A Kiss Before Dying: Introduction by Chelsea Cain

After purchasing a kindle I was looking for the first book to read in digital form. This book was on sale and based on reviews I got it. I'm a person that gets bored quickly if it gets into too many details. This book is a very easy read and one of the few I actually enjoyed.

My first introduction to the author Ira Levin: A great 'can't put it down', 'stayed up until the wee hours' to finish it novel. I can't wait to read his other works! And of course, with my Kindle, I can go purchase a few of those books right now.

My mother bought a hardback copy of this book when it first came out in the late 1950s, and when I was in high school and looking for things to read, I found her copy in the attic and read it. I could not put it down: it was very suspenseful, very well-plotted, and I had No Idea! When I finished the book I was very impressed. About fifteen years later I decided for some reason or other that I wanted to read "A Kiss Before Dying" again, just to see if it was as good as I remembered it. Despite the fact that I now knew everything about the characters and plot, and had by this time seen the 1950s film based on the book (good flick, by the way), I still enjoyed the novel and was impressed with what Levin had accomplished.

I really wanted to like this. Ira Levin had written Rosemary's Baby, The Stepford Wives, and the Boys from Brazil. And I'd read again and again, something to the effect of... If you want to write a thriller or crime noir, first read A Kiss Before Dying.

Maybe you had to be there in 1953. But for someone born after that and living in the 21st century, I was bored. The main character is reprehensible from the get-go. I didn't feel for him, I didn't care what happened to him, I didn't care about his life or his story. I slogged through it to discover a couple of twists, but I didn't care. I saw the Twilight Zone growing up, and later the Sixth Sense and Fight Club. We've seen twists before.

I'll find my noir elsewhere.

A KISS BEFORE DYING is an Edgar Award Winning classic mystery that, arguably, was the beginning of the modern psychological mystery thriller. This is a classic tale of murder for money, but it's the brazenness of the criminal that becomes the shocker.

Young handsome college student meets beautiful young coed. They plan to marry, but for all the wrong reasons. Our handsome hero is anything but the hero. We get to experience all of his thinking as he plans out his wonderful life that just need lots of money to be complete. Coming from a very poor background, what better way to use his brains and good looks, than to find the perfect rich wife. Only when complications arise, maybe she needs to die. Maybe this happens one too many times!!

The build up of the plot through the killer's mind is done beautifully in this book. His "out there" reasoning is followed through from beginning to end in a book that constantly makes the reader want to warn the characters of impending danger throughout the story. Suspense is built to a tingling point more than once in this masterful psychological suspense. Many of Ira Levin's books were made into movies, but the book never reads like a movie script. Must read for anyone thinking of writing psychological suspense.

I listened to this story as an audiobook, narrated by Hauro Hantman, so my review is based on that version.

This book was originally written in 1953 and I have really started taking a liking to these old mystery novels. It is not the same as a novel written today in where the setting is in the 1950s, but an actual novel written during that timeframe thinks nothing of mentioning smoking in college classrooms, the jukebox on the table at your favorite coffee shop, or the folded handkerchief that gentleman would offer ladies who were crying. You just gotta love those little details.

This story was clever masterpiece of mystery and suspense. Our young protagonist is a gentleman determined to make it big by marrying big. He tries to find young ladies who are daughters of wealthy families to date. He woos them carefully, so if the relationship doesn't work out, he can move on without alerting other young ladies that he is dating girls for their potential to make him rich. He thinks he has found the perfect girl in Dorothy.

All is going well until Dorothy turns up pregnant. Then he sees all of his carefully laid plans start to go down the drain. He can't just dump her, that wouldn't look good. He can't marry her because her father would disown her because of the unplanned pregnancy. Then he wouldn't get any money and they would have to live in poverty. But if she were to suffer an `accident' then he would be off the hook and could continue dating again.
Now it seems like he has gotten away with the perfect crime ... or has he? One of Dorothy's sisters gets involved and starts asking questions and he begins to feel threatened by her discoveries. If she finds out too much, he might go to jail and never get rich. Maybe she should have an `accident' too before she discovers too much.

Overall this was a great little mystery / suspense story. Even though you know who killed Dorothy there were many, many more twists and turns in this book. Enough to keep you going full speed ahead until you see the light. It was a very satisfying read.

