A KISS BEFORE DYING (Ira Levin) - July 12/20

Ira Levin knocks it out of the park again with this engrossing and impressively shocking/dark thriller. I will admit certain things didn't work for me - Levin's decision to hide Bud's identity during the Ellen stretch left me confused, and the overly descriptive stuff at the plant near the end was a bit much - but there were definitely stretches that were unexpectedly riveting and the ending is note perfect. Good stuff. ***1/2 out of ****