Kill for Me, Kill for You

Kill for Me, Kill for You (2023) is a mystery thriller by Irish novelist Steve Cavanagh, best known for his Eddie Flynn series. The novel follows grieving widow Amanda White, who agrees to swap murders with a mysterious woman she meets in trauma therapy. In a parallel storyline, a woman named Ruth struggles with the trauma of a violent home invasion. Major themes in the novel include The Lasting Effects of Traumatic Events, The Limitations and Implicit Bias of the Criminal Justice System, and The Rehabilitation of Violent Offenders.

This guide refers to the 2024 Atria Books e-book edition.

Content Warning: The novel and this guide contain graphic depictions of violence, including sexual violence and violence against children, as well as discussion of suicide and suicidal ideation.

Plot Summary

After the deaths of her six-year-old daughter, Jess, and her husband, Luis, Amanda White feels desperate for revenge on Wallace Crone, the man she holds responsible. Although investigators Andrew Farrow and Karen Fernandez believed that Crone killed and assaulted Jess, charges were dropped under pressure from Crone’s wealthy father. Luis died by suicide a week after Jess’s murder.

At court-ordered trauma therapy, Amanda befriends Wendy, whose daughter was also killed. After a drunken night bonding over their grief, Amanda learns that Wendy’s real name is Naomi, and that she is stalking Frank Quinn, the man she believes killed her daughter. When Amanda suggests to Naomi that they help each other plan their revenge murders, Naomi escalates, suggesting that they kill for each other. Amanda agrees.

After a few days of silence, Naomi reappears and announces that she killed Crone while Amanda was at a meeting, giving her a solid alibi. She insists that Amanda reciprocate and kill Frank before the police find Crone’s body. Amanda tries to kill Quinn but panics at the last second, resulting in Quinn attacking her. After a vicious fight, she kills him and escapes. A man follows her from Quinn’s street into the subway, where she loses him. The next day, Amanda discovers Crone is still alive. She attempts to confront Naomi, but finds her apartment empty. Amanda discovers that Quinn survived their fight, and vows to find Naomi and the evidence to prove she was set up.

Amanda sneaks into Quinn’s house to search for clues but hides when Detectives Farrow and Hernandez arrive. She takes money from a lockbox in Quinn’s bedroom and attempts to leave, but Hernandez and Farrow spot her limping away and chase after her. She escapes when the man who followed her on the day she attacked Quinn appears in a getaway car. The man introduces himself as Billy Cameron, and says he and Amanda are looking for the same person. He explains that a woman named Felicia tried to get him to kill Quinn in a murder swap scheme. He also believes that Felicia has previously made a similar bargain with a man named Richard Kowalski. They realize that Quinn looks almost identical to Kowalski’s victim Saul Benson. As President Donald Trump’s 2018 Thanksgiving address begins, Amanda finds a shocking article featuring a photo of Naomi.

In a parallel storyline, a woman named Ruth is attacked in her home by a man with piercing blue eyes. When she wakes in the hospital, Ruth is told that the man who attacked her has killed two other women, and that the damage to her abdomen has made it impossible for her to have children. Detectives Farrow and Hernandez learn that Ruth’s neighbor called the police regarding an unrelated medical crisis the night she was assaulted, and suspect that the siren scared the attacker away, allowing Ruth to live. Ruth and her husband, Scott, stay in a hotel for six weeks as Ruth struggles to move past her near-fatal attack. Later, Farrow and Hernandez discuss whether they’d take revenge on a guilty perpetrator who escaped prosecution, alluding to both Ruth’s attacker and Crone.

When a district attorney suggests Ruth’s case can’t be solved, Scott begins to consider taking revenge himself. Ruth agrees to eat dinner at the hotel restaurant but panics when she sees a man she believes to be her attacker—the man she calls “Mr. Blue Eyes.” Convinced the police can’t help, Scott decides to investigate himself. When the man, whose name is Patrick Travers, seems to reference Ruth’s attack, Scott attacks him with a bottle of champagne and kills him in his hotel room. Scott attempts to hide the murder by pouring bleach over the body. He convinces Ruth to leave the hotel and the city.

When the news of the murder in their hotel breaks, Ruth realizes Scott was responsible, and thanks him, feeling like she has regained control of her life. However, subsequent news coverage reveals that Travers was in Hawaii on the night Ruth was attacked and couldn’t have broken into her home. While watching the press conference, Ruth sees another man she believes is her attacker. Realizing the gravity of his action and Ruth’s declining mental health, Scott calls the police to turn himself in, then jumps out their third-story window. He is killed instantly, and Ruth is taken to a police station, where she watches George W. Bush’s 2007 Thanksgiving address.

In 2018, Amanda and Billy’s research leads them to discover Naomi/Felicia’s true identity: Ruth Gelman. They learn that Ruth spent seven years in a psychiatric facility after Scott’s death; Amanda suspects that she began targeting men resembling her attacker immediately after her release. As Billy and Amanda search for her, Ruth begins the process of manipulating a new group of bereaved people into killing for her. Billy obtains contact information for Ruth’s doctor, who connects them with a man named Jack, Ruth’s only visitor. Jack admits to giving Ruth fake IDs and provides them with her aliases, which Billy is able to connect with a recently rented apartment in Brooklyn. Billy calls Dr. Marin, one of Ruth’s doctors at the psychiatric facility, to meet them at the apartment. Dr. Marin, in turn, calls Detective Farrow, whom he believes can help subdue Ruth.

Meanwhile, Ruth sees a man at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade and recognizes him as Mr. Blue Eyes. She vows to kill him and his family personally. She attempts to enter their building disguised as a fruit basket delivery worker and brutally attacks a doorman who tries to stop her. Billy and Amanda, who have been following Ruth from her apartment, enter minutes after her and save the doorman’s life. Alone with Ruth upstairs, Billy removes his contacts and reveals himself to be Mr. Blue Eyes. Recognizing Ruth’s attempts to hunt him, he’s decided to finish the attack he started 11 years earlier. He replaces the contacts before the others arrive, leading Ruth to be readmitted to the psychiatric facility. Two months later, Amanda receives a letter from Billy admitting that he knew Ruth previously and used Amanda to find her. He also admits to killing Crone while Amanda was at a concert to which he gave her tickets. Amanda burns the letter and feels at peace.