cover image Killing Eve: No Tomorrow

Killing Eve: No Tomorrow

Luke Jennings. Mulholland, $14.99 trade paper (256p) ISBN 978-0-316-52434-6

Jennings’s pallid second thriller featuring British intelligence agent Eve Polastri and her arch-nemesis, Villanelle (after 2018’s Codename Villanelle), lacks the appeal of the BBC America TV series Killing Eve based on the earlier book. Eve once worked for MI5, where she identified a pattern to assassinations committed by a woman who had targeted “prominent figures in politics and organized crime.” Her efforts to prevent another murder were blocked by a superior, Dennis Cradle, and led to her dismissal. Eve finds a place with MI6, and tricks the traitorous Cradle into a meeting, where she offers him a deal in exchange for information about those who persuaded him to work for Russian interests. Cradle, with the help of Villanelle, turns the tables on Eve, setting off a predictable cat-and-mouse game. Eve gets on the trail of a shadowy Russian cabal, but the focus, again, is on her love-hate relationship with her rival. Anyone familiar with standard genre tropes, such as the spy’s significant other who demands a choice between work and family, will find them in droves. Still, many fans of the TV series will want to check this one out. Agent: Jason Bartholomew, BKS Agency (U.K.). (Mar.)