Dear Killer by Katherine Ewell
Release Date: April 1, 2014
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Genre: Young Adult Thriller
ISBN: 978-0062257802
Source: Bought
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Rule One—Nothing is right, nothing is wrong.
Rule Two—Be careful.
Rule Three—Fight using your legs whenever possible, because they’re the strongest part of your body. Your arms are the weakest.
Rule Four—Hit to kill. The first blow should be the last, if at all possible.
Rule Five—The letters are the law.

Kit takes her role as London’s notorious “Perfect Killer” seriously. The letters and cash that come to her via a secret mailbox are not a game; choosing who to kill is not an impulse decision. Every letter she receives begins with “Dear Killer,” and every time Kit murders, she leaves a letter with the dead body. Her moral nihilism and thus her murders are a way of life—the only way of life she has ever known.

But when a letter appears in the mailbox that will have the power to topple Kit’s convictions as perfectly as she commits her murders, she must make a decision: follow the only rules she has ever known, or challenge Rule One, and go from there.

Katherine Ewell’s Dear Killer is a sinister psychological thriller that explores the thin line between good and evil, and the messiness of that inevitable moment when life contradicts everything you believe.

Wow. I don’t know what I was expecting but it definitely wasn’t this. What a thrill! What a ride. This was truly one of the most captivating reads of the year for me. I read it in two sittings. It would have been one had I not been so exhausted with work. Plainly put, if you like Dexter or Kick Ass, you’ll love Dear Killer. Dear Killer is for you.

The premise reeled me in immediately. A teenage serial killer who answers the call based on the secret letters she receives via a secret mailbox stash? I’m totally in. A letter that hits close to home? Super in. Mistakes made and rules broken that could jeopardize everything Kit and her mother, a former serial killer, have worked so hard for? What!!! This story is wild. To say the least.

It’s not for everyone. The kills are graphic. Kit’s moral system may be difficult to grasp. But if you can dip your entire head under and sink into this world that Ewell has created, suspend disbelief at a child killer (one who constantly kills human beings, not just a child showing signs cruelly playing with insects or something), you are in for a treat. The story and Kit’s journey are both so simple yet so complex. The relationships Kit has are to keep up the facade, to keep playing the game, to keep the house of cards standing. What happens when those relationships are tested, when Kit herself is tested against her own self, is incredible.

I loved the themes throughout this story and watching the mind of this particular serial killer. Because she may have grown up killing but she’s still working out who she is and what she truly believes in, what she stands for, what she should stand for and what she should dismiss and can run away from, because she’s good at evading. Clearly. At first. She’s set in her ways in the beginning but everything begins to slowly unravel and it isn’t until it’s too late, so to speak, that she realizes that she herself is unraveling as well.

All of the elements of this story, this character, these relationships come together so well and make for one fluid, entertaining read. I love where this story ended. That said, it would have been way more interesting if the ending had been an earlier climax and we got to follow even more of the fallout. I believe this is a stand alone story though so man oh man, what a place to end the story!

Also, aside from the fact that there’s a lot of description and detail for everything and I’m not really into all of that in general, I didn’t buy Kit as British, and at times it was hard to grasp a police officer (even though he was a few years older than Kit) confiding in a curious teenager so soon after they just met, there’s nothing else I can say about it constructively. I really enjoyed this book! What a great debut! Again, it’s not for everybody but what book is? If you’re intrigued by the synopsis, give it a shot!

Dear Killer by Katherine Ewell is available today.