Murder by Natural Causes - Helen Erichsen

Description

A double life with a single purpose, getting away with murder. Cilla is a 22-year-old contract killer, specialising in the dry job: a murder interpreted as death by natural causes. Her main client, Vladimir Haugr, is the owner of TGR's bridge club in London. In return for a flat, a retainer and expenses, Cilla does five jobs a year. She occasionally works freelance. Neither strong, nor beautiful, Cilla isn't your typical female protagonist. In fact, she is so unremarkable as to render her almost invisible, an advantage in her line of work. She has survived because she is clever, stubborn and lucky. But Cilla knows that, statistically, her luck is about to run out. She must find a way to reinvent herself. Soon.

Review

If you like Killing Eve then I think you will really enjoy this book.

Cilla is a contract killer and her client Haugr owns a bridge club. The beginning of the book focusses a lot on the bridge playing aspect,  it may deter you from reading on if you aren't into gambling. This doesn't last very long and you don't really need to understand bridge to make sense of the rest of the book.

The storyline is dual in that we visit Cilla in her youth and find out about her upbringing, and what has led her to the present day career. A career Cilla has decided doesn't have a long term future for her. At only 22 she's already killed a lot of people and got away with it. But she wants something else for her life before she gets caught. 

She might only be 22 but her character has such depth and has lived on her wits for so long that she has a maturity of someone much older. I really liked her character and was intrigued by her methods of delivering the hits her freelance clients desire. 

It's a fast paced read and a real page turner. I was interested to find out if Cilla really could outwit everyone or would she finally be turned on by those she works for.

I'm giving this book 5 out of 5 stars. My thanks to Pigeonhole for the readalong of this book.