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Stephen White has gained a growing following with his novels featuring Dr. Alan Gregory, a consulting psychologist in Boulder, Colorado. It is to White's credit that he has taken a somewhat unlikely protagonist --- Gregory --- in an even more unlikely setting --- Boulder --- and created a successful literary franchise. White's work is primarily character-driven, and while Gregory occasionally is the catalyst for events taking place in his life, he also is frequently an observer and a reporter of what is occurring around him.
White takes the latter approach a few steps further with KILL ME; the result is a work that is not only his best but also one that will gather for him the heightened acclaim he so richly deserves. Gregory's appearances in this novel are (but for one) momentary, not momentous, yet they do not seem out of place or forced. Indeed, this is very much a Gregory book, simply one told from the other side of the room, or desk, if you will.
I read the entire novel in one sitting, compelled to find out what would happen next --- and I was never disappointed for a moment. One of the reasons for this is the anonymous protagonist, a charming though not entirely likable narrator with more money than God and the drive to match. He is totally in control of his life and his destiny. Accordingly, when a friend sustains a terminal injury, and Anonymous has his own brush with death, it gives him the impetus to sign on with a nameless company that he dubs the Death Angels. When a client reaches a certain illness parameter that irrefutably signals the onset of mortality, the Death Angels will terminate that person's life. The contract, by the way, is irrevocable. Once one has signed on and paid for the service, there is no turning back for either party.
This is all fine and good until Anonymous is diagnosed with an inoperable condition that may remain benign for several more years, or end his life in five minutes. Signs and symptoms indicate that the latter, rather than the former, is a more likely occurrence. But Anonymous is still driven to live for reasons of his own. He has just one more thing he wants to do, and he won't let his death --- planned or unplanned --- get in his way. With a somewhat unlikely and most unexpected ally, he races against time, and the Death Angels, to put one last thing right. The Death Angels are very good at what they do. But so is Anonymous. And, for that matter, so is White, who provides a two-part conclusion that, I must confess, brought me to tears.
KILL ME succeeds as a thriller, a morality tale, a detective novel, and, most importantly, a story. This is one that is simply not to be missed, by an author who quietly has been creating and shaping one of the more interesting protagonists of modern genre fiction. Highly recommended.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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