Grab the Lapels

Kiss Me, Kill Me by Allison Brennan

Book #2 in the Lucy Kincaid series by Allison Brennan is called Kiss Me, Kill Me. Oddly, I can’t figure out where she gets her titles from other than they sound thriller-y. Thankfully, Kiss Me, Kill Me was much less thriller, and way less romance, than Book #1. Instead, readers get more of the procedural side I enjoyed in a newer book by Brennan that I discovered last year.

Lucy Kincaid is trying to recover from everything that happened in Book #1. It’s about five weeks later. During those weeks, she took the interview portion of her FBI application and is waiting on the results. Meanwhile, her boyfriend, Sean, is assigned a new case of a missing teen. The teen is a common runaway, but she typically returns after a wild weekend. This time, she hasn’t. Sean begins investigating, which includes going to the teen’s home and looking at her room and computer. The laptop has been wiped, but Sean is a cybersecurity expert, so he and his team work to reconstruct it. Because Lucy is good at understanding younger victims, and especially women and girls, Sean enlists her help. Lucy starts putting together the pieces: the missing teen is connected to a cam girl type of website, and that one of the last text messages the missing teen received was from another girl on the site.

Meanwhile, FBI agent Suzanne Madeaux is tracking a serial killer in New York City. The killer’s signature is keeping one of the victim’s shoes, and none of the victims appear to have fought back. The murders take place nearby pop-up raves hosted in abandoned buildings. It’s one of those “if you know, you know” kind of party scenes.

Eventually, Lucy and Sean cross paths with Agent Madeaux because the last person to text the runaway was a girl who is now dead with a shoe missing. Although Sean and Lucy aren’t beholden to FBI policies — Sean’s a PI, not a cop or agent and Lucy is a citizen– their search can harm evidence for the FBI. Soon, Lucy receives a rejection letter from her FBI application. Afterward, she loses all confidence in herself, though she tries to navigate those emotions. As the book continues, Agent Madeaux realizes she needs Lucy in particular to find the murderer, especially when the obvious suspect seems too good to be true.

This is the kind of story I was looking for from Brennan! The majority of the novel is procedural from different view points: FBI, police, private investigator, citizens. The characters talk about clues and suspects, share autopsy reports and theories, and they all use assistance. There is no “only I can solve this!” character. Sean and Lucy are still developing their relationship, but the focus is less on intimacy and more on how they support each other’s goals. After Lucy gets her rejection letter from the board at the FBI, she questions all her education, experience, and internships. Lucy tries to bring herself out of despondency, because she’s not one to mope. She tries to be logical about her abilities:

She hadn’t been an FBI agent when she’d helped trap pedophiles for WCF or when she’d analyzed cold cases for the Arlington Sheriff’s Department. She could help Sean and Patrick find a runaway now, because nothing had changed in her. She kept telling herself that, because deep down she didn’t believe it.

This quote really struck me because it’s how I feel now on my internship. Even if I am not certified right away, I can still interpret. I’m not useless because I have a certification or I don’t, because I’m chosen or I’m not. I have skills and experience. I need to take a page out of Lucy’s book and keep getting out there and trying. I’ve often heard that the certification tests we interpreters take are a measure of how skilled we were on one day. Therefore, I found Lucy’s character arc in Kiss Me, Kill Me both realistic and a good model.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and finished it rather quickly. I’m excited for the next one.

16 comments

  1. Rejection? She doesn’t need the FBI! When life shuts the door, break a window. Maybe she will go on to do consulting or something else with a lot of variety leading to more interesting framing for future books. Besides, it would waste the tension if the protagonist achieves a long-term goal in book 2, right? This is the opposite of the thing I usually complain about where an author doesn’t put in the work to build tension before cashing it in. If the series dialed itself in this much in the first two books, I look forward to hearing about the next one.

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    • Man, I love how you really thought about the effectiveness of storytelling and how you see the future books unfolding, all after reading my review. You’re so smart!

      I’m really enjoying this author, and I have the entire Lucy Kincaid series. I plan to take more back to the Crash Pad with me when I come home for a visit in two weeks. I’m noticing that each book does something different, so I don’t feel like I just keep reading about Lucy solving crimes over and over.

      Plus, these books are a compulsive read for me. I’m struggling to focus on other things while I’m doing my internship. Thank you for commenting. 🌺

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      • On the other hand, this is also the section of my brain responsible for rattling off the major plot beats of a movie after the opening scene. 🤦‍♂️ I am glad the next book isn’t exactly the same as this, even if this one was good. Novelty and routine in balance keep the world moving.

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  2. BorrowBox’s only Allison Brennan was See How They Hide (Quinn & Costa #6). It looks more bloodthirsty than I’m comfortable with but I’ll let you know how I get on. (it’s reserved for mid April). I hope it’s mostly procedural – I don’t like the victim’s POV and I loathe the killer’s POV.

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    • My experience with two of her series now is that you have to read them in order, so I’m not sure how Quinn and Costa #6 will be. In SOME of her books she writes from the killer’s POV for a chapter here or there so you know how close they are, but I haven’t read any written from the victim’s POV for more than a chapter because the victim is always dead.

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  3. This “The majority of the novel is procedural from different view points: FBI, police, private investigator, citizens” appeals to me. And I love that you found something that you like and want to read more of, because you do need a break and it’s hard, I’m sure, when you are away from home, coming back to your little place on your own after doing your interning work.

    But I also enjoyed Nick’s comment. It’s fun seeing you both discuss things more on the blog since you’ve been away.

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    • Nick is a faithful reader of this blog, but he has an adamant opinion about not leaving digital footprints, so I’m glad he’s reaching out while I’m away. We do see each other via video every day, twice per day, too.

      I mentioned that the first novel is more dramatic that I would have preferred, but the books do need to be read in order. I know a lot of crime thrillers these days often function as stand-alone novels with some overarching plot. Not so much here.

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  4. This sounds like the series is coming into its own a bit. I do like that there’s not one “hero” character who just solves everything by thinking hard or something like that.

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  5. That’s cool that you’ve found common ground with Lucy re: confidence in your specialty – and also cool you’ve found a series you really enjoy. I’m all about reading for pleasure/escapism. I do read for others reasons too but sometimes it’s purely that, and that’s fine. Life is hard! Have fun!

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