The Narration Review
This audiobook was narrated by Hauro Hantman. He has a nice, clear, and soft spoken voice. He was very easy to listen to and he had a calming effect. Definitely a voice you can listen to while relaxing. There were a few times in the story where the juke box was playing and instead of just reading the lyrics, Hauro sang the tunes. I discovered that Hauro has a very pleasant singing voice, too!

First published in 1953 by an author then aged 24, this book has all the ingredients for Stephen King, much later, to call him the Swiss watchmaker among thriller writers: perfect preparation then careful execution. For thriller writers this means increasing tension incrementally and adding shock moments, sudden twists and cliffhangers against a solid, believable background.
This colorful thriller reads like a Hitchcock film script. Faultless and mature nail biter about a killer intent on marrying a rich girl to gratify his mother's lifelong ambitions. He killed during WW II, is highly cunning and focussed, perhaps too much on a single target...
Brilliantly plotted and with great dialogue and characterization. A creepy stunner until the final page. Levin went on to produce classics such as “The Boys from Brazil” and “Rosemary’s Baby”.

This 1950s thriller opens with a college couple's conversation about their unwanted pregnancy. Her name is Dorrie; his is not revealed until much later in the novel. Dorrie has a wealthy father who will surely disown her if she marries her lover and has his baby. Her lover feels that abortion is the only answer, since, really, what's the point of marrying a rich girl if her funds are cut off? In his mind, though, there is at least one other solution: kill the girl, make it look like a suicide, and move on. This scenario reminded me somewhat of Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy. Anyway, the manner in which our anti-hero elicits a suicide note from Dorrie is clever indeed, and he still has a few more tricks up his sleeve. So does the author. The most intriguing section in the book is when Dorrie's sister Ellen, never convinced that Dorrie's death was a suicide, starts digging into Dorrie's demise. She has just enough to go on to narrow her murder suspects down to two. Since we still don't know his name at this point, we fear for her safety as she pursues these two strangers. There are some very tense moments, and we discover his identity at the same moment that she does. He's a twisted sociopath, emboldened by his horrifying success, who will now stop at nothing to achieve the social and financial status that he craves. The dialog and quandaries may be dated, but the suspense that Levin generates has not gone out of style.

Stephen King once commented about author Ira Levin: "Every novel he has ever written has been a marvel of plotting. He is the Swiss watchmaker of the suspense novel; he makes what the rest of us do look like those five-dollar watches you can buy in the discount drug stores." He went on to lament that Levin's most effective book (and his first!), "A Kiss before Dying," is not much read these days.
Here's your chance to fix this situation! "A Kiss before Dying" is now back in print, in a nice trade paperback, for the first time since the early 90s (when a mass-market paperback was briefly available to tie-in with the forgotten movie adaptation starring Sean Young and Matt Dillon). First published in 1953 when Levin was only twenty-three, "A Kiss before Dying" is one of the most remarkable suspense novels ever penned and a masterpiece of literary noir. The greatest suspense writer of all time, Cornell Woolrich, highly influenced Levin, and this book seems like an overt homage to many of Woolrich's devices. It's the only suspense novel I know of that honestly compares with the master.
To tell much about the plot would ruin the shocks and surprises awaiting you in these pages. Levin hurls out plot twists that genuinely jolt the reader and turn the whole story upside down in moments (King referred to one of the twists as "a real screeching bombsell" of a surprise). The story begins at a large college, where Dorothy Kingship, daughter of a wealthy industrialist, has learned that she is pregnant. Her boyfriend, a handsome, dashing, but callous, calculating, and completely amoral young man is unhappy with the news; he hoped to marry into the rich family as his quick ticket to success, and the uptight Leo Kingship will certainly disinherit his daughter when he finds out about the pregnancy. Dorothy wants to marry right away, not caring if her father cuts her off or not, but her boyfriend starts secretly devising another plan...if only he can make it look like suicide...
And that's merely the beginning. The book takes so many u-turns and switchbacks that you'll spend most of your time reading it shaking with tension. Levin crafts his three central set-pieces using minute detail that makes for agonizing suspense. He lets the reader in on the secrets of the story bit by bit, but the more you know, the tenser the story becomes. Sometimes, you know the WHAT and WHO of a situation, but not the WHEN or HOW. At other times, you know the WHAT and WHEN but not WHO. Levin will drive you nearly mad in places! King is right: Levin's plotting is so ingenious it's like workings of a perfect machine.
But beyond plot machinery, Levin dazzles in another area: characterizations. Like Woolrich, Levin can create haunting portraits of lonely souls, and frightening sketches of soulless killers. "A Kiss before Dying" is pure noir: a world of sad people aching for real love and of people who find that killing is no more difficult than putting on a jacket. This is not a "snack food" suspense novel like you find sitting on bestseller shelves. This is a novel that will stay with you for a long time.
It's unfortunate that Levin has written so few novels since (he didn't write his second novel, "Rosemary's Baby" until fourteen years later; he spent the time between as a writer for TV and Broadway stage). Everything he has written is worth reading (check out "The Stepford Wives," "The Boys from Brazil," "Sliver," and his hit play "Deathtrap"), but "A Kiss before Dying" is his art at its best. Don't miss it.

