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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
29 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Suicide for sale.,
By
This review is from: Kill Me (Hardcover)
Stephen White's new thriller, "Kill Me," deals with a new concept--death insurance. Suppose you were a fabulously wealthy man and you wanted to be sure that your life ended before you became severely disabled or impaired. Would you pay an organization over a million dollars to kill you and make your death look natural? That is the choice facing the protagonist and narrator of this novel, whom I'll call Mr. X, since the author never gives him a name. White's recurring character, psychologist Alan Gregory, plays a brief but essential role. He helps the narrator deal with issues of vulnerability and intimacy. They also discuss the existence of a son that X never knew he had.X is an arrogant and high-powered businessman with a private plane and more money than he'll ever need. He has had affairs with scores of women, and one of his brief encounters resulted in the birth of Adam, whom X meets when the adolescent boy tracks him down. By then, X is married to the beautiful and sensitive Thea, and they have a baby girl. Is there room for Adam in X's life? What emotional solace can X provide for the needy young man? Much to X's shock, he learns that he has a medical condition that may hasten his death, but he decides that he wants to live long enough to bring closure to Adam. Will the so-called "Death Angels," which is the nickname that X has given to the people whom he has hired to kill him, let X live, or will they fulfill their end of the bargain regardless of his wishes? Stephen White is a skilled writer, and he has come up with what is arguably one of the most original ideas for a thriller ever. However, does White make it work? Alas, the execution (no pun intended) is not as satisfying as the setup. X is a control freak who insists on having the upper hand in every business or social transaction. It is completely out of character for this man to cede control over his life to the Death Angels. There are many other melodramatic and contrived elements that make it difficult to suspend one's disbelief. On the plus side, the scenes in which X visits Dr. Gregory and they engage in verbal sparring matches before getting down to the business of psychotherapy are effective and poignant. As a result of these sessions, X learns to look inside himself, and he begins to realize that it is time to get his priorities in order. "Kill Me" raises some timely questions about a person's "right to die," but White doesn't spend much time getting to the root of this ethical dilemma. Instead, the book morphs into a conventional thriller, in which X engages in car chases and a battle of wits, racing against time to accomplish his goals before the Death Angels mow him down. The conclusion is so over the top that it throws the entire novel out of balance. I have always admired Stephen White's work, but this time, I wish that he had crafted this potentially compelling story with more depth and realism.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A nice change of pace,
By
This review is from: Kill Me (Hardcover)
This is the second novel I've read in which the main character is not Dr. Gregory, but instead is a person who has come to him for help. I like seeing Dr. Gregory from a patient's perspective, and it's interesting to compare it with how Dr.Gregory perceives himself in the novels in which he is the primary character. The plot is complex and intriguing, and Stephen White's writing is as good as it always is. The ending had a twist I had not expected, and I think other readers might also be surprised by it. I recommend the book to both those who read Stephen White regularly and those who may have never read him before. A knowledge of Dr. Gregory and his previous story lines is not needed to be drawn into "Kill Me."
19 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I've Read Them All,
By
This review is from: Kill Me (Hardcover)
I've read all of Stephen White's books and reviewed all of them in one place or another. But I don't just slap an "excellent" or 5 star label on his work because I'm hooked on the series. I really believe that White looks at both his long running series (I believe this is book #13) with the attitude that he wants to keep it alive, but he wants to keep it fresh. He's employed a number of different methods over the years, but he really jolts his following with the 2006 novel, "Kill Me".Big positives: If you do not follow series thrillers, or if you do not want to, and are coming along looking for a great read....you can enjoy "Kill Me" without ever having read an earlier White work. The author makes that happen by having his normal protagonist, Dr. Alan Gregory, play a critical, but less than central role. He does not include Gregory's wife and child, his practice partner, his friends (and we all miss crotchety Sam Purdy) in the novel at all. One close relationship that Gregory has...between man and the elements in the beautiful state of Colorado, is back. Colorado is once again the breathtaking backdrop and home of the central character, a wealthy man, who (and I didn't even question it at the time!) remains unnamed throughout the book. White makes the beauty of the landscape come alive. White has always written books with very brief chapters. At times that has annoyed. In this book, the chapterization clips with the pace of the growing fear and feeling of overwhelm one gets as a man's life ticks down to its final moments. As Gregory's patient, the unnamed man is a force to be reckoned with....but having contracted to an organization that is to kill him if he has a disease or an accident that will leave him in a lingering vegatative state, he is having second thoughts. Big time. There is a family connection to his reasons to keep living, that I won't reveal here -- it's an inspired rationale. There is a beautiful and mysterious female that aids him in keeping alive. There is a heartthumping chase, some twists, and an agonizing demonstration of what it feels like to end your life without hope. In the past, my criticism of White's work has usually been because he beats the dilemma of a psychologist who has a dangerous patient, not divulging information and breaking confidentiality. It's an interesting conundrum, but he goes back to it over and over. Not here. Not even once. This is a masterful run at a familiar setting by an author who is underrated and who proves, with this, perhaps his best book, that he is unmatched at putting together the strategy for a book, and in building plot and character to execute it with precision. Bravo....with 6 stars not available, I'll have to settle for 5. Don't wait for the paperback!
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