Drawn-out novel with a flimsy spy plot and hit and miss humour - a struggle to finish.
After throughly enjoying the dry wit and observational humour of Why Mummy Drinks I was anticipating that Killing It would follow in much the same tradition, albeit with the key difference that the character involved is a female James Bond navigating the return to work after the birth of her now six-month-old daughter, Gigi. Sassy protagonist, Alexis ‘Lex’ Tyler, is no ordinary working mum but a ‘Rat’ - an elite covert agent employed by Her Majesty’s Secret Service, tasked with protecting national security, trained to kill and working underground. As Lex leaves Gigi and wards off last minute doubts, curses trousers with a waistband and rues giving up her VIP ‘Baby on Board’ badge as she heads into work for her first day back she has no idea of just what awaits her as she is tasked with leading a critical mission in the new cold war on information with Russia.
What soon becomes apparent is that her perennially miserable boss, Sandy White, who has overseen her decade long career since graduating from Oxford University is intending to utilise her new status to the department’s advantage. As Sandy sends mother and baby into the line of fire in a dangerous mission to eliminate ruthless Dimitri Tupolev, a Russian oligarch who poses a serious threat to the privacy of the nation, Lex must put aside her self-doubts to succeed in her first mission since becoming a mother. With Dimitri’s glamorous wife of eight-years and mother to his three children, Dasha, against her husband’s plans and keen on taking revenge for his serial adultery, getting close to her is part of Lex’s role and that involves infiltrating the West London yummy mummy coffee morning clique that she presides over. It turns out that Lex’s new secret weapon is her six-month-old daughter and as a bullet-proof buggy hood is commissioned, messages are passed in stuffed toys and play dates commence at soft play the actual spying part of the story is reduced to simply inserting USB sticks into devices and depositing GPS trackers. But with Lex’s niggling suspicions about Dasha’s motivations and an unforeseen threat from within her department, things are set to get a whole lot more hairier for our leading lady..!
I found Killing It a mixed bag with occasional moments of astute observation and caustic humour marred by a complete lack of substance thanks to its transparent plot, a narrative that rambles and a tendency to trot out previously used jokes with the phraseology simply changed. The spy element of the plot is ridiculous and far too flimsy to sustain the close to four-hundred page length and gives James Bond a run for his money with its predictability and complete lack of depth. Much of the humour revolves around the innocuous range of acronyms and terminology that hides the brutal nature of work as a ‘Rat’. The jokes about giving birth and the effects are all rather obvious and well past original and I struggled to be convinced by the cast of characters. I never quite made any connection to Lex, whose glee in ‘eliminating’ and interrogating targets and complete lack of morals on the job (seducing ‘kills’ etc.) sits uneasily alongside her expectation of it being sacrilege that anyone should attempt to leave her daughter without a mother or resist her assault efforts.
One of Mackay popular themes throughout the novel is how Lex’s life above ground and ‘the darkness’ of her work as a ‘Rat’ are both critical to her happiness and wish to ‘have it all’. There are frequent snapshots of Lex’s conventional middle-class family life in a quiet Berkshire village and her necessity to find an outlet that gives her a buzz, yet no attempt is made to drill down into her psyche or explore her nature. The fact that Lex has never told the man she is married to and supposedly loves, Will, of her occupation and what it entails is also mystifying. As she passes it off as “data analysing” for government departments it is just one example of how she lies and offers up a Willfyed version of events. Will’s failure to enquire further also seems unlikely given Lex’s exceptionally odd hours and frequent unexplained injuries. Lex’s fellow ‘Rats’ are an eccentric mix of largely chauvinistic stereotypes all looking to either undermine, question her commitment to the job or make jokes about baby-brain and hormones.
Mackay does however make several extremely pertinent arguments in support of the feminist message, particularly surrounding the inequality between how fathers and mothers are judged (“don’t try to make me feel guilty for wanting exactly what you want..”) and how mothers need to ‘prove themselves’ all over again after childbirth. Lex’s guilt at her enforced separation from Gigi and the new experience of unconditional love fail to convince though given her shallow characterisation.
