Kill All Your Darlings

A Most Anticipated Summer Read by SheReads * Motherly * Palm Beach Daily News * Frolic * Crime Reads and more!

"Fans of Jean Hanff Korelitz's The Plot may want to check this one out."--Publishers Weekly

"With hints of Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley, this is a riveting thriller."--Palm Beach Daily News

"Grabs you by the throat and never lets go...with a twist you'll never see coming."
--Liv Constantine, bestselling author of The Last Mrs. Parrish

"Sounds like Wonder Boys times Patricia Highsmith. Yes please!"--Crime Reads

When a student disappears and is presumed dead, her professor passes off her manuscript as his own--only to find out it implicates him in an unsolved murder in this new thriller from the USA Today bestselling author of The Request.

After years of struggling to write following the deaths of his wife and son, English professor Connor Nye publishes his first novel, a thriller about the murder of a young woman.

There's just one problem: Connor didn't write the book. His missing student did. And then she appears on his doorstep, alive and well, threatening to expose him.

Connor's problems escalate when the police insist details in the novel implicate him in an unsolved murder from two years ago. Soon Connor discovers the crime is part of a disturbing scandal on campus and faces an impossible dilemma--admit he didn't write the book and lose his job or keep up the lie and risk everything. When another murder occurs, Connor must clear his name by unraveling the horrifying secrets buried in his student's manuscript.

This is a suspenseful, provocative novel about the sexual harassment that still runs rampant in academia--and the lengths those in power will go to cover it up.

BUY THE BOOK

416 pages

Average rating: 7

3 RATINGS

|

1 REVIEW

Community Reviews

JHSiess
Feb 03, 2024
8/10 stars
Academia is a subject with which author David Bell is familiar since when he's not writing thrillers, he is a professor of English at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green. He co-founded and directs that university's Masters in Fine Arts in creative writing program. He received his Ph.D. in creative writing from the University of Cincinnati.

The title of his latest novel, Kill All Your Darlings, is actually a quote from William Faulkner, referencing the need for authors to judiciously and, perhaps, ruthlessly, edit their work.

Kill All Your Darlings explores several themes, among them the fact that Connor, a professor beloved by his students who lost his wife, Emily, and Jake, their fifteen-year-old son, suddenly and tragically, has been unable to write . . . and is on the verge of more loss. In academia, the rule is "publish or perish." Connor published a collection of short stories while a graduate student, but has been at the university for seven years without publishing anything. Unless he does, he will not be granted tenure. Without tenure, the university will let him go. And it is highly unlikely that any other reputable college will hire him. Connor just hasn't been able to draft a book or even a few stories, understandably struggling just to keep functioning on a daily basis. Every time he sits down to write, the same story begins pouring out of him about a mother and child dying in the ocean. The chair of the English department, Dr. Preston White, has been more than Connor's boss. He has also been a good friend, compassionate and patiently giving Connor time and space to work through his grief. "Preston the Politician," as folks at the university call him both behind his back and to his face, even gave Grendel, the dog Preston initially rescued from a local shelter for his own family, to Connor, claiming his daughter was allergic. Preston showed up on Connor's doorstep with Grendel, a leash, and dog food. Indeed, Grendel has been a wonderful companion for Connor, who has regularly taken him on walks in the neighborhoods around the campus. But Preston could only protect Connor for so long, urging him to "just produce something."

Bell uses Connor to illustrate that desperate times call for desperate measures . . . and dreadful results. Connor served as Madeline' O'Brien's thesis advisor, and when he read her manuscript he became "consumed with it." Connor recognized that Madeline was a gifted writer and her talent eclipsed his own. Initially, he just wanted to mentor her and play a small part in the success she was sure to achieve. He expected to see her in class and discuss his notes about the book with her. But then she disappeared. And she didn't return. Everyone believed she was dead. With the deadline for his tenure review bearing down on him, Connor typed Madeline's handwritten manuscript and sent it to his agent, who, to his surprise, sold it to a publisher. As Kill All Your Darlings opens, Connor returns home after an event celebrating the publication of the book to find Madeline waiting for him there. In Bell's capable hands, Connor's life begins spiraling out of control.

Soon Connor is also visited by the police who have found disturbing similarities between the book, titled My Best Friend's Murder, and a killing that occurred two years ago. Connor was questioned immediately after Madeline disappeared because he was apparently the last person to see her before she vanished. But now Detective Alicia Bowman wants to know what inspired Connor to write the novel, and is extremely intrigued by the fact that details about the murder of Sophia Greenfield, whose house Connor regularly walked by with Grendel, that were never released to the public are included in the novel. The parallels are uncanny, but Connor has no explanation for how they ended up in the book and can only protest his innocence.

Bell has again crafted a compelling mystery full of surprising plot twists and complications. Connor relates his experiences in a first-person narrative that details how his profound grief about losing his family affected him. He also explains how he came to pass off Madeline's manuscript as his own, as well as his interactions with Madeline, and tangential connection to Sophia and her husband. He relates his determination to prove that he may be a plagiarist, but he is not a killer. Connor is empathetic and endearing because he is, in some respects, hapless. He ignores his attorney's advice, undertaking his own investigation and, in the process, putting himself in danger as more deaths heighten police interest in his activities. At his core, Connor is a decent, likeable man who did a terrible thing. He believably grapples with the choice he must make, knowing that the consequences for telling the truth about Madeline's book will be grave, his career derailed. But he cannot allow himself to be convicted of crimes he did not commit, and it quickly becomes clear that he has placed his trust in the wrong people. Is he being set up?

Madeline is equally intriguing and sympathetic. She's a young woman working to put herself through college who viscerally comprehends and becomes caught in the power imbalance between students and professors. She knows that she must complete her thesis and defend it in order for the degree she has worked so hard for to be conferred upon her. Can she bring herself to go along in order to get along? Like Connor, placing her trust in the wrong people places her in danger. But unlike some of her classmates, Madeline is very much on her own in the world, without a supportive family upon whom she can call for help. She becomes convinced the only way to protect herself is to disappear and only dares to return when she learns that her book has been published, with Connor credited as the author, in an effort to claim what is hers. "Her experience in life had been that women aren't listened to." So she ingeniously takes steps to ensure that the truth will be revealed even if she does not survive to speak it herself.

Through his characters, Bell explores the imbalance of power in the #MeToo age. His story features reckless and egotistical male villains who engage in despicable behavior. They cross the line, abandoning professionalism and using their privilege to unfair and intimidating advantage. Female students know that reporting unethical behavior by faculty members is, at best, a dicey proposition. "It's always gossip when a woman wants to talk about something" and they are all-too-often accused of voluntarily putting themselves in a position to be abused by men. Worse, professors use grades and, in Kill All Your Darlings, the threat of withholding thesis approval -- which equates to failing to graduate -- to ensure that their repulsive behavior goes unchecked. Bell does not shy away from exploring the repugnant conduct and indicting those guilty of it through deftly-timed and shocking plot developments.

Kill All Your Darlings is a fast-paced mystery, made even more engrossing by its timely subject matter, and unvarnished depiction of institutional power structures and the ways in which they victimize those who dare to challenge them. Bell's compassion and affection for his characters is on display throughout the book, and enhances his richly layered and nuanced telling of their stories.

Once again, Bell demonstrates that he is a master of his craft who clearly takes Faulkner's advice to heart. His writing style is strong, clear, and resonant, and readers will be turning the pages frantically to see if they have correctly guessed who killed Sophia Greenwood, and why, whether Connor will unburden his conscience by confessing the truth, and what the future will hold for him, depending on what he chooses to do.

Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader's Copy of the book.

See why thousands of readers are using Bookclubs to stay connected.