A Kiss Before Dying – Ira Levin (1953)

A big thanks to Aidan at Mysteries Ahoy for championing this book and putting it on my radar.  I probably recognize the title from vaguely being aware of the 1991 film adaptation staring Matt Dillon.  I realize I just lost two thirds of my reading audience with that statement; a portion shouting out an outraged comment about Robert Wagner, and the rest being stupefied that a movie was the first thing that came to mind when hearing the title.  But yeah, this is a book where I definitely recognized the title as something well established in culture, without ever realizing it was a classic mystery.

Although it’s not really a mystery; maybe more of a spiraling episodic thriller in the Cornell Woolrich sense.  But, damn, I loved every dark page of it.  Unfortunately, as with many of the well done spiraling thrillers, you can’t really say much about the plot, because the fun is in trying to get a sense of where it’s going to take you.  Case in point: the story starts with a college romance leading to an accidental pregnancy.  He doesn’t want to keep the baby, while she wants to get married.  The boyfriend toys around with the thought of ridding himself of “the problem” via a fool proof murder.  Where does this lead?  The obvious answer is an inverted murder mystery.  Clever me thought that maybe the girlfriend bumps off the boyfriend in a startling twist.

Well, neither happen, but Ira Levin has something up his sleeve that is much more interesting.  In part it’s how he swings the pendulum between different character’s perspectives and objectives.  One moment you’re experiencing the panic of a would be killer whose plan has gone awry, and the next moment you’re focused on the plight of the would be victim.

The story is divided into three parts, and the most brilliant bit may be the curve ball that Levin throws to open the second section.  A profound moment, where as a reader I realized that I wasn’t aware of a very basic bit of information that I assumed I knew.  And it throws the story into a frenzy, with danger lurking in every nuanced interaction.  I was tying myself in knots trying to think three steps ahead of the author, and of course, that’s the point.

It’s a brutal book – not in any gory sense – both for what it lays bare on the page, and for the even more devastating realization of events withheld.  Top notch stuff.  Ira Levin went on to have a successful career as a writer (Rosemary’s Baby, The Boys from Brazil, The Stepford Wives), but never wrote anything else like this.  That’s a shame, as I’d love to read more.

My edition

A Kiss Before Dying is widely available – I’m guessing in part due to the two film adaptations – and with availability tends to come crap book covers.  The 1954 Signet paperback edition is the best that I could find.  George Ziel’s cover art is pretty nice.  The woman is done a bit better than the man, but I like the captured pose.