Kiss It Away Book

RATING: 4.25

Everything's going really well for 24-year-old Ben, especially on the romantic front. He's just become involved in a promising relationship with 39-year-old Dawn, who is separated from her husband, Richard. However, on this particular evening, Dawn is in a mood, and she sends Ben home before any romance even begins. Ben walks through a park in Salisbury (UK) and is approached by a young man who smells of chemicals. At first, Ben thinks that he is being mugged. He can't believe that the man even wants his pants, until he realizes that he is not being robbed but raped. After this horrific violation of his body, he stumbles home and descends into a deepening depression, drinking away the pain and avoiding all human contact. He can't tell anyone about what happened, as the humiliation is too great.

The man who raped him, Nick, is a gym nut who is heavily into steroid use. He survives by living off other people, and when they don't help him, he finds new victims. After raping Ben, he attacks a woman in the park and kills her. Nick really lucks out when a witness describes a disoriented and bloody Ben leaving the park at about the time of the murder.

The suspense builds to dizzying levels as we watch Nick spiral out of control while the media declares Ben guilty of Nick's crimes. The seed is planted for Nick to intersect with Dawn and her friend, Angela. The reader knows it's going to happen, but Davis pulls all the stops out for the deadly encounter.

I found this book unputdownable. There's a quote on the book jacket which says, "Scotland's leading queen of suspense", and I find that label well deserved. Davis excels at building tension, and the pace is unrelenting. She treats Ben's rape with sensitivity, and I found that aspect of the book quite unique, to see the impact of that kind of attack on a man rather than the usual female rape. I also liked how the author developed the character of Nick. He had the usual abusive childhood, but she didn't waste any of our sympathy on him and his deplorable outlook on life.

KISS IT AWAY is a book in the catalog of The DoNot Press publishers in the UK and distributed in the US by Dufour Editions. I've had the pleasure of receiving several of this publisher's books to review in the past and have found that I've enjoyed every single one of them. For the reader who likes their crime fiction on the dark side, I strongly suggest reading the authors published by this group. KISS IT AWAY is the fourth book by Carol Anne Davis, and I highly recommend it to those readers who enjoy noir.

This is not the type of book I usually go for at all! Drug abuse, Male rape, physcotic killer!....not my cup of tea at all.

The book was recommended to me by a librarian who asked me to promise and give the author an hour of my time. If I didn't like then she would stop bugging me to read it. I am so glad she did, this actually turned out to be a great book in fact I would go so far as putting it in my top 10 books of all time. It centres around Ben who has an argument with his girlfriend and leave in the middle of the night. He takes a short cut through a local park and a man approaches him asking for money when he refuses the man rapes him. About an hour before Ben reaches the park, the perpetrator murders a girl in the same area. Still riled up on steroids and cocaine he goes looking for another victim, this is when he runs into Ben. After the attack Ben is seen leaving the park with his shirt ripped and bloodied and the next day when the first victim is found its Bens description that is given to the police, so now the Police are hunting Ben, but Ben is too ashamed of the rape to come forward. The real killer and rapist is a body builder travelling gym to gym buying and injecting steroids or any drugs he can get. He befriends a young teenage boy who is getting bullied at school, is this going to be another victim? He meets a lonely girl to shy to talk to anyone and is living far from home - will this be his next victim? Or is he coming back for Ben? The suspense is gripping!

The story is not about the rape (but be warned it is very graphic) it is more about the shame a victim feels afterwards and how they pick up pieces of their lives. It is also about how a sexual predator preys on the weak, and how they manipulate themselves into victims lives without being seen or noticed.

The narrative is from both Ben and the rapist view, but with some snippets of other character views. It is a brilliant book, graphic, and controversial book, not for the fainted hearted. It is a bit sexually graphic for my liking, but there was no other way to tell the story, so don't let it put you off.

Carol Anne Davis is a true crime writer and you can tell a lot of research has went into this book. I cant explain how vivid and real the characters and settings become, totally immersing, totally terrifying.

I read this book about 10years ago and recently re-read it. I was surprised I actually got through it the first time being a lot younger when I read it. It was just as good the second time, if not better.

Every time I am in a bookstore I look for Carol Anne Davis books but never find any. I had to order this off amazon second hand for 60p as library no longer had a copy.

I have read other Carol Anne Davis book, and one I also highly recommend is Safe as Houses equally as good.

Please be warned if you read this book, its not for children and shouldn't be left lying around were a child may get hold of it, but there is a message in the books that needs to be told, and highlight the "hushed" taboo of male rape. Just a pre warning to be on the safe side.

Sam