(2.5 / 5)
I couldn’t help but be somewhat disappointed with this book. I had heard such wonderful things about it and a lot of my friends have given it a minimum of 4 stars. I just didn’t feel all the LOVE.
There are a few things going on at once in this thriller. First we meet Rowena and her family at a secluded house where two armed men enter. 10 Year old Nell is the only one who escapes and flees into the snow. One of the men follows her and so begins Nell’s fight for survival. At the same time Valarie, a detective, is desperately trying to find a serial killer who has killed many women in horrible, gruesome ways. She realises that he may not be acting alone. And finally Xander’s story. The killer. How and why is he doing what he is doing? And how did he get such incompetent help? The three stories of Nell, Xander and Valarie continue, and come together in a griping conclusion.
Now don’t get me wrong, I did like this book. It was very gripping and exciting in parts. The characters were well written, all interesting and complex. However too much of it was just totally unbelievable and corny and TOTALLY predictable. There were a few times in the book where the author would focus on something small and “insignificant” eg a funny shaped tree, and give it just a little bit too much attention, which made the reader aware that it would end up being an integral part of the investigation. It was way too predictable for me. Even the reason that Carla disliked Valarie was SO OBVIOUS. I felt every twist as a disappointment.
Parts of this book were extremely slow. There was more than one occasion where I was totally and utterly bored reading about what the characters were thinking about every second. Or when they would go off on tangents, imagining what it would be like if they were in a different situation. It felt like it went ON AND ON AND ON. And Valarie! Oh my gosh if she went on about “what its like to LOVE” any more, I think I would have ripped my hair out! I counted at least 10 different occasions where she went on about LOVE and what its like to have LOVE and what its like to lose LOVE and LOVE and LOVE. ARRRRRGGGGG!!!!! And then the other characters started on about LOVE AND LOVE AND LOVE…
And lets not mention the medical inaccuracies… I can’t help but be frustrated with the description of miscarriage, pain relief and other cringe worthy medical parts of this book.
Ok enough with the bad. It was exciting. I will admit that. I enjoyed the majority of the characters. I liked Valerie despite her flaws and I tried not to hold all the LOVE against her… I enjoyed the relationship she sort of had with Nick. I liked how the bad guys were written, and there was a lot of blood and gore in this book. I’m glad it wasn’t too graphic though, some of the killings were over even my threshold of tolerability in a thriller (which is saying something) but a lot of the really bad stuff was mentioned or merely eluded to, but not described in detail.
Would I recommend The Killing Lessons?
Yes, but for die hard thriller fans… Those who don’t mind their thrillers with a little bit of dribble.
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