Ladykiller by Katherine Wood
Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Random House for offering
me the opportunity to read Katherine Wood’s novel Ladykiller. I was a
little surprised to receive this invitation—just looking at the description and
the cover didn’t seem like I was a targeted audience. However, I couldn’t
ignore the praise from the email and the cover image was appealing. Ladykiller,
which has some great ambiguity in the title, started off a little slow for me.
I initially thought this was going to be like a romance and female friendship
type of book. There’s also some backstory to Gia and Abby’s friendship. Both
women are now in their 30s but have been friends since their early teens and
have experienced much together. From the first chapters, I didn’t really like
either character. Abby seemed to serious and uptight, while Gia reminded me of
someone like Daisy Buchanan from The Great Gatsby, a kind of shallow
socialite who craves attention but fails to consider the consequences of her
actions. In fact, a lot of the characters initially seemed shallow and
unlikeable, but this assessment really changed after about a quarter of the
book, and I recommend staying with this book because I really could not put it
down after the action picked up. Essentially, Gia and Abby haven’t spoken for
some time since Gia married Garrett, a mysterious man shipping scion who swept
her off her feet in a 3-month whirlwind romance. Ladykiller picks up
when we start to learn about some of Garrett’s money problems and Gia’s willingness,
yet growing skepticism to help bail him out of his financial problems. These
problems begin to arise as a couple suddenly arrive on the Greek island where
Garrett and Gia live, but are preparing to sell the vacation home that Gia
recently inherited from her father. The story alternates between Abby’s
perspective as she agreed to vacation in Sweden with Gia and her brother, and
Gia’s writing. Gia was starting to write another book after previously
publishing a best-selling memoir that documented her experience with a tragic
manslaughter case 12 years prior. This case is important to the story as its
consequences haunt Abby and create some reservations about her return to the
Greek island where the incident happened. I really grew to appreciate the variations in
narrative style from Abby and Gia, and I found myself enjoying Gia’s perspective
and writing even more. Her story takes place primarily on the Greek island, and
as an affluent heiress who doesn’t need to work, she leads a life of leisure.
However, as her husband Garrett asks for more and more money, her ideal life appears
to be less and less like she imagined. Gia, Garrett, and their newfound
friends, Emelia and Timeo, enjoy the sun, food, and party like atmosphere of the
Greek islands, so much so that the events eventually lead Gia to question her
marriage and her husband’s identity. The book is filled with tension and poetic
descriptions of the Greek island, its beaches and ocean, as well as food. I
also loved that there was so much espresso in the book. While the events are
premised on some delicate situations, I really enjoyed the suspense and found
that I had a hard time putting this book down. The short alternating chapters
made Ladykiller a compelling read where I kept reading to find out what
would happen next. I also loved the literary references throughout the book. The
Talented Mr. Ripley, which shares some themes of identity, crime, and lust,
plays a minor role as a gift and a book that Gia loves. This story and Garrett’s
gaslighting reminded me of Anna Billar’s great book Bluebeard’s Castle, where
a scheming and violent husband married a woman more for her money than anything
else. Garrett reminded me a lot of Gavin from that excellent book, and his
behaviors followed a lot of the patterns that Gavin engaged in. Wood also
includes some references to Greek mythology, especially stories of jealous women
and wives and the wrath that they exact on other women. In hindsight, it was
interesting to read about these references, especially since the book features
two women who are trying to maintain a friendship despite some differences of
opinions. Bacchanalia, the festival honoring Bacchus, the Roman god of wine and
parties, also played an important role in the book. I was wondering why Wood
referenced the Roman god and not the Greek god Dionysus. I was thinking that more
people are probably familiar with Bacchanalia than the Dionysia, but Dionysian
has become a kind of familiar adjective. I thought that the Greeks would be
more familiar with the Greek form than the Roman form. Although the book
started off a little slow and the characters were initially somewhat
unrelatable, I eventually became interested in this book. It was a fun escape
to an exotic locale, and I enjoyed the intrigue and suspense involved in this
tale of duplicity and relationships.
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