Picking books this year has been a struggle for me. In an effort to mix it up a little bit here at the end of the year, I looked back at some titles I wrote down the last time I was walknig through Barnes and Noble, and Killer Potential by Hannah Deitch, managed to stick out.
There were some Thelma and Louise comparisons plasterd on the front and back covers of this book, and I can see why those comparisons were made, but this book was really quite fun to read. And though there are some high level similarities, I certainly wouldn’t mind seeing this adapted to the small screen. There’s enough details and the ride is wild enough to keep people’s interest for a series. But, enough of that, let’s get into this novel!
Evie Gordon, though she loves school, can’t be a student forever. So instead, she teaches them! Kind of. She’s spent the last bit of time as an SAT tutor out in LA for some pretty wealthy families. This one family in particular, the Victors, play a really important part in Evie’s life, because one day they make her a killer. The Victors are made up of detached parents, Dinah and Peter, with their daughter, Serena, being the one using Evie’s services. Evie can’t get enough of their house, but one day when she shows up to tutor, that house’s front door is already wide open and there is not a sound to be heard. Pretty soon she stumbles upon Dinah and Peter’s bodies, and just as she’s about to bolt out of the house and call the police, she hears a faint voice coming from the walls.
Unearthing a young woman and likely killing Serena herself, Evie and this stranger haul ass, officially making them fugitives and the most likely suspects of all three killings. Evie, though not growing up well-to-do like many of her classmates, has not really ever known discomfort. She is not made for a life on the road. Especially with someone who hasn’t uttered one word since being released from her walled-in prison in the Victor’s home. At first, Evie has hope, hope that this stranger can eventually tell police the truth. That she had nothing to do with the Victor family’s demise. But the further they travel without turning themselves in, the more guilty they seem.
I really don’t want to spoil much of what develops over the course of this novel, but it was a really fun read! Almost the entire novel is told from Evie’s perspective, but when it does switch, it’s important. I can relate to Evie in a lot of ways. And I, like her, couldn’t imagine running from the law for something I didn’t do. Perhaps the last leg of this book goes by a little too quickly for my taste, but there aren’t any stones unturned as far as I’m concerned. This was a fantastic and fun debut novel that is definitely worth making time for.