Killing Eve: No Tomorrow

Killing Eve: No Tomorrow is a 2019 thriller novel by British author Luke Jennings that is a sequel to his 2018 e-book compilation, Codename Villanelle. The novels are the basis of BBC America's television series Killing Eve (2018—).

Killing Eve: No Tomorrow
AuthorLuke Jennings
LanguageEnglish
GenreFiction, thriller, suspense
PublisherMulholland Books Media Tie In edition
Publication date
26 March 2019
Media typeHardcover, Kindle, audiobook
Pages256
ISBN978-0-316-52434-6
Preceded byCodename Villanelle 
Followed byKilling Eve: Die For Me 
Websitehttp://www.lukejennings.com/

Background

The 2018 prequel Codename Villanelle is a compilation of four serial e-book novellas published in 2014–2016.[1][2][3][4] Villanelle's character is a Russian orphan who, after murdering the killers of her gangster father, was rescued from prison by The Twelve and trained as a hitwoman and compensated with a luxurious life in the West.[5] Villanelle becomes the quarry of British intelligence agent Eve Polastri.[6]

Killing Eve: No Tomorrow had previously (May 2018) been announced as being titled Villanelle: No Tomorrow.[7]

Premise

In her global travels in pursuit of Villanelle, Polastri experiences " luxuries most...don’t even know enough to dream about".[8] Villanelle learns that Eve Polastri has discovered The Twelve is paying a senior MI5 officer, whom Eve interrogates to try to fit the pieces of the puzzle together.[9] Villanelle helps the MI5 officer turn the tables on Polastri,[10] and the two women continue their duel and sustain their mutual obsession.[9] When Villanelle learns that Eve is her next target, Villanelle begins to suspect that The Twelve will soon turn on her, too—unless the two women can work together to foil their plot.[11]

Villanelle, upon receiving an assignment
As always, now that she is in play, Villanelle is serene. There's a sense of things falling into place, as if impelled by gravity. All leading up to the kill, that moment of absolute power. The dark rapture flowing into every vestige of her being, filling and possessing her utterly.

—Killing Eve: No Tomorrow
Part 4

Critical response

Kevin Howell wrote in Shelf Awareness that No Tomorrow is a "faster, funnier and more exciting", and less episodic, than Codename Villanelle, adding that the sequel "brilliantly walks the line between thriller and spoof" though "some of the tongue-in-cheek James Bond action goes past overkill".[11] A Publishers Weekly review said that the book was pallid and, including standard genre tropes, lacks the appeal of the television series, though indicating that "many fans of the TV series will want to check this one out".[10] In the Evening Standard Mark Sanderson derisively characterized these two books as "spoofs" of the work of Ian Fleming and John le Carré and said they include "camp nonsense", though writing that Jennings' "tales of Sapphic slapstick work better on the page" than in the "overrated" show.[12] Kirkus Reviews said that this "slender novella has many of the same satisfactions" and shortcomings as its prequel, adding that its "action is brisk", but that Polastri's obsession with Villanelle is not adequately explained and the book's "use of sexuality as a character trait" began to feel "uncomfortable".[8] " Alison Flood wrote in The Guardian that the book is "a ridiculous amount of fun, held together by Jennings’s black humour and sense of the absurd".[13]

The Killing Eve television adaptation

The television series Killing Eve cast Sandra Oh as Polastri and Jodie Comer as Villanelle.[14] The show received critical praise, being renewed for a second season before its first-season premiere[14] and being renewed for a third season about twelve hours after the second-season premiere.[15]

Though the book is said to "diverge pretty clearly" from the television show, they still "share common DNA" because of Jennings' collaboration with the show's creators,[16] the author remarking that he enjoys how the show's story line "entwines" with his own.[17]

References
  1. "Codename Villanelle (Villanelle #1)". Goodreads. Archived from the original on 20 April 2018.
  2. "Villanelle: Hollowpoint (Villanelle #2)". Goodreads. Archived from the original on 9 July 2017.
  3. "Villanelle: Shanghai (Villanelle #3)". Goodreads. Archived from the original on 6 July 2017.
  4. "Odessa (Villanelle #4)". Goodreads. Archived from the original on 9 July 2017.
  5. Hodges, Michael (20 August 2018). "Killing Eve author: 'I want people to be appalled by Jodie Comer's Villanelle – but also cheer her on'". Radio Times. Archived from the original on 29 April 2019.
  6. Noon, Jeff (14 October 2017). "The best recent crime fiction reviewed". The Spectator. Archived from the original on 27 December 2017.
  7. Tolentino, Jia (27 May 2018). "The Pleasurable Patterns of the Killing Eve Season Finale". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on 29 May 2018.
  8. "Killing Eve No Tomorrow by Luke Jennings". Kirkus Reviews. Archived from the original on 26 April 2019. Retrieved 26 April 2019.
  9. "No Tomorrow (Killing Eve #2) by Luke Jennings". Goodreads. Archived from the original on 23 April 2019. Retrieved 23 April 2019.
  10. "Killing Eve: No Tomorrow (review)". Publishers Weekly. Archived from the original on 23 April 2019.
  11. Howell, Kevin ( (26 March 2019). "Shelf Awareness for Readers for Tuesday, March 26, 2019 / Killing Eve: No Tomorrow by Luke Jennings". Shelf Awareness. Archived from the original on 29 April 2019.
  12. Sanderson, Mark (13 December 2018). "Killing Eve: No Tomorrow by Luke Jennings - review". Evening Standard. Archived from the original on 4 February 2019.
  13. Flood, Alison (4 December 2018). "The best recent thrillers – review roundup". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 29 April 2019.
  14. Wittmer, Carrie (8 May 2018). "Killing Eve is a smart and seductive spy thriller that has a 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes". Business Insider. Archived from the original on 8 May 2018.
  15. Mitovich, Matt Webb (8 April 2019). "Killing Eve Renewed for Season 3". TVLine. Archived from the original on 8 April 2019.
  16. Igoe, Katherine J.; Mitchell, Amanda (7 April 2019). "The Final Killing Eve Season 2 Trailer Has Dropped". Marie Claire. Archived from the original on 15 April 2019.
  17. Canfield, David (25 March 2019). "How the Killing Eve story is evolving in the original book series". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on 12 April 2019.
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