"A woman discovers her power to both give life and take it away with a simple touch. The power is both a blessing and a curse. "
Thea is a serial killer with a conscience. But also is a serial killer with a difference: she can murder truly awful people but also give life to people more deserving by only touching them.
An Ethical Guide to Murder by debut novelist Jenny Morris, is a fresh addition to the bookshelves. It is part crime novel and part philosophical treatise, but it also has a love story, displays of enormous wealth and some police procedurals thrown in for good measure. It’s a glorious patchwork of genres and is all the better for it.
Once she discovers her ability to know how long people have to live, and then either take or give life accordingly, she decides she needs a rulebook to follow. Along with her new boyfriend Sam, Thea starts to write the ethical guide of the title, with rules to follow when she takes and reassigns life. What started as a simple proposition becomes far more complicated. Thea discovers that her ethical dilemmas are not black and white—there are thousands of shades of grey to consider too.
This unique and clever novel feels like a mash-up between a Black Mirror episode and a university philosophy class. Is this superpower a force for good or a force for evil? Is any one person truly bad (or truly good)? Thea grapples with these questions and takes the reader along with her.
This is a fantastic and unique addition to the crime genre, with its unique premise, philosophical underpinnings and dark humour, and is highly recommended.
How to Kill Your Family meets The Power in this entertaining and thought-provoking read, that asks:
If you had the power between 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?
An Ethical Guide to Murder features in the following genres: Crime and Mystery, Modern and Contemporary Fiction, Thriller and Suspense, Metaphysical / philosophical fiction, Crime and mystery: private investigator / amateur detectives, Crime and mystery: women sleuths, Magical realism, Contemporary fantasy, Narrative theme: Love and relationships, Narrative theme: Death, grief, loss, Narrative theme: Social issues
An Ethical Guide to Murder is available in Paperback, Hardback
An Ethical Guide to Murder was written by Jenny Morris and published by Simon & Schuster UK Ltd. an imprint of Simon & Schuster UK
An Ethical Guide to Murder has 416 pages
£15.29
