by Jenny Morris
SYNOPSIS
If you had the power over life and death, what would you do?
Thea has a secret.
She can tell how long someone has left to live just by touching them.
Not only that, but she can transfer life from one person to another – something she finds out the hard way when her best friend Ruth suffers a fatal head injury on a night out.
Desperate to save her, Thea touches the arm of the man responsible when he comes to check if Ruth is all right. As Ruth comes to, the man quietly slumps to the ground, dead.
Thea realises that she has a godlike power: but despite deciding to use her ability for good, she can’t help but sometimes use it for her own benefit.
Boss annoying her at work? She can take some life from them and give it as a tip to her masseuse for a great job.
Creating an ‘Ethical Guide to Murder’ helps Thea to focus her new-found skills.
But as she embarks on her mission to punish the wicked and give the deserving more time, she finds that it isn’t as simple as she first thought.
How can she really know who deserves to die, and can she figure out her own rules before Ruth’s borrowed time runs out?
REVIEW
An Ethical Guide to Murder is simply a brilliant debut. I was instantly hooked, and considering this was not exactly a realistic scenario, I was swept along for the ride with Thea as if she was a very real person facing a very real dilemma. On a night out with her lifelong best friend Ruth, Thea finds herself in the worst situation she can imagine. Ruth is caught up in a fight in a nightclub and suffers a fatal head injury. However, as she grabs hold of one of the guys involved, Thea realises that she can steal some or all of the life from one person and pass it on to another. This newly found power also means that she has the ability to see exactly how long a person has left to live - and so her moral quandary begins. Who is more deserving of life? Is it still murder if a person has previously done harm to others? Is it a waste to extend a person's life if they are over a certain age? Thea struggles to decide where to draw the line but knows that she needs to use her powers for good, but at what cost to her and those closest to her?
I was surprised at just how much I loved this book! I was a big fan of the Final Destination films when they came out, and even though this story was very different, it was definitely giving me similar vibes. I think that the mix of crime, comedy and philosophy was spot on - the actual premise was quite dark and raised so many ethical questions that it really needed that dark and sarcastic humour running alongside to balance it out.
An Ethical Guide to Murder is such a unique and interesting book. I always like a story with a high body count but this had the added extra of being an incredibly thought-provoking read at the same time. I am really excited to see what Jenny Morris does next, definitely an author I would love to read more from in the future!
Thanks to Anne Cater - @RandomTTours, Jenny Morris - @Dr_Jenny_Morris and Simon & Schuster UK - @simonschusterUK for the opportunity to read and review.
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Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK Genre: Crime Fiction / Dark Comedy
ISBN: 978-1398534407
Pages: 416pp
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