog tour for A Gift For Dying, the brand new standalone thriller by M.J. Arlidge. My thanks go to publishers Michael Joseph who provided an advance copy of the book for review and tour organiser Tracy Fenton!

Adam Brandt is a forensic psychologist, well used to dealing with the most damaged members of society.

But he’s never met anyone like Kassie.

The teenager claims to have a terrible gift – with one look into your eyes, she can see when and how you will die.

Obviously, Adam knows Kassie must be insane. But then a serial killer hits the city. And only Kassie seems to know where he’ll strike next.

Against all his intuition, Adam starts to believe her.

He just doesn’t realise how deadly his faith might prove…

 

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I was thrilled to be invited for the blog tour of A Gift for Dying. I’m running a bit behind reading the DI Helen Grace novels so I’m ever so happy with this standalone.

The novel has short and snappy chapters and I was continually tempted to read one more chapter. Kassie certainly had a firm hold on my thoughts and even when it’s not a thin book, it was definitely an easy and fast read.

What I enjoyed most of all in the novel was the uncertainty relating to Kassie’s ability (I’m not sure you could call it a gift really). She claims she can foresee someone’s death quite well when she looks people in the eyes. Adam Brandt, the forensic psychologist who is called in to assess Kassie doesn’t believe her in first instance. He’s the voice of rational thinking and he’s seen quite a lot of people with delusions in his years of experience. He was playing the devil on my shoulder with Kassie on the other side.

She continually asks Brandt to believe her and I really felt for her, but like him, I was also very sceptical. Believing her would also come with a terrifying consequence. You see, there’s one helluva revalation in the first half of the novel which hangs over the rest of the novel and made it quite difficult to believe Kassie. I actually didn’t want to believe her at all. Don’t worry if this sounds strange, you’ll know what I’m talking about when you read it! I always had it in the back of my mind, even if I wanted to I couldn’t forget about it! Could she be speaking the truth or is she simply insane, or perhaps there’s someone close to her using her? Aah how wonderful to be kept guessing… Brandt feels protective of Kassie but at the same time she’s seriously incriminating herself because it all comes back to her and the police are not buying her story.

I said it before but I’ll say it again because it really doesn’t always work for me the way it did this time but I loved the paranormal angle. If you’re not a big fan of these threads, you can still enjoy this. Besides that he also satisfies readers who love a bit of heartbreak and drama as well as every die hard triller fan by inserting an emotional and touching plotline and not holding back on a few gruesome murders :-). The novel shocked me too but the weird part is that it wasn’t even these aforementioned murders that surprised me most. He sure knows how to write a twist! I’m sure this novel will please readers of all genres.

*** Don’t forget to follow the rest of the book tour, next one up: Over The Rainbow Book Blog ***

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