Review of Kill for Me Kill for You with Spoilers

My Review of Kill for Me Kill for You discusses this inventive update on a famous Hitchcock plot: the Strangers on a Train crime swap. How was this classic thriller film updated into a 2024 novel? I’m here to spill all, including spoilers for Kill for Me Kill for You by Steve Cavanagh!

Jen’s Quick Take on Kill for Me Kill For You

• A 2023 UK psychological thriller title newly issued in the US
• A reimagining of the Hitchcock classic Strangers on a Train
• Two plot lines that come together at the end
• Some very surprising twists and turns
• Not for readers who want everything to make sense
• WELL worth the ride for readers who love to be shocked

Kill for Me Kill for You by Steve Cavanagh

• To be published in the US on March 19, 2024.
• I read this book in March 2024.
• Thanks to the publisher for the advance review copy.

Jen’s Summary of Kill for Me Kill for You

One dark evening, two strangers meet by chance and realize they have one thing in common: an intense desire for revenge against the men who destroyed their families. As they talk into the night, they come up with the perfect “Strangers on a Train” crime swap.

In another part of the city, Ruth is home alone when the brownstone she shares with her husband is invaded. She’s attacked by a man with piercing blue eyes, who disappears into the night. How can she she feel safe again while the culprit is out there?

Review of Kill for Me Kill for You

My husband is a huge fan of Steve Cavanagh’s Eddie Flynn legal thrillers, which he usually reads in paperback here in the U.S.

Kill For Me Kill For You is a standalone thriller that came out in the UK in 2023.

For me, Kill for Me Kill For You had two interesting components:

First, the homage to Strangers on a Train. There are other books that incorporate a murder swap plot, like Eight Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson, The Kind Worth Killing (also Peter Swanson) The Favor by Nora Murphy, and Confessions on the 7:45 by Lisa Unger.

But the way that Kill for Me Kill for You incorporated this plot element was creative and ingenious.

Kill for Me Kill for You also has dual plotlines: the murder swap plot line and another about Ruth, a woman attacked by a stranger. I thought the two had to be connected … but how? No, I didn’t guess, because the answer was pretty surprising.

If you are looking for a book that will keep you guessing and REALLY surprise you, then you should definitely have Kill for Me Kill for You on your reading list!

Spoilers for Kill for Me Kill for You

First off, this book is a LOT to explain succinctly. If you think I got something wrong, please say so in comments.

As briefly as possible:

• Grieving mom Amanda agrees to swap murders with another grieving woman named Naomi. They agree that Naomi will kill Wallace Crone, the man responsible for the death of Amanda’s young daughter, while Amanda will kill Frank Quinn.

• After Amanda learns that Naomi has upheld her end of the bargain, Amanda attacks Quinn, who barely survives. Then Amanda learns that …. Naomi reneged: Wallace Crone is still alive. (Me: WHAT?!?!?)

• In another plot line, a woman named Ruth is stabbed in her home by “Mr. Blue Eyes,” a man who calls her “sweetheart.” She suffers a near mental breakdown. One day, she is convinced she sees the man who attacked her.

• Ruth is so convinced that her husband Scott attacks and kills the man. But Ruth later insists that she’s found the attacker again, a completely different man, and her husband, distraught at the mistake he made, takes his own life.

The Two Plotlines connect!

Meanwhile, Amanda is also aghast about being tricked and tries to track down Naomi.

Eventually she’s contacted by a man named Billy.

Naomi also tricked him (but said her name was Felicia and asked him to kill a different person for her.)

They find other cases of people accused of murder who insist that a mysterious woman convinced them to kill for her. They finally track the woman down: it’s Ruth.

Yes, we have a DUAL TIMELINE! I love that!

The readers learns that Ruth’s timeline began in 2007 and Amanda’s in 2018. Ruth spent seven years in a psychiatric hospital.

But after she got out in 2015, she still kept thinking (over and over) she’d found Mr. Blue Eyes and picked out vulnerable people to trade murders with. She had multiple fake identities: Jenny, Rachel, Simone, Amy and Sarah.

The Final Twist

Amanda and Billy track down Ruth and we get the final twist:

Billy is Mr. Blue Eyes.

• Billy needs to find Ruth because he’s convinced she’s going eventually find him and kill him. Probably, lol.
• Ruth gets taken back to the psychiatric hospital. Given what Amanda and Billy tell the police, she will locked up permanently.
• Amanda gets a goodbye letter from Billy, who apologizes for lying to her … but says he killed Wallace Crone for her. WHAT?

Wow, right? I mean a lot of it is pretty out-there but it ALL fits together and I didn’t see most of those twists coming!

Well done, Steve Cavanagh! I’m a huge fan of this book.

Questions From Readers:

In comments, the very sharp-eyed Dee:

Why do Ruth and Amanda cross paths on the escalator in the train station? It’s two time periods so it’s illogical and doesn’t advance the story!!

I went back and looked. Here are the quotes Dee mentions from the book. First chapter 24, which is Amanda’s POV and takes place in the present timeline:

“A couple got on the escalator to her (Amanda’s) right, coming down onto the concourse. They were about her age, a man and a woman. The woman had soft chestnut hair and wide, fearful eyes. Those eyes were so round, so watchful, that they reminded her of the opal faces on the clock she’d just passed. She had linked arms with her partner. As they passed each other on the escalator, Amanda glanced at the women. She stared back, and then both women quickly looked away.”

Then in chapter 25, we see the same scene from Ruth’s POV:

“The cab dropped them off at 45th Street … they went through the lobby and onto the escalators which lead to the main concourse at Grand Central. Ruth clung to Scott, her arm looped under his.”

This is pretty much the same thing Amanda described above.

• If Scott is alive it has to be 2007
• But Amanda has just learned in chapter 24 that Naomi lied to her and didn’t kill Crone.
• So Dee is right, that is weird.

What’s interesting to me is that in chapter 49, Amanda also says:

“Ruth had changed her appearance since then (2007). Amanda was living in Manhattan at that time, studying at night school and working in the care home during the day. Their paths could have crossed anytime — standing in line for coffee, getting on the subway, passing each other on an escalator … or maybe not. Maybe they never came close to each other until a few weeks ago.”

When she says “a few weeks ago” I assume she means Ruth changed her appearance to be Wendy/Naomi. But it’s weird that the book mentions an escalator, right?

Could Ruth and Amanda have crossed paths in the present timeline?

Maybe. But not if Scott is with her.

Ruth was attacked by Mr. Blue Eyes on September 14, 2007. Scott takes his own life in November 2007. In 2008, Ruth is put on trial for killing Patrick Travers and then sent to a psychiatric hospital, so she can’t be killing anyone during that time.

She’s released in 2015 (?) and goes back to getting people to kill for her. Amanda meets her as “Wendy” in 2018.

Questions? Thoughts? Please leave them in comments. Spoilers are fine!