Ooh this is such a good book! I love the way M. J. Arlidge writes, it just flows beautifully, there’s hardly ever a wasted word and the books are jam-packed with every bit of tension and suspense you could possibly want, A Gift For Dying being a fine example of this.
The whole premise of Kassie being able to somehow predict these murders was written in such a way that I never thought to question it, it just made perfect sense, and it’s such an interesting twist that I savoured every word. She’s a really great character, haunted yet feisty - what a combination, I couldn’t help but root for her. In fact, murderer aside, I was pretty much rooting for all of them, there’s such a great collection of characters here, from Kassie; to loving, painter Faith. brave and loyal Adam; right to dogged detective Gabrielle Grey.
It seems strange to say that the murders happen at regular intervals, but what I mean is they don’t overshadow each other and didn’t make me feel like we had to get from one murder to another for things to happen. I’m not sure if I’ve made that any clearer, but there’s so much going on here that the murders are only one part to the story; when they do happen they are gruesome but not in an overly explicit way. But the pace steadily increases as the story develops and it kept me gripped, as all of Arlidge’s novels do, so I read it pretty quickly (and then invariably wanted to read more).
I’ve no doubt that regular readers of M J Arlidge will love this book as much as I did, but if you haven’t read any of his books yet A Gift For Dying would be a terrific way to introduce yourself to him. A fabulous book.
