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Killing Adonis
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Published:
Sourcebooks 2017
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Description

"This first mystery from Donellan will remind many readers of Tom Robbins' work: cleverly crafted and overflowing with idiosyncratic characters and mordant humor... A most unusual mystery, indeed." —Kirkus Reviews STARRED review

Freya Miller, funny and tenacious with a taste for vodka, escapes a recent tragedy by answering an advertisement for a nursing job that promises LIGHT DUTIES. LARGE PAY. NO QUESTIONS ASKED OR ANSWERED. Her new employer is the infamous, eccentric, and stupendously rich Vincetti family, heads of the Halcyon Corporation. Her task will be to care for their adored heir, Elijah, who is currently lying in a coma amidst an armada of premium machinery. The Vincettis claim this golden boy is everything from a saint to a genius, but they refuse to reveal how he entered a comatose state.

As Freya explores the labyrinthine Vincetti mansion and the secrets it holds, she becomes aware that the family members are far more deluded and dangerous than rumored. Why, during the next few weeks, do the heads of rival corporations rapidly fall prey to a series of elaborate executions? Do Vincettis pre-plan disasters like oil spills so that their rivals are squelched and their humanitarian responses get prime press coverage?

Freya befriends Jack Vincetti, the black sheep whose rare illness keeps him shut away. She's a fan of his sole novel, but now she learns that he is writing a new book with a storyline that has uncanny similarities to the recent murders.

Things take an even more bizarre turn when the Vincettis host a birthday party for Elijah, wheeling him out in a tuxedo and acting almost as if he is conscious. Freya befriends Elijah's fiancée, Rosaline, and discovers that she is the heir to one of Halcyon's major rival corporations. A wedding will merge the two companies and grant Halcyon dominance in the global pharmaceutical industry.

It has been said that comedies always end with weddings, tragedies with funerals. This story ends with both a bride and a body count. J.M. Donellan's dazzling North American debut novel mixes outlandish, eccentric storylines with cinematic zest.

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Format:
Adobe EPUB eBook, Kindle Book, OverDrive Read, Open EPUB eBook
Street Date:
01/03/2017
Language:
English
ISBN:
9781464207082
ASIN:
B07VPKSNH5
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Citations
APA Citation (style guide)

J M Donellan. (2017). Killing Adonis. Sourcebooks.

Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)

J M Donellan. 2017. Killing Adonis. Sourcebooks.

Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)

J M Donellan, Killing Adonis. Sourcebooks, 2017.

MLA Citation (style guide)

J M Donellan. Killing Adonis. Sourcebooks, 2017.

Note! Citation formats are based on standards as of July 2022. Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy.
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Grouped Work ID:
7606012d-b1a6-fc75-17ae-0f95c8913699
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Needs Update?:
No
Date Added:
Jun 12, 2018 18:54:22
Date Updated:
Jun 12, 2018 18:54:22
Last Metadata Check:
Apr 14, 2024 10:37:09
Last Metadata Change:
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Last Availability Check:
Apr 14, 2024 10:37:12
Last Availability Change:
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Last Grouped Work Modification Time:
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OverDrive Product Record

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        J.M. Donellan is a writer, musician, poet, radio DJ and teacher. He was almost devoured by a tiger in the jungles of Malaysia, nearly died of a lung collapse in the Nepalese Himalayas, fended off a pack of rabid dogs with a guitar in the mountains of India and was sexually harassed by a half-naked man whilst standing next to Oscar Wilde's grave in Paris. His other published works include A Beginner's Guide to Dying in India, Zeb and the Great Ruckus and the poetry collection Stendhal Syndrome. He has performed at the Sydney Opera House, TEDx, Sydney Writers' Festival, numerous bars, basements and not-quite-legal warehouse parties.

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title
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fullDescription

"This first mystery from Donellan will remind many readers of Tom Robbins' work: cleverly crafted and overflowing with idiosyncratic characters and mordant humor... A most unusual mystery, indeed." —Kirkus Reviews STARRED review

Freya Miller, funny and tenacious with a taste for vodka, escapes a recent tragedy by answering an advertisement for a nursing job that promises LIGHT DUTIES. LARGE PAY. NO QUESTIONS ASKED OR ANSWERED. Her new employer is the infamous, eccentric, and stupendously rich Vincetti family, heads of the Halcyon Corporation. Her task will be to care for their adored heir, Elijah, who is currently lying in a coma amidst an armada of premium machinery. The Vincettis claim this golden boy is everything from a saint to a genius, but they refuse to reveal how he entered a comatose state.

As Freya explores the labyrinthine Vincetti mansion and the secrets it holds, she becomes aware that the family members are far more deluded and dangerous than rumored. Why, during the next few weeks, do the heads of rival corporations rapidly fall prey to a series of elaborate executions? Do Vincettis pre-plan disasters like oil spills so that their rivals are squelched and their humanitarian responses get prime press coverage?

Freya befriends Jack Vincetti, the black sheep whose rare illness keeps him shut away. She's a fan of his sole novel, but now she learns that he is writing a new book with a storyline that has uncanny similarities to the recent murders.

Things take an even more bizarre turn when the Vincettis host a birthday party for Elijah, wheeling him out in a tuxedo and acting almost as if he is conscious. Freya befriends Elijah's fiancée, Rosaline, and discovers that she is the heir to one of Halcyon's major rival corporations. A wedding will merge the two companies and grant Halcyon dominance in the global pharmaceutical industry.

It has been said that comedies always end with weddings, tragedies with funerals. This story ends with both a bride and a body count. J.M. Donellan's dazzling North American debut novel mixes outlandish, eccentric storylines with cinematic zest.

reviews
      • premium: True
      • source: Publisher's Weekly
      • content:

        October 10, 2016
        Australian author Donellan (A Beginner’s Guide to Dying in India) makes his U.S. debut with this delicious romp, which includes a bit of social consciousness. In a Brisbane bar, with a Moscow Mule in hand, nurse Freya Miller, who has always dreamed of becoming the Florence Nightingale of East Timor, is reconsidering her future. A friend shows her an ad for a private nurse that reads: “Light duties. Large pay. No questions asked or answered.” In an alcoholic haze, Freya sends off her résumé and is shocked into sobriety when she’s invited to come for an interview at the home of one of the world’s most powerful families. So begins this racy, well-paced, action-packed, and funny tale of twisted love, gruesome death, steadfast friendship, awesome greed, and familial madness—not to mention penguins in sweaters. Donellan has a gift for witty turns of phrase and dialogue that jumps off the page and makes you smile.

      • premium: True
      • source: Kirkus
      • content:

        Starred review from October 15, 2016
        A nurse is hired to care for a comatose patient.Freya Miller has recently lost her favorite patient to a horrific automobile accident. Depressed, she puts off her lifelong plan to work as a Red Cross nurse in East Timor and applies for a suspiciously well-paying job with the fabulously wealthy Vincetti family. Evelyn and Harlan Vincetti are the owners of a vast conglomerate that uses every means possible to increase profits no matter who or what gets hurt. Their younger son, Elijah, is comatose after a mysterious accident. Aside from caring for him, Freya's job is to keep her mouth shut and her curiosity buried, something she finds especially difficult once she's given a key card that opens some but not all of the hundreds of rooms in the Vincetti mansion. Compared to his older brother, Jack, an agoraphobic writer toiling with difficulty on his second book, Elijah has always been the family's golden boy, handsome, athletic, and multitalented, and his fiancee, Rosaline, is determined to have the storybook wedding she's dreamed of despite Elijah's condition. The family may be dysfunctional, but Freya has her oddities, too. She always wears gloves or bracelets to cover up a scar caused by a pineapple cutter, and she suffers from a rare condition that allows her to see sound as color. Freya makes friends with Maria, the housekeeper, and slowly develops a romantic relationship with the reclusive Jack, who joins her in trying to uncover some of the secrets hidden behind the locked doors, many of which turn out to be horrifying and deadly. This first mystery from Donellan (A Beginner's Guide to Dying in India, 2009) will remind many readers of Tom Robbins' work: cleverly crafted and overflowing with idiosyncratic characters and mordant humor. A most unusual mystery, indeed.

        COPYRIGHT(2016) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

      • premium: True
      • source: Booklist
      • content:

        December 15, 2016
        Hard-drinking nurse Freya Miller, still reeling from the death of a patient, accepts a lucrative position taking care of the comatose Elijah Vincetti, the beloved adult son of Harland and Evelyn Vincetti, owners of the Halcyon Corporation. The highly paid position comes with light duties, room and board in a fabulous mansion, and the stipulation that Freya doesn't ask any questions. Surrounded by numerous locked rooms and family secrets, Freya soon begins to delve into the many curious events happening around herincluding the death of a household employeewith the help of the Vincettis' other son, Jack, a writer who never leaves home. Meanwhile, the heads of several corrupt companies die in macabre manners, leaving the field open for Halcyon to take over the worldwide pharmaceutical industry, culminating with a merger with the company owned by Elijah's fiancee, Rosaline. Freya and Jack expose the corruption around them, leading to more heartbreak for Freya in this dark mystery set in Australia. A good choice for James Hall fans.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)

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"This first mystery from Donellan will remind many readers of Tom Robbins' work: cleverly crafted and overflowing with idiosyncratic characters and mordant humor... A most unusual mystery, indeed." —Kirkus Reviews STARRED review

Freya Miller, funny and tenacious with a taste for vodka, escapes a recent tragedy by answering an advertisement for a nursing job that promises LIGHT DUTIES. LARGE PAY. NO QUESTIONS ASKED OR ANSWERED. Her new employer is the infamous, eccentric, and stupendously rich Vincetti family, heads of the Halcyon Corporation. Her task will be to care for their adored heir, Elijah, who is currently lying in a coma amidst an armada of premium machinery. The Vincettis claim this golden boy is everything from a saint to a genius, but they refuse to reveal how he entered a comatose state.

As Freya explores the labyrinthine Vincetti mansion and the secrets it holds, she becomes aware that the family members are far more deluded and...

sortTitle
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crossRefId
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publisher
Sourcebooks
bisacCodes
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      • description: Fiction / Mystery & Detective / Women Sleuths
      • code: FIC022100
      • description: Fiction / Mystery & Detective / Amateur Sleuth
      • code: FIC044000
      • description: Fiction / Contemporary Women