Jenny Morris
Simon & Schuster
16 January 2025
416
eBook - PDF
Contemporary/Fantasy
ARC via NetGalley
If you had the power between life and death, what would you do?
Thea has a secret.
She can tell how long someone has left to live just by touching them.
Not only that, but she can transfer life from one person to another – something she finds out the hard way when her best friend Ruth suffers a fatal head injury on a night out.
Desperate to save her, Thea touches the arm of the man responsible when he comes to check if Ruth is all right. As Ruth comes to, the man quietly slumps to the ground, dead.
Thea realises that she has a godlike power: but despite deciding to use her ability for good, she can’t help but sometimes use it for her own benefit.
Boss annoying her at work? She can take some life from them and give it as a tip to her masseuse for a great job.
Creating an ‘Ethical Guide to Murder’ helps Thea to focus her new-found skills.
But as she embarks on her mission to punish the wicked and give the deserving more time, she finds that it isn’t as simple as she first thought.
How can she really know who deserves to die, and can she figure out her own rules before Ruth’s borrowed time runs out?
As I started this review, I struggled for several minutes to decide what genre to call it, as it doesn't sit neatly in one particular category. It's part contemporary moral drama, part fantasy, part thriller and part black comedy. How each reader classifies it may depend on their personal feelings towards to the premise. I am viewing it mostly as a contemporary drama with fantasy elements. The story idea held my interest throughout and it was interesting to see Thea's arc as she grappled with her new abilities and the morally correct way to use them. Although thought-provoking this was still a fairly light and easy read. A few things I saw coming well ahead of time, but others took me by surprise. Overall, the story moved at a good pace too. I could see this making an interesting TV limited series. If you are looking for a work that poses some interesting ethical questions while also being genre-bending, An Ethical Guide to Murder is worth checking out. I am giving it 4.5 stars.
I received this book as a free eBook ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
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