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Belinda Bauer

Feb 2021 · Atlantic Monthly Press

About this ebook

A volunteer who helps people die with dignity finds himself on the run after a routine visit goes shockingly wrong in this “ingeniously plotted” thriller (New York Times Book Review).

Retired and widowed for more than a decade, Felix Pink is waiting, not unhappily, to die a boring death. In the meantime, Felix volunteers as an Exiteer: someone who sits with terminally ill people as they die by suicide. He assists with logistics, lends moral support—and then removes the evidence.

When Felix lets himself in to Number 3 Black Lane, he’s there to perform an act of charity. But just fifteen minutes later, after a tragic error, Felix is on the run from the police. Now he’s desperate to find out what went wrong, and if his simple mistake was in fact a deliberate murder.

Ratings and reviews

Meet Felix Pink. He's widowed, has discovered that's be been boring all his life and has done nothing "outstanding" during his 60-some years. He occupies himself volunteering as an Exiter. He sits with terminally ill patients as they die by suicide, lending moral support. When the patient has passed, he removes all evidence to that family and friends are not implicated. Per state law, he is not allowed to assist the patient in any way. The patients sign a letter stating that they are doing this on their own and the Exiters are to be held blameless. They also have a copy of the patient's last will and testament showing that the Exiters did not profit from their death. Along with a new recruit, he enters the home of a dying man to witness and comfort the patient. Minutes later, he sends his new recruit away, and he himself, is on the run from the police. He's just made the biggest mistake of his life .... Was it a mistake ... or was it murder? There is so much that makes this an outstanding read. The intricate plot features people who are terminally ill and wish to go now .. and not wait for death to occur naturally. Felix is a senior citizen who wants to make a difference in others' lives .. or deaths ... before he faces making the same decisions for himself. It's heart-breaking in so many ways ... yet there is also dark humor ... and compassion. Many thanks to the author / Grove Atlantic / Netgalley for the digital copy of this crime fiction. Read and reviewed voluntarily, opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

About the author

BELINDA BAUER is the award-winning author of seven previous novels that have been translated into twenty-one languages. She won the CWA Gold Dagger Award for Crime Novel of the Year for Blacklands, the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award for Rubbernecker, and the CWA Dagger in the Library Award for outstanding body of work. Her previous novel, Snap, was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize. She lives in Wales.