Somewhere between Jim Thompson and An American Tragedy, lies this work. However, it lacks the fun and terror that Jim Thompson's works often possess, and also the weight and scope of Theodore Dreiser's masterpiece.

I really don't understand what Ira Levin is all about. Take Rosemary's Baby and The Stepford Wives for example. This book, like those, is ingeniously designed and executed. But somehow, it never gives the feeling of being truly significant or meaningful. It's as if it's just a well-crafted shell without any real substance inside. There's a certain hollowness to it that makes it difficult to fully engage with or appreciate. Maybe I'm missing something, but that's the impression it leaves on me.

**A Kiss Before Dying: A Masterpiece of Suspense and Social Commentary**

A Kiss Before Dying is an ingenious title that initially evokes images of tenderness and love, perhaps a final kiss shared with a beloved family member. However, as the story unfolds, it becomes clear that this title holds a much darker and more sinister meaning.

Ira Levin's debut novel, published in 1953, explores the mind of a charming yet amoral protagonist. The young man, whose true nature is revealed from the very first page, is willing to go to any lengths to achieve his ambitions. His actions are not tempered by morality or conscience, and he views others, especially women, as mere pawns in his game.

The novel is divided into three sections, each named after one of the Kingship sisters. This structure adds an element of mystery and anticipation, as the reader wonders what fate awaits each sister at the hands of the protagonist. The story is filled with unexpected twists and turns, keeping the reader on the edge of their seat until the very end.

One of the most impressive aspects of A Kiss Before Dying is Levin's ability to create a believable and immersive world. Despite being set in the 1950s, the novel's themes of class injustice and the pursuit of power are still relevant today. The characters are well-developed and complex, and the dialogue is sharp and realistic.

In addition to its literary merits, A Kiss Before Dying has also been adapted into two films. While the films may vary from the novel, they both capture the essence of the story and its themes. The novel's popularity and critical acclaim have endured over the years, and it is now regarded as a modern classic of the suspense genre.

Overall, A Kiss Before Dying is a must-read for fans of mystery and suspense. It is a masterfully crafted novel that combines elements of a traditional detective story with a deeper exploration of human nature and society. Levin's unique writing style and his ability to create tension and suspense make this novel a true page-turner.

A mystery that leans less towards the thrilling side and delves more into an exploration of a psychopath's mind. It presents a deeply layered cat and mouse game, constantly luring the reader into supporting the wrong 'un. The book showcases the lucid and clean prose that is Levin's trademark. In its own unique way, this book has actually set standards for psychological crime thrillers and continues to be a classic within that particular niche.

It is a captivating read that takes the reader on a journey through the complex psyche of a criminal. The story unfolds in a way that keeps the reader on the edge of their seat, guessing and second-guessing at every turn. The characters are well-developed, and the plot is full of twists and turns that will leave you stunned.

Whether you are a fan of psychological thrillers or simply looking for a thought-provoking read, this book is highly recommended. It will challenge your perceptions and leave you with a new understanding of the human mind.

I truly adored this book. It was ingeniously crafted, with every detail carefully thought out. However, it also brought me an overwhelming sense of sadness.

Oh, it's about human nature and the trust between people. You see, the question of whom to trust is a complex one. I recall how my parents were extremely eager to convince me not to marry that man (and he surely wasn't a murderer), but their efforts only solidified my determination to marry him. Once you're in love, you tend to turn a blind eye.

And indeed, it's possible that with a great deal of effort, you can make someone fall in love with you. Newspapers are rife with tales of con men and even worse, some of them apparently very successful, even in the online world.

As a novel, I can find no flaws in it. In fact, I even envy it a little. It's the kind of book that I wish I had the talent to write. But then again, I'm not a thriller writer, and quite often I think that the thriller genre simply isn't for me.

COUNTDOWN: Mid-20th Century North American Crime

BOOK 243 (of 250)

"Modern Classic"? Edgar Award? "What am I missing?" I thought, so I read this one twice.

HOOK - 2 stars: >>>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. And she, she kept on sobbing weakly in the dark, her cheek pressed against his bare chest, her tears and her breath burning hot. He wanted to push her away.<<< By 1953, waking up (cliche #1) with a beautiful woman sobbing (cliche #2) has been done and done. And done. And when the 'goddamned' term is used, you know you're in the hands of a lazy writer desperately trying for a'shock' opening. But I did want to know about the messed-up plans as otherwise I'd have closed the book.

PACE - 2: There are lots of trips to a Municipal building. The narrative is slushy. There are pages about a belt. There is a lot of whining. However, it builds to a nice, deserving-to-the-villain climax on page 280+. (It's at least 100 pages too long, though.)

PLOT - 1: The plot is as dumb as a doorknob. A poor guy wants to marry a rich girl. But'something happens' to her. What does he do? He goes on...to her sister! Nope, he doesn't look for another rich girl as in his plan. He goes for the 2nd sister!!! And it gets even stupider (yes, that word applies here), because'something happens' to the 2nd sister. Then...you guessed it...he goes inexplicably for the 3rd sister!!! There are rich gals all over, and there is NO EXPLANATION why he MUST marry a sister of a sister of a sister. A first-day CSI cast member could figure this one out in about a minute by looking through college yearbooks...but that easy solution is held till the last chapter...because everyone here is just stupid.

CAST - 1: There are three sisters, very wealthy, who don't want their family's money so they go off to college and plan to make a life of their own. GREAT!!! Three strong female characters. Then they get all fainty and silly and hopelessly in love with someone they don't know at all. But he is tall and blonde and handsome, just like their father....who they hate. (???!!!???) Levin must have hated these ladies. But since the ladies, the father, the Dean of the school, everyone, is stupid, the villain, portrayed by Levin as clever, just goes about his business. The BEST thing I can say is that Levin, at least, doesn't have smelling salts around for the ladies.

ATMOSPHERE - 1: Does anyone go to college and have the same class...every day? That's the way this one starts, with students attending a'social studies' class every day. (Later, it's called another kind of class because Levin is so very tricky.) The rich girls, of course, have tiny places to live because they reject the hated father's money. But the villain, every time, has the exact taste of the girl..right down to her favorite poet/painter/writer/Fox Newscaster (Okay, I made one of those elements up and if you can't name it, this book is FOR YOU!!!).

SUMMARY: 1.4 stars. Just think about 1953: Chandler's "The Long Goodbye". Go ahead, try to convince me "Kiss Before Dying" is a better crime novel than "Long Goodbye." Jim Thompson's "Savage Night." Patricia Highsmith's debut in 1950 with "Strangers on A Train," and then her two strong female characters in 1952's "The Price of Salt". Mickey Spillane's Hammer series was peaking: he had 7 of the top ten bestsellers in the history of American publishing by the 1950s! Even Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys had better books. There is no excuse for an Edgar for "A Kiss Before Dying." None. Unless the publishers bought one for the author. Edgar Awards don't seem to be given to books that age well. (Think Charlotte Armstrong's "A Dram of Poison", coming soon in my countdown.) There will not be a third reading, I promise. Now, Levin did go on to write the excellent stage play, "Deathtrap". Then there was "Rosemary's Baby", an absolutely horror classic. Then "Stepford Wives" and "Boys from Brazil". This is an early run for later greatness, much like Micheal Crichton's early novels.

PREVIOUS REVIEW

UPDATE: Okay, here is another problem I had with this book. The villain wants to marry rich. The first girl, who is rich, has bad things happen. Now, he still wants to marry rich, but he stays within the same family for a target. Therefore, it's easy for anyone to put the pieces together and find him. If he'd just have moved on to the next rich girl outside the family, he may have gotten away with everything instead of targeting a member of the same family.

ORIGINAL REVIEW:

I can't name a book portraying THREE young women as such idiots. In 1951 both Ross MacDonald and Patricia Highsmith were writing great mysteries with no misogyny, where both men and women were equally good/smart/devious/bad. But the three sisters here, wealthy and educated, are unbelievably silly, whiny, and childish. And the level of writing is juvenile at best. Levin improved with "Rosemary's Baby" and "Stepford Wives" but then slipped backwards with the abysmal "Sliver".

This book astonishingly kept me on my toes from the very beginning.

It had me completely engaged and on the edge of my seat, eagerly turning the pages to find out what would happen next.

And wow, what a great ending it had!

As a reader, when I finally knew who the murderer was and watched the victims just being roped in one by one, it was truly a nail-biting experience.

I couldn't help but keep screaming at the characters in my mind, "You fool, run!"

Despite the紧张 and thrilling nature of the story, it was also great fun to read.

The author did an excellent job of creating a sense of mystery and suspense that kept me hooked until the very end.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who loves a good mystery or thriller.

It's definitely one that will keep you entertained and guessing until the final page.

What an outstanding suspense novel! Its plot and structure are so intelligent, truly a classic in the genre.

There are certain tricks that can only be used once or twice, and it has been quite some time since I encountered such a clever one. Therefore, it was a genuine delight to come across it in this book.

The three parts of this book are quite distinct. In that regard, it reminds me of our more recent domestic thrillers that demand several high-stakes revelations before the end of the story. The only minor criticism I have is that the third part is the weakest among them. It's not bad, just relatively weaker. However, after leading the reader through some twists, you don't want to exhaust them. So, I suppose I would prefer this kind of ending over another set of convoluted twists.

Apparently, there is a movie adaptation of this book (in fact, there are two!), but I would rather read the book. The movie can hardly replicate the enjoyment of the second part of the story. It is something that can only be truly achieved through words, and I can't envision a film doing it as effectively. Nevertheless, if I am mistaken about the movie, I would be curious to know how they managed to pull it off.

"One Kiss Before Dying", Editions Galaxias/Hermes.

Rating: 9/10

This is the fourth book by Ira Levin that I have read, after the exciting "The Boys from Brazil", the enjoyable "The Stepford Wives", and the rather terrifying and atmospheric "Rosemary's Baby", three books that I happened to read in the same year, the distant 2011. "One Kiss Before Dying" seemed to me equally enjoyable, entertaining, and exciting as the other books by the author, which shows that he had a wild talent, even in different genres.

Here we have a classic noir mystery with suspense and elements of crime, which managed to keep me on edge from the very first pages until the possible and in a sense redemptive finale. The author tells the cynical and ultimately criminal attempt of a socialopath young man to catch the rich girl, trying to marry her so that he feels that he has achieved something in his life. Things don't always go exactly as he wants, but nothing stops him: He will even commit murder to achieve his goals...

The less one knows about the case, the more interesting and relatively agonizing the reading of the book is. Ira Levin, with his impeccable technique, manages to maintain the interest intact, playing simultaneously with the reader's mind and anxiety. His writing is really very good, sharp and accurate in the descriptions and thoughts of the characters, without unnecessary details and needless flourishes. With his descriptions, Levin creates an incredible black-and-white atmosphere, which at times becomes particularly agonizing. I don't argue, it is one of the most beautiful noir thrillers of the 1950s that I have read, so I will give it five stars (to be precise... four and a half), even if in this way I wrong other books.

P.S. 1. The homonymous film of 1956 belongs to my film library and at some point in the near future I will also enjoy it.

P.S. 2. Soon I will read again "The Boys from Brazil" because I think that I wronged it by rating it only with four stars. Now that I leafed through it again after years, something tells me that it is a classic five-star adventure thriller!

This was my first encounter with a book by Ira Levin.

I'm truly amazed that I've managed to miss out on his works for such a long time. However, I've now made up my mind to make up for this oversight.

This particular book was extremely suspenseful. At times, it was almost impossible not to feel the urge to try and knock some sense into certain characters. But perhaps this is because I've delved into a plethora of mystery novels, and I simply can't bear to witness them making mistakes that I can easily identify. The core issue here was that the women blindly believed everything they were told by a complete stranger, mainly due to their desperate desire to believe it.

The main character in this book employed a rather devious technique to ingratiate himself with several women. He went to great lengths to learn as much as possible about their likes and dislikes. Then, he meticulously studied those subjects and pretended to be their ideal partner, sharing similar tastes and interests. I've read more contemporary books where a criminal, either having special access to online databases like Google or being a highly skilled hacker, would gather information about a victim by piecing together details such as where they shop, what they order, and so on. One such book, I believe it was by Jeffrey Deaver, was so terrifying that it made me seriously rethink the importance of online privacy and the潜在 dangersassociated with Google.

In this story, the killer vividly demonstrates just how effortless it can be to get away with murder. The whole scenario seems entirely feasible, and he very nearly succeeds in his heinous plan.

I just finished reading the book by Mrs. Ira Levin.

The feature of this book, unlike other crime works, is that we know who the killer is and we just follow the story to see how the killer is caught! The author's wisdom in this novel regarding the murders committed by the killer and in a way that no one doubts and it is not a waste of time was very artistic (that is, in Iran, it is impossible to understand that the killer commits murder with maps like this

I don't read a lot of mysteries. In fact, I shy away from murder mysteries and run from those with multiple murders. However, I was in the mood for something truly compelling. So, it was at just the right moment that a GR friend's review of this book popped up. Since I had enjoyed Levin's Stepford Wives, I decided to give it a try.

Perhaps I liked this book because it is set in the early 1950s. There are no surveillance cameras, email, or mug shots on the web. Communication is mainly by telephone, and long-distance travel is largely by bus or train. Given the times, this makes what happens in the story much more believable. People were much more trusting back then. Law enforcement was less collaborative. People could move from place to place, leave their reputations behind, and easily start again, sometimes right where they left off. Students had landladies who answered the only phone in the house.

This was a great book. I couldn't put it down. Every little scene and conversation was engaging and had meaning. I puzzled over why Levin included the scene of Gant's landlady playing anagrams. Well, Gant is an anagram of gnat. That pesky little insect that gets through a tiny hole in a screen and stings you when you're not expecting it. (If you've read the book, you'll understand this.)

As impressive as the storytelling was Levin's writing. The word choice was wonderful. There are descriptions like "wire-taught muscles, shaking knees, and 'nauseous fear ballooning in her stomach.'" "The words cut off guillotine-sharp." "Sunlight, sliced by a Venetian blind, striped his stocky figure." "The house was a shabby gray box, one story, the sills of its darkened windows furred with snow."

Well, okay. Maybe I do like mysteries, and murder mysteries and multiple murder mysteries. At least I liked this one.

"Where's Bud?"
This is an absolute gem of a story! It's a unique blend of semi-noir, semi-cheesy, and semi-thriller elements, all wrapped up in a charmingly vintage 1950s package.

The details are what make it so special. Who wouldn't love a coin-operated radio in a hotel room? And the use of fountain pens to write letters adds a touch of elegance and authenticity. Even the word "operation" instead of "abortion" is a clever nod to the sensitivities of the time.

If you can look past the obvious implausibilities and just go with the flow, you're in for a treat. It's a delightful, sociopathic romp through the Truman era that will keep you on the edge of your seat. And to think that Ira Levin completed the manuscript for this novel at just twenty-three is truly remarkable. Highly recommended for anyone looking for a fun and engaging read.

So, what are you waiting for? Dive into this wonderful world and see where the story takes you!