LoveReading Says
LoveReading Says
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A pacy espionage thriller, with a science fiction twist and a whole squad of strong female characters. ‘Killing Queens’ by Raechel Sands introduces us to Nearby, an MI6 intelligence officer who tells the reader about her connections and experiences with other agents she calls, the Black Queen, the White Queen and the Red queen. In a world of MI6, spies and modification to make “purple blood” super-assassins, this is the first of the Killing Queens saga. The Irish dialect used by Nearby to tell this story seems authentic although it sometimes seems to seep into the perspectives of the other characters, which I found a little jarring.
I loved the author’s use of imagery throughout, “stopped with the sound of snow coming to rest” was a particular favourite. The author certainly manages to pack a lot into the book, even creating and referencing a playlist that can be listened to in accompaniment. This is a detailed story that combines noir, espionage, adventure and satire; those that enjoy the irreverence of Villanelle in ‘Killing Eve’ will find similar characters here. The plot switches between past and present in order to include all three of the queens in the story, providing the reader with backstory while also continuing the action. The author has done well to structure the book so that you can follow the characters and the timelines without getting lost. One slight niggle I do have about the structure is the use of footnotes. I personally prefer any information that’s vital to the plot to be woven through it, not tagged on as a footnote, and would have preferred to not be pulled out of the action to read additional and potentially unnecessary explanations.
‘Killing Queens’ is an interesting story with a cast of strong female characters. This is an entertaining book for someone looking for a slightly unconventional action and espionage thriller with a sci-fi/fantasy twist and filled with dark humour.
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Killing Queens Synopsis
- Riveting, racy and dark women-at-MI6 thriller series
- #1 Best Seller
- Killing Eve meets The Night Circus with a dash of Stephen King
- New Irish-British author
- Spellbinding, offbeat and zany thought-provoking writing
Raechel Sands' dangerous love web between women spies, and the women and men who pursue them.
“At twenty-six, Kitty thought she had her whole life ahead of her. ‘Not so tough now, are you?’ C said to her corpse. ‘Dead women don’t talk, Kitty White. It’s really nothing like James Bond’.”
"The first psychiatrist to understand me gave me a wee tip. ‘Pretend to be normal,’ he said. So that’s why I’m standing by the polar bear enclosure at Yorkshire Wildlife Park sucking a Fox’s Glacier Mint. That’s a sweetie – a hard candy the Americans call it. I’m also holding my favourite book, Polar Bears Have Big Feet. It tells me their front feet ‘are as big as dinner plates.’ Just the thing for tilting at windmills altogether. And – yes – my second favourite is Don Quixote, the first novel ever written. My copy’s a thousand pages. A score at the back are blank – grand if I run out of paper in my Filofax. Sadly Cervantes didn’t put any polar bears in it. People often ask: ‘Do spies really like wildlife?’ ‘Sure,’ I tell them, ‘spies are into all kinds of things.’"
"7 swung the side of the dollhouse open. In a stable, a blonde doll resembling Blanka sat on a white horse. It had pins pushed through its kidneys. 7 lifted up a dirty Guinness glass. In it stood a tall Nearby doll – closely resembling 7 herself – but dressed in torn shabby clothes. She lifted it out and held it up to her eyes and touched its nut brown hair with her finger. ‘You’re no Cinderella, Goody Two-Shoes,’ she told it. She spat in the doll’s face. ‘I know what you’re really like. Spying on us, writing everything down. Slut!’ She turned the doll upside down and dropped it back in the glass. Its skirt fell over its head."
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Press Reviews
Raechel Sands Press Reviews
“Cleverly blends noir, satire, lesfic, epic, and Dan Brown-style religious mystery."
"Edge-of-your-seat sequels each more stunning than the last."
“Great female action adventure!"
“Kurt Vonnegut meets Raymond Chandler meets Killing Eve." (Cambridge News)
"Listening to this book was one of the strangest and most fun experiences I’ve had."
“Serial killer 7 aka La Bombe, a reincarnated Josef Mengele, is a riveting villain."
“Whirlwind rollercoaster of twists and double crosses.”
"Wild wacky and compelling. I read the three books one after another."
