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Saturday 1 February 2020

Codename Villanelle by Luke Jennings Review


Alright homefries, gun to your noggin: TELL ME A STORY ABOUT A FEMALE ASSASSIN! What do you come up with? If you’re as braindead as me, your empty mind will go to Marvel’s Black Widow and it’ll go something like: hot Russian babe skilled in martial arts and guncraft shoots henchmen John Wick-style before taking out the boss gangster.

Well guess what Codename: Villasmellypants is? Exactly that - and hacky Luke Jennings didn’t even has a gun to his head!

Jennings’ prose is utterly flat and unengaging - as lifeless as Lee Child’s yet somehow more dull. There is nothing worse than reading descriptions of scenery, clothing, etc. when none of it is relevant to the story and you get pages of that useless filler in this so-called “thriller”.

Oxana/Villanelle has no personality and goes through the motions of this generic claptrap like the robot she is and no part of the formulaic, uninspired story was remotely interesting.

I’ve not seen the recent BBC adaptation of this series, filmed as Killing Eve, but, going by the critical acclaim, I’m guessing this is one of those rare instances where the screen adaptation is better than the book. Either way, I won’t be reading any more of Luke Jennings’ garbage writing which has also put me off watching the show.

I would recommend anyone curious about the show to check that out first rather than have that curiosity assassinated by its unimaginative and boring original source material!

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