By Sara Steven
Meet Camilla Black: an affluent, respected, influential fashion magazine editor, who lives it up in her beautiful Mayfair apartment. But Camilla’s glamorous life is a lie. Behind her poised exterior beats the cold dark heart of a vigilante killer, a murderer hell-bent on wreaking vengeance upon bad men.
Camilla expects to get away with murder. She’s careful. And anyway, it’s worth the risk. She’s making the world a better place with each predator she kills. But when one of her victims’ bodies is unexpectedly found, his gruesome death is splashed all over the papers.
To make matters worse, she’s now being pursued by Detective Wheelan, a new addition to the Met with laser-sharp focus and a worrying habit of solving impossible crimes…
She knows she should stop, but she can’t. Some men just deserve to die. Will Camilla’s insatiable appetite for justice be her downfall, or can she outsmart the police? (Synopsis courtesy of Amazon.)
Camilla lives a double life: On the one hand, she’s well known as a fashion magazine editor, but beyond that lifestyle is the one where she rids the world of bad men, one impeccable kill at a time. The first murder that is described in minute detail had me cringing inwardly, it was that descriptive. Where most of us would end up squeamish, it’s all in a day’s work for Camilla, and it’s a job she has devoted herself to whole-heartedly. She’s careful and particular, ensuring she’ll never get caught. So, what’s the worst that can happen?
I really liked Camilla’s character makeup. She has no ties to any of the emotions that are often associated with being female. She has her group of “friends” who are almost like a cover, considering she doesn’t feel she can get involved with anyone, not on any level. But somehow, she makes that disconnect look cool. She is unapologetic about her need for passion–whether that’s on a sensual level, or involving her latest kill. She is stealthy and unyielding, almost like a newfound superhero for all of womankind. But even the best can get a little too cocky, and using a bow and arrow and elevating the vigilante experience could be the very thing that eventually takes her down.
As much as I liked Camilla, I couldn’t help but feel a little sorry for her. She never feels as though she can trust, and she is continually looking over her shoulder. When she describes what her family life had been like, and talks about the one person she felt she could turn to in her time of need and how in essence it wasn’t at all what she expected it to be, there is a lot of empathy involved. There is a reason Camilla is the way she is, and because she’s doing something to, in her mind, better humanity, it’s a lot easier to side with her, even if she is a serial killer.
The one thing I wish there had been less of had been the long amounts of inner dialogue that would crop up when Camilla reflected on certain memories or the past. I felt as a reader that it would take me out of the current scene she was in, when it would go from the present moment, then we’d get tossed back into the past. But the incredible dialogue and Camilla in general more than made up for it. Pretty Evil was a thrilling experience!
Thanks to Rachel's Random Resources for the book in exchange for an honest review.
Enjoyed this post? Never miss out on future posts by following us.
Listen to this book on Speechify!
No comments:
Post a Comment