Suicidal man gets disturbing offer in 'Kill the Next One'

Federico Axat’s Kill the Next One (Mulholland, 403 pp., ** out of four stars) boasts a grabber of an opening sentence, but from that moment on, this thriller lurches from one implausible scenario to the next. The curious reader will plow through to see how the heck things will sort out, but in the end, it remains a puzzlement.

With a Browning pistol pointed at his temple when the doorbell rings, Ted McKay stops to answer the door. Diagnosed with a brain tumor, Ted is determined to commit suicide, his only hesitation being the image of his wife, Holly, and two young daughters discovering his body. And the doorbell, of course.

The man at the door seems to know Ted and his mental state, and makes an intriguing offer: Kill a man no one would miss who has escaped justice, and another man who, like Ted, is terminally ill. Then Ted becomes part of a suicide club — a pyramid scheme where someone else will kill him, to spare his family the pain of knowing he killed himself instead.

Are you with me so far? Ted signs up for this plan, and proceeds to kill his victims. But nothing is at it appears, and Kill the Next One keeps the reader reeling from the start, with Groundhog Day-like replays of the events. Are the scenes really happening, or are they part of Ted’s mental breakdown? A chess set, a photo of Holly in a red bikini and a ravenous possum reappear at critical moments of plot breakthrough.

Not much of this novel is believable. It only starts to grab the reader on a human level two-thirds of the way in, when we meet young Ted and his college buddy Justin, and Axat gives these characters personalities and similarly dysfunctional fathers.

Is Ted a good guy or a mentally deranged killer? Is Holly the devoted mate Ted adores, or is she straying with his closest friend? Is Ted’s obsessively involved therapist Laura a caring professional or an ambitious manipulator? If these questions intrigue you, try Kill the Next One. If not, let the doorbell keep ringing.