The Next to Die

September 15, 2018

Billy Dead Mates: he's the nasty new killer on the block, who picks pairs of best friends and then picks them off one at a time, presenting each with a little white book before he does the dirty deed. Folks in general are scared, particularly stand-up comedian Kim Tribbeck, who was handed one of those books by a stranger at a gig. She hasn't got any friends to be murdered with, so was the stranger really Billy? From the New York Times best-selling author; with a 75,000-copy first printing.

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Hannah's tenth "Spilling CID" title, originally published as The Narrow Bed in the UK (after Woman with a Secret), leavens a grim story of a serial killer with the darkly funny narration of protagonist Kim Trebbick. But as in all Hannah novels, the narrative shifts among many characters and plot lines. Det. Simon Waterhouse and his colleagues at the Spilling CID are stumped by the seemingly unconnected murders of two pairs of best friends linked only by the existence of small homemade books they received before their deaths. When this information is made public, the police catch a break, as Kim, a misanthrope comedian who doesn't have a best friend, was also given one of the books before the killings occurred. This provides Simon with a fresh jumping-off point; Kim is intrigued, but she worries that the murderer will be after her next. VERDICT When it comes to complex plotting, internationally acclaimed Hannah ("Hercule Poirot" mysteries) has few equals. Her trademark slow build, as she introduces characters and the threads of their lives, may cause some readers to struggle, but those who stick with it will find the adventure well worthwhile. [See Prepub Alert, 8/20/18.]--Jane Jorgenson, Madison P.L., WI

December 1, 2018
A task force of police officers from across England struggles to apprehend the killer they've imprudently dubbed "Billy Dead Mates."The nickname, mercilessly ridiculed by feminist Lifeworld columnist Sondra Halliday, stems from the fact that the first two shooting victims, Linzi Birrell and Rhian Douglas, were best friends. So were the next two, Angela McCabe and Joshua Norbury. Shortly before getting murdered, each victim received a little white notebook whose pages were blank except for a single line from a poem by an American writer. As DI Gilles Proust and DC Simon Waterhouse of the Culver Valley Police work with their counterparts from Bournemouth and Poole and the London Metropolitan Police to identify Billy, comedian Kim Tribbeck, already stressed out by her long-estranged grandmother's drawn-out demise in Rawndesley Hospital, has an alarming recollection: Somewhere, sometime during her most recent circuit of stand-up performances, someone slipped her a little white notebook as well. When she reports the matter to the police, she's chagrined to find her own most urgent question (who's planning to kill me?) humiliatingly transformed by them (since she received the notebook at least a few weeks ago, why hasn't she been killed yet, and who's the best friend who's slated to be killed along with her?). Under every rock Proust, Waterhouse, and DC Chris Gibbs turn over, they find fresh suspects, from Kim's ex-lover Liam Sturridge to Marjolein Baillie, the self-styled Ishaya of Bright Path (don't ask). While Sondra Halliday loudly insists that the crimes are nothing more or less than femicide, Kim's transgressive, tightrope-walking wit provides a welcome fulcrum between the extravagantly inventive mystery and the unrelenting exploration of even minor characters' psychology.Hannah (Keep Her Safe, 2017, etc.) strews clues and complications with such prodigal abandon that even readers who rub their eyes in disbelief at her solution will be impressed by the range and weight of her impassioned plotting.

COPYRIGHT(2018) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

November 15, 2018
Books are not only everywhere in this serial-killer investigation, they are also the key to identifying the murderer. A perpetrator dubbed Billy Dead Mates by police (a play on words for the English term Billy No Mates, meaning a person who has no friends) has already shot two pairs of best friends. Each of the victims was given a small, white handmade book bearing a single handwritten line of poetry shortly before being killed. When stand-up comedian Kim Tribbeck realizes that she also received such a book, which she either mislaid or trashed, she becomes part of the investigation and begins writing her own book, excerpted here. As a member of the team on the case, DC Simon Waterhouse, both brilliant and unorthodox, calls on his wife, Sergeant Charlie Zailer, for assistance in working with Kim, and Kim assists Charlie in uncovering what Charlie's sister, Olivia, is lying about. Accusations of misogyny aside, this tenth in the Waterhouse-Zailer series has a lighter tone than others and a motive that seems insufficient for taking multiple lives. Still, it's a wonderfully played-out puzzle, with food for thought about the importance of books.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)