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A Kiss Before Dying Paperback – April 1, 2003
| Ira Levin (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author |
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Enhance your purchase
- Print length304 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherCarroll & Graf
- Publication dateApril 1, 2003
- Dimensions5.51 x 0.59 x 8.5 inches
- ISBN-100786711647
- ISBN-13978-0786711642
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Product details
- Publisher : Carroll & Graf (April 1, 2003)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 304 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0786711647
- ISBN-13 : 978-0786711642
- Item Weight : 11.8 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.51 x 0.59 x 8.5 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #4,506,367 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #16,629 in Hard-Boiled Mystery
- Customer Reviews:
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This, however, is the book and it came before any of the movies. In fact, what is amazing about it is that it was Levin’s very first novel and was published at age 23. Otto Penzler, in his introduction to the book, marvels at how much genius was shown by this early success, comparing it to Bobby Fischer’s success at chess.
The book is divided into three parts for the three sisters: Dorothy, Ellen, and Marion Kingship.
A Kiss Before Dying is the story of a young man from a poor family in rural Massachusetts, a fair-haired boy who charms everyone he meets. “His schooldays were the happiest of his life; the girls liked him for his looks and his charm; the teachers liked him because he was polite and attentive.” However, “when he started dating, it was with girls from the better part of town.” He was the class president, the most popular, the most likely to succeed. An important moment in his life occurs when he is drafted and manages to dislodge a Japanese sniper from a tree, enjoying his power in that situation, he slaughters the man who was surrendering in abject fear.
He comes home, determined to be a success, but finds that the odd jobs he secures in New York to be unrewarding and eventually decides to go to college on the GI Bill. He specifically chose a Midwestern university known “to be something of a country club for the children of the Midwestern wealthy.” There, he meets Dorothy Kingship, whose father owned and operated a huge mining and smelting concern. She is his ticket to wealth and success.
But, as the story opens, she is pregnant and he is concerned that her wealthy self-made father will not accept him under such circumstances and he tries to get her to abort the fetus by taking pills secured through a connection. Later, he resolves to get rid of her and tricks her into writing a letter that looks like a suicide note and tries to get her to swallow arsenic before pushing her off a tall building on the day that was to be their secret wedding day.
The narrative is so matter-of-fact as he, seemingly on the outside being this normal guy, plans these atrocious deeds, step-by-step. But, from there, the story only gets creepier as he eventually dates the other two sisters, determined to marry into money. And, it is striking how he pulled off the perfect crime, leaving behind such scant evidence that he could never be prosecuted. No one, least of all the authorities, could possibly suspect this fine young man could be capable of such horrendous things.
The greatness of this book is how a charming, intelligent man who no one could possibly suspect of being a murderering sociopath who will stop at nothing to achieve what he wants. The story is haunting in the way it is told and the way Levin slowly takes the reader along for a ride on the creepy express.
This book is highly recommended. Without question, it is to be awarded the coveted five stars.
The book starts with the main character, a nameless con man, attending college after WWII. He's determined to get rich by marrying Dorothy Kingship, daughter of the fantastically wealthy copper magnate Leo Kingship. But obstacles keep blocking his path, and soon he hatches a plot to kill her.
At first it seems like our killer is just clever and greedy, but as the plot continues, it turns out he's also cruel. He enjoys the cat-and-mouse game and laughs at Dorothy's innocent, trusting nature. Soon Dorrie plunges from the top of a building. It's presumed to be a suicide. The writing is terrific, full of details that pay off later. Why was Dorothy carrying a handkerchief that clashed with her outfit? What about the pills he gave her...?
The book is divided into three sections, one for each of the Kingship girls. The first section ends with our guy getting away with murder. The second chapter involves second daughter Ellen Kingship. The story loses a little momentum in this section, but it's worth reading carefully because Levin is planting a lot of clues that will pay off later. Pretty soon we have two more murders on our hands, and our killer has an adversary, a radio DJ and conspiracy buff named Gordon Gant, whose happy-go-lucky demeanor hides his intelligence and determination.
