You always know that when you read a Will Carver book it’s going to be something that bit different so when I was invited to be part of the blog tour for his latest novel Kill Them With Kindness I jumped at the chance.

Kill Them With Kindness begins with a deadly threat heading towards the UK, a threat that has already killed half of China in a horrific way. Therefore the UK government has provided ‘dignity pills’ giving the citizens a chance to have one final evening with family before going to sleep forever rather than suffering a horrible painful death. On the other side of the world Dr Ikeda wants to save humanity. He has discovered a way to mutate a virus that instead of making people sick it will actually make them kind. However can kindness also kill?

This was definitely an intriguing premise that I enjoyed reading although it was maybe not my favourite of his books. There were two parallel storylines, one of a potential disaster heading to the UK and the other a Japanese scientist trying to save the world, both elements pushed each other along until the final reveals.

There was a big cast of characters but they all bounce off each other and the story was written with Will Carver’s trademark dark humour and twisty style which uplifted the gloom of the stories themes. I find with this author’s novels that there is a natural rhythm to the writing that despite the often complex stories and themes they are a pleasure to read as everything flows.

It would be impossible to read and review this without mentioning the clearly real life inspiration for the story. Covid echo’s are all over the text, and the main characters are not that far from reality. Prime Minister ‘Harris Jackson’ is a buffoon who spends more time looking for his next bit of fun than actually running the country – sound familiar?  However this was far from just a pandemic thriller, it was thought provoking and dystopian in it’s feel.

Find out what others on the blog tour thought