A young college man is dating Dorothy, the daughter of a wealthy copper tycoon, hoping to marry her and eventually inherit her father's money. His plan hits a roadblock when Dorothy tells him that she's pregnant and they must marry right away. Not only that but her father will disown her for getting pregnant out of wedlock - that means no money for the young man. The only way the man can get out of this predicament is to kill Dorothy. If only that was the end of his problems...

A Kiss Before Dying, first published in 1953, is Ira Levin's debut novel. It won the 1954 Edgar Award for Best First Novel. Levin is a master of suspense and this novel does not disappoint. He does not reveal the identity of Dorothy's boyfriend in the first part of the book, referring to him only with pronouns. When Dorothy's sister Ellen goes hunting for her murderer, the reader is right alongside her discovering clues and trying to figure out who the killer is. I was on the edge of my seat and as confused as Ellen about who was the murderer. Even after the identity of the killer is discovered the suspense continues right up until the very end.

I listened to the audio version of this book. I thought the narrator, Mauro Hantman, did an excellent job. He was able to convincingly voice all of the characters - from tough as nails Leo Kingship to soft spoken naive Dorothy. I especially loved the voice he gave Gordon Gant.

I highly recommend A Kiss Before Dying.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to my friend Delee, who recommended this humdinger of a novel. Ira Levin, best known for his terrifying Rosemary's Baby, wrote A Kiss Before Dying as his first novel. The novel won the 1954 Edgar Award for Best First Novel, and readers will marvel that this suspense-filled thrill ride of a book could possibly have been written by a first-time novelist.

Levin packs surprise after surprise into this novel, a book that will leave you exhausted when you release the breath you hadn't realized you were holding. Narrator Mauro Hantman's suave voice really adds to listening to this fabulous novel. Highly recommended.

BOOK CLUB REVIEW

A Kiss Before Dying
by Ira Levin

Our book club's book for October was A KISS BEFORE DYING, by Ira Levin. A lot of us didn't know that Levin had started out doing traditional mystery/suspense before turning to horror (STEPFORD WIVES, ROSEMARY'S BABY, etc.) We were talking about how much, as a group, we enjoy shocking plot twists, and one of us said that A KISS BEFORE DYING has one of the best plot twists of all time. We took that as a challenge and decided to read the book.

It's tough to describe the plot without giving away too many details. But I will try: It's the story of a social-climbing, money-grubbing young man who decides the best way to live an idle life is to marry a girl with money. (Several of us noted that the concept is far from unique--isn't this the main plot of so many Gothics, and isn't this the way it was done in the world until very recently?) He thinks he has it made, but then the girl gets pregnant--which is problem, because her widowed father is a prig and will likely disown her when he finds out. So he decides to take matters into his own hands... (And this is just the first few pages of the book, but it does give a good idea of what the book is about.)

I can't say more because even trying to describe the book, its structure, and its tricks would give away the pleasures of the read. Suffice it to say that we took a vote, and of the twelve of us in the room, ten said that the book does indeed have the single best plot twist they'd ever read. I mean, it's really, really shocking and surprising, and it's testament to Levin's abilities a writer and storyteller that he gets away with it. When you realize what has happened, you sort of shake your head in disbelief, but then you go back and re-read some things, and you see how Levin made it happen.

The more interesting discussion was whether the twist is "fair" and if it plays by the rules or not. We talked for quite a while about that, and the conclusion we came to is that this kind of trick can only be pulled off in writing. If you read the book, you will see what we mean. Again, I can't go into details for fear of a spoiler!

The book is a very fast read, and it seems to be more from a different era because of the way the characters are drawn. They are pretty two-dimensional, and you either like them or you don't, which is fine for whiling away the time with a good mystery. We had some good discussion, too, about the ending of the book, and whether we liked it or not. This is so frustrating--I'm afraid to said anything more because I know it would be a no-no to prejudice readers' ideas about the book before reading it.

All told, we were glad we read this, and we were sorry that Levin didn't do more with the traditional mystery/suspense book. Then again, if you are only going to write one mystery, A KISS BEFORE DYING is a heck of a thing to have written.

This is one of the most suspenseful, most enjoyable books I've ever read. How tired I was on 3 workday mornings because I'd stayed up late reading this book, unable to put it down - only 3 mornings because I read it all in 4 evenings. This book is too good to give away any of the plot. Reading it, I felt I was watching one of Hitchock's best movies playing in my brain. There's a point about 1/3 through the book where I stopped dumbfounded and said to myself "no way - that can't be", and then thumbed through the pages I'd just read to confirm it *was* true. An absolutely ingenious element left me feeling like I was starting from the beginning after reading 1/3 of the book. There are many other twists and surprises in this story, too, and the subject matter is surprisingly contemporary.

I can't imagine anyone not loving this book.

The thing that sets this book apart from other, similarly plotted stories is the way that Levin plays with our emotions concerning the murderer. For the first third of the novel, there is a small part of us that is sypathetic with this man; we almost catch ourselves hoping that he does not get caught. Several surprises later, however, and our emotions are totally flip-flopped. Now we are gived things from another persons perspective, and we can see just how monstrous this man really is. The book is very addictive (I finished it easily in two days), but the ending left me slightly unsatisfied. I would still place Levin's "Rosemary's Baby" and "The Stepford Wives" above it, but it is impressive nonetheless considering that it is one of Levin's earlier novels.

The first two parts of this book are excellent. Part One is chilling because of its depiction of what is now known as Anti-Social Personality Disorder. The fact that it was written way back in the 50's long before American Psycho's Patrick Bateman makes this even more creepy. Part One manages to put the reader in the killer's deranged little mind and even makes us cheer him on a little bit.
Part Two of the book is excellent because it is completely different from Part One. It puts us in the shoes of the victim from Part One's sister as she tries to discover the identity of the killer and narrows it down to two men, but which one?
It's unfortunate that Part Three is so typical after the cleverness of Parts One and Two. The ending isn't nearly as shocking as the end of Levin's later masterpiece, Rosemary's Baby but up until Part Three you'll be on the edge of your seat.

A Kiss Before Dying combines psychological suspense with precision plotting. Every detail dovetails; there are no superfluous characters, no extraneous filler, each fact carries the story forward, twisting and turning, to its chilling conclusion. This is the sort of book you can reread with pleasure, noting how even the smallest details co-incide.

Levin has a great ear for dialogue. The characters of the three Kingship daughters are clearly differentiated, yet not stereotyped. Even minor characters come alive. Levin has begun his trademark use of day-to-day minutia to counterpoint the growing horror and tension, a technique that he would hone to perfection in Rosemary's Baby.

I recommend this novel wholeheartedly. It is hard to find a flaw in it.

I've always loved the film version of this novel, as I never read the novel. Robert Wagner, Joanne Woodward, and Jeffrey Hunter were excellent in the film version, BUT WHEN I FINALLY READ THE NOVEL--the "book" really out did the film! The only other novel written that was twice as good was Michael Critchon's 1993 thriller(?) I believe the film was titled, "RISING SUN", starring Sean Connery and Wesley Snipes, unfortunately, the film is not available anywhere(even the store)! The endings of both books were almost identical and just as brutal. Excellent versions of "noir" in the 1950's and the 1990's!!!

I stumbled upon this little story and frankly, I love all of Ira Levin's books so far. He has some interesting & diverse ideas (i.e. the Stepford Wives & rosemary's Baby). This book was pretty well-written and had some clever little twists in them. I also saw the film version of this, which was also good.

'A kiss before dying' was written in the fifties, and apart from some very non-essential aspects it is not dated at all. The book is about a young college student from a poor family who wants to marry a rich girl and for that he is prepared to do practically everything. Until she meets the wrong person, who starts digging... There are some very ingenious turns in the book, so telling more about the story would only give it all away. I can only say Read it! It is definitely worth your time.

I've always loved the film version of this novel, as I never read the novel. Robert Wagner, Joanne Woodward, and Jeffrey Hunter were excellent in the film version, BUT WHEN I FINALLY READ THE NOVEL--the "book" really out did the film! The only other novel written that was twice as good was Michael Critchon's 1993 thriller(?) I believe the film was titled, "RISING SUN", starring Sean Connery and Wesley Snipes, unfortunately, the film is not available anywhere(even the store)! The endings of both books were almost identical and just as brutal. Excellent versions of "noir" in the 1950's and the 1990's!!!

I stumbled upon this little story and frankly, I love all of Ira Levin's books so far. He has some interesting & diverse ideas (i.e. the Stepford Wives & rosemary's Baby). This book was pretty well-written and had some clever little twists in them. I also saw the film version of this, which was also good.

'A kiss before dying' was written in the fifties, and apart from some very non-essential aspects it is not dated at all. The book is about a young college student from a poor family who wants to marry a rich girl and for that he is prepared to do practically everything. Until she meets the wrong person, who starts digging... There are some very ingenious turns in the book, so telling more about the story would only give it all away. I can only say Read it! It is definitely worth your time.

Do you know how most books save their big surprise for the end? This one fools ya -- there are a couple of big surprises sprinkled at the most, well, surprising places in the book. I won't tell you where they are -- that would be cheating.
Besides the surprises, this one has plenty of suspense and interesting characters. Even the villain is memorable, and in many ways, understandable.
Anne M. Marble Reviewer, All About Romance

The author sure knows how to keep things exiting! He always ends the chapter with a thrilling moment, which made me want to go on reading. I almost couldn't put the book aside, I utilized every spare hour. Her style of writing pleased me very well, it never drops off. I experienced this book as a form of acting, in writing. The characters in the story are individually exposed from the inside, in a seamless performance from one perspective to the other. Perhaps this is the secret of this books' vividness. I detected only one small thing where I was beginning to feel bored about; In the part called "Marion", we caught sight of the inside of the factory of Mr. Kingship, by looking through Buds' eyes. But in my view he was endlessly persuading about it, I got tired of it. All in all I'm very glad I've read this book. The film wasn't as good as the book itself.

Ira Levin is one of my favorite writers. While his stories are a bit far-fetched (as with "Rosemary's Baby", "The Boys From Brazil", and "The Stepford Wives") they are always entertaining. His first book, "A Kiss Before Dying", is now largely forgotten (..it was written nearly 50 years ago) but seems remarkably fresh.
In "A Kiss Before Dying" we have a a rich college girl and her gold-digging boyfriend in a dilemna. The girl is pregnant and the choice ahead is grim: either get married and lose daddy's money, or risk an illegal abortion (remember this book takes place circa 1950). She prefers the former, he the latter. The outcome of this dilemna is unexpected (no spoilers here), and the story then really kicks into gear. Yes, in true Levin form the plot is a bit contrived. But it is deliciously readable.
Bottom line: strongly recommended.

Taut thriller that tells the story of multiple murders and the family scarred by them. Full of amazing descriptions and solid dialog. About my only complaint was that it went on a little too long. Still, tremendous writing.

Just when you think you know exactly where this little tale is headed, it veers off on one of the most unexpected (and simply perfect) twists I've read in a long time. If your looking for a suspense novel full of murder, mayhem and some great plot twists, this slim work fits the bill nicely.

I loved this book. Mr. Levin's prose is descriptive and vivid--the dialogue is snappy and you can almost hear the crisp elocution of the characters' speech--so evocative of the bygone era of the fifties. The ending was very satisfying and I may have cheered aloud.

Any review I could give of this novel would destroy the storyline. There were two places in the book where I was truly shocked. The author dropped a few stunners on me. My one complaint is the language wasn't as clean as I would have liked.