Mouth to Mouth - Hardcover

People who live with lies can be killed by the truth. Sheep farmer Eileen knows much of the worst about her husband Scott and has constructed her life to avoid thinking about it. The wedding of her rebellious daughter Moreen is just another small portion of hell--Randy is a smalltown tough with a nasty temper. Then long-lost nephew Neal turns up at the wedding and shortly afterwards people start to die and all the skill at evasion which Eileen has taught herself down the years will not save her.

Kimball's rural America is a nightmare of prejudice, loan-sharking, hideous accidents, ill- advised sexual encounters and gratuitously violent death. His laconic Maine countryfolk keep quiet because they all have secrets; this is a thriller which gains much of its power from the way no-one tells anyone anything. From the moment he appears in a barn to face down Randy and his psychotic friend Gator, Neal combines sexual magnetism, a terrifying lack of fear and a capacity for making himself look good at other people's expense. Mouth to Mouth is an effective novel of suspense because Kimball makes us care about the people to whom terrible things happen, especially the flawed but strong Eileen. --Roz Kaveney, Amazon.co.uk

'A powerfully compelling read from the author of the international topseller, Undone' Publishers News

"The best suspense stories are the ones that creep up on you, breathe on your neck and jump back into the shadows when you turn around. Michael Kimball plays that game with unnerving skill in Mouth to Mouth, a psychological thriller with the scariest kind of villain - a handsome, helpful, utterly winsome sociopath with an evil agenda that his victims fail to see until it's too late . . . Although the steel-trap plot is built for ultimate carnage, Kimball primes the mechanism with scenes of quiet beauty and subtle tension that seduce characters and readers alike on the slow, scenic route to a state of high anxiety." New York Times

'This is an excellent novel. MOUTH TO MOUTH will please readers across a number of genres, but mostly it will please fans of quality writing' Crime Time

'MOUTH TO MOUTH is a stunning experience; a stylish novel that creates its own dark intensity weaving disturbing claustrophobic patterns within a framework of eternal truths...The language is lyrical and resonant echoing the ethereal atmosphere and the use of imagery is subtle and pervasive often leaving the reader breathless...[it] rocks along to a succession of climaxes, rising to a crescendo. Memories are evoked of AMERICAN GOTHIC, SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL and NIGHT OF THE HUNTER and, in fact MOUTH TO MOUTH would make a great film.' Shots in the Dark

'A deft, highly charged erotic psychological thriller bristling with secrets and lