Friday, January 4, 2008

Book 2: A Kiss Before Dying by Ira Levin

Number of frogs: 0, but I didn't really notice.

His plans had been running so beautifully, so goddamned beautifully, and now she was going to smash them all. Hate erupted and flooded through him, gripping his face with jaw-aching pressure. That was all right, though; the lights were out.

So a human guy is trying to take a shortcut to prosperity - he's preparing to marry a girl who's father owns an industry and is ridiculously wealthy. One problem: she's pregnant, and her father would cut her off if he found out. She can't kill the tadpole inside her belly, so he decides to kill her and make it look like suicide. A year or so later, her sister, who was always convinced it wasn't suicide, decides to investigate. The book has some amazing twists - the kind where you shout "Holy Toad!" and throw the book across the pond.

Great book - read it knowing little more than I've already mentioned, and by no means check out the movie version until later - even summaries of the movie are likely to give too much away.

On a scale of 1 to five lilypads, I give A Kiss Before Dying: