Murder Is A Dying Art

* * * * * Excellent!

When sassy and confident Sophie Wilde is interviewed by geeky IT expert Hank Johnson for the position of Account Manager, she feels an instant attraction.

Despite him being twice her age and a virgin to boot, she sets out to stake her claim.

It later comes to her attention that Hank made shrewd investments as a child in IT start-ups Intel, Microsoft, Apple and Google and despite his nerdy outwardly appearance, hes secretly loaded.

Their romance leads to marriage and their marriage leads to a deadly agreement based upon betrayal and revenge.

This is an excellent psychological crime-thriller with a difference! The reader feels an underlying sense of unease right from the start and its difficult to predict exactly where the storys going - which is precisely why its deliciously good.

Sophie and Hank are both complicated people with dysfunctional pasts. Sophie experienced a difficult childhood, for which she blames her mother, and Hanks conception led to the suicide of the father he never knew.

Both have become successful in adulthood - Sophie is beautiful, intelligent but manipulative; Hank is wealthy-beyond-dreams, self-effacing but socially awkward. However, who is pulling the strings - Sophie with her conniving and contriving or introverted and socially inept Hank?

And could a Premarital Agreement justify murder?

I was totally engrossed in this book and the unusual direction it took.

The further I read, the more tangled it became and WOW, what a climax - the final paragraph was excellent.

With so many twists and turns, this ones heading straight for my Best Reads list.

by Barnseys Books

* * * * A massive, eery irony

Couple the titles colorful metaphor with the antiseptic Kruzes writing style and you get a juicy irony maintained throughout this mystery.

Sophies dad is her role model while her mom is her nemesis.

She is a beautiful, sexy, capable twenty-something.

Hanks dad dies before hes born and his mom is his best friend.

Hes a forty year old rich geek.

Together, they enact a courtship and marriage based on a deadly promise about jealousy and revenge.

What is it worth to keep this promise?

Kruze creates suspense by interspersing narrating chapters with italicized chapters of commentary, as well as by jumping back and forth between time periods.

Were tantalized hearing about a trial whose crime unfolds alongside the legal proceedings following it.

The result is a creepy, compelling exploration of the lengths we go for love.

by Mari Carlson