We follow Cilla in her present day life, working, part time, for Vlad - drug lord, club owner, impaler! - definitely not a man to be messed with.

This was a decently enjoyable read, as you got to see both the beginning and the end of Cilla’s career as a contract killer- what made her the way she is, and both why and how she decided to move on from killing people. This isn’t my normal sort of read, but I did find some fascination in the way the story makes you increasingly sympathetic to Cilla. I listened to the audiobook of this, and it was narrated skillfully by Natalie Pela.Villanelle was stunning, a standout beauty and mistress of disguise (and fashion). Cilla is non-descript, neither strong nor memorable. But she is well-trained with a wealth of chemical and potions at her disposal and the ability to make her murders appear as accidents or as the result of natural causes. And she's getting tired, at 22, of being at Vlad's command and having no future outside of murder. I absolutely loved this! It was quite different to anything I've read recently and I just couldn't put it down. Dystopian Fiction Books Everyone Should Read: Explore The Darker Side of Possible Worlds and Alternative Futures But what if that’s not what you want in life? What if you’d like to live a somewhat normal life? How easy getting out of it would be?

I didn’t start playing bridge until I was in my thirties which makes it difficult to progress beyond a certain point. I make up for this deficit with good system and great partners. I’ve had some success playing with my husband Espen Erichsen. We won the European Mixed Teams in 2005 and were 4th in the same event in 2013. More recently we won the Norwegian Mixed Teams in 2020. I also play with Fiona Brown. We’ve qualified to play in the Lady Milne together a number of times. She is a brilliant bridge player and a good friend. Muswell Press has landed Murder by Natural Causes, a thriller about a female assassin by début novelist Helen Erichsen. In this novel, the POVs of Cilla’s upbringing, future and her lifeline leading to the point of wanting to get a fresh clean slate. Cilla used to live a normal, merely boring life. The days and weeks passed on and all resembled the same routine.A dual timeline and limited third person point of view put me in a good mood, technically speaking. Michael’s POV at the very beginning is the only exception, and it doesn’t bother me at all since the transition is flawless. Nice rhythm and pacing as well—nothing sounds mechanical, nothing drags. Her speciality is the dry job, a method of murder that leaves no outward traces and mimics death by natural causes. When working for her pay masters she finds herself in London working for a new boss. Is she happy in her work? She seems to be ; but as time passes her position seems to be changing and she seems be more and more unhappy in her work. And is she seeking a way out. This is the question she and the reader are asking themselves. A fast paced thriller that asks more questions than giving answers. In it, we delve into the life of Cilla, a contract killer, and her strive for… absolution? Reparation? Normalcy? A bit of everything, I’d say. This is the author’s debut novel and I was intrigued by the synopsis. The eye catching cover drew my eye too. Murder by Natural Causes is published by Muswell Press and comes out on May 25th 2023. It is available via Waterstones and all good bookshops.