Despite the plot being highly improbable I really did think Killing It had potential at the outset but in truth, I found it a struggle to make it through the novel. The prospect of a second novel with Gigi now suffering from the terrible twos and Lex combining modern motherhood with work as an elite agent therefore does nothing to whet my appetite and I have no plans to read on in the series. Whilst I would not recommend the book to hardcore spy fiction fans or readers of serious women’s fiction I expect it might find a receptive audience amongst chick-lit readers after a breezy summer read with a smart-mouthed and feisty female protagonist.
What soon becomes apparent is that her perennially miserable boss, Sandy White, who has overseen her decade long career since graduating from Oxford University is intending to utilise her new status to the department’s advantage. As Sandy sends mother and baby into the line of fire in a dangerous mission to eliminate ruthless Dimitri Tupolev, a Russian oligarch who poses a serious threat to the privacy of the nation, Lex must put aside her self-doubts to succeed in her first mission since becoming a mother. With Dimitri’s glamorous wife of eight-years and mother to his three children, Dasha, against her husband’s plans and keen on taking revenge for his serial adultery, getting close to her is part of Lex’s role and that involves infiltrating the West London yummy mummy coffee morning clique that she presides over. It turns out that Lex’s new secret weapon is her six-month-old daughter and as a bullet-proof buggy hood is commissioned, messages are passed in stuffed toys and play dates commence at soft play the actual spying part of the story is reduced to simply inserting USB sticks into devices and depositing GPS trackers. But with Lex’s niggling suspicions about Dasha’s motivations and an unforeseen threat from within her department, things are set to get a whole lot more hairier for our leading lady..!
I found Killing It a mixed bag with occasional moments of astute observation and caustic humour marred by a complete lack of substance thanks to its transparent plot, a narrative that rambles and a tendency to trot out previously used jokes with the phraseology simply changed. The spy element of the plot is ridiculous and far too flimsy to sustain the close to four-hundred page length and gives James Bond a run for his money with its predictability and complete lack of depth. Much of the humour revolves around the innocuous range of acronyms and terminology that hides the brutal nature of work as a ‘Rat’. The jokes about giving birth and the effects are all rather obvious and well past original and I struggled to be convinced by the cast of characters. I never quite made any connection to Lex, whose glee in ‘eliminating’ and interrogating targets and complete lack of morals on the job (seducing ‘kills’ etc.) sits uneasily alongside her expectation of it being sacrilege that anyone should attempt to leave her daughter without a mother or resist her assault efforts.
One of Mackay popular themes throughout the novel is how Lex’s life above ground and ‘the darkness’ of her work as a ‘Rat’ are both critical to her happiness and wish to ‘have it all’. There are frequent snapshots of Lex’s conventional middle-class family life in a quiet Berkshire village and her necessity to find an outlet that gives her a buzz, yet no attempt is made to drill down into her psyche or explore her nature. The fact that Lex has never told the man she is married to and supposedly loves, Will, of her occupation and what it entails is also mystifying. As she passes it off as “data analysing” for government departments it is just one example of how she lies and offers up a Willfyed version of events. Will’s failure to enquire further also seems unlikely given Lex’s exceptionally odd hours and frequent unexplained injuries. Lex’s fellow ‘Rats’ are an eccentric mix of largely chauvinistic stereotypes all looking to either undermine, question her commitment to the job or make jokes about baby-brain and hormones.
Mackay does however make several extremely pertinent arguments in support of the feminist message, particularly surrounding the inequality between how fathers and mothers are judged (“don’t try to make me feel guilty for wanting exactly what you want..”) and how mothers need to ‘prove themselves’ all over again after childbirth. Lex’s guilt at her enforced separation from Gigi and the new experience of unconditional love fail to convince though given her shallow characterisation.
Despite the plot being highly improbable I really did think Killing It had potential at the outset but in truth, I found it a struggle to make it through the novel. The prospect of a second novel with Gigi now suffering from the terrible twos and Lex combining modern motherhood with work as an elite agent therefore does nothing to whet my appetite and I have no plans to read on in the series. Whilst I would not recommend the book to hardcore spy fiction fans or readers of serious women’s fiction I expect it might find a receptive audience amongst chick-lit readers after a breezy summer read with a smart-mouthed and feisty female protagonist.