Things really get rolling in the third section, "Marion." Our killer is more obsessed than ever with getting a piece of the Kingship fortune, and sets out to woo and marry the last Kingship daughter, Marion. She's resentful and plain, an 'old maid' at twenty-five, but Levin succeeds in making her sympathetic. He pursues her like prey, ruthlessly getting under her defenses, and soon they're set to marry. Gordon Gant is still on the trail. The police haven't been any help, so he continues tracking down evidence on his own. The book races toward its conclusion. In the last chapter, the killer's excitement turns to mania as he sees the copper fortune finally within his grasp. Will he marry Marion? Kill her? It comes to a blazing conclusion that's entirely satisfying and, in Levin's hands, seemingly inevitable. I thought "Oh! This is where he's been leading us all along!".
So in short...I enjoyed this book a lot, and hope you will too.
Top reviews from other countries
The man was capable of excelling in every genre. As I don't want to put in spoilers, just get this and gobble it up - then get all the rest of his stuff. Everything from S.F. through murder and gothic horror - you will never be bored. Sadly missed!
And yet, while A Kiss Before Dying, by the late Ira Levin, has all the signature style and undeniable glamour of a somewhat noirish American thriller, not to mention a characteristically sensationalist plot, there's plenty to set it apart.
The story begins with an unnamed young man plotting the death of his fiancée, Dorothy Kingship - a pretty, rich, naive college student. Having planned to marry her to get his hands on some of her father's money, he's furious to learn that she's pregnant. This being somewhere around 1950, this seems likely to force them to marry immediately and incur the wrath of Dorothy's father, who will almost certainly disinherit her as a result, leaving the nameless protagonist poorer than ever and saddled with a wife and child he never wanted as well as ruining his master-plan. Consequently, when pills from a backstreet abortionist fail to work their magic, the only alternative, he feels, is murder.
It's chilling, tense and (like the much-maligned and underrated 1950s shocker, Peyton Place) remarkably evocative of its time and setting. And it's a decent enough thriller plot, of course. All pretty straightforward...
But then, Levin pulls a particularly clever trick. He switches the novel's point of view. Suddenly, we're in the position of Ellen Kingship, trying to discover who has wronged her younger sister. All she knows is that she has to look for a handsome, charming blond college boy in his mid-20s (his academic career having been interrupted by World War II, of course). There are a number of contenders. And it could be any of them. Terrifyingly, any of these affable, bright, all-American boys Ellen meets could have the mind of a psychopathic killer - a mind into which we, as readers, already have a horrific insight.
Those familiar with Ira Levin's best-known works - Rosemary's Baby, The Boys From Brazil, The Stepford Wives, all of which became immensely successful films - will know that his books tend to stretch plausibility a little, and yes, A Kiss Before Dying does this too. But somehow, it's all so neatly plotted in every detail, with every character so absolutely spot-on for the roles they have to play in the story, that I found myself believing every word. It may be pulp-influenced at times, and at times it's a wee bit overblown, but the writing is so sharp that it simply doesn't matter, and Levin has been astute in building his characters convincingly to give them credible motivation.
As in his other books that I mentioned, Levin uses A Kiss Before Dying to tug at a sinister, dysfunctional thread that unravels the fragile tapestry of a classic American setting to reveal a dark, calculating cruelty lying beneath. Nobody and nothing are what they seem in Levin's novels, and reading this book is like stepping into the world of a stylish Hitchcock film full of beautiful women, fabulous outfits, ever-building tension, surprise plot twists and ambiguously charming men who may or may not be calculating killers.
The book is a thriller and as the introduction says is basically the story of the worst boyfriend ever. In the opening section we follow a man as he courts a woman, but when she reveals she is pregnant he tries to make her have an abortion, but when she disagrees he decides to kill her instead, and we see things through his eyes. It's a chilling, compelling opening. The rest of the book sees events from the perspective of women as they meet a wonderful man, but all is not as it seems. As the novel progresses we discover that the women are related, and the man is the same person we had met in the opening. What is he doing? What will happen next?
It's a fantastic page-turner with some shocking scenes and a memorable ending. I'm amazed I'd not heard of it sooner, but I'll remember it for a long, long time. In some ways I enjoyed this more than Levin's other work. A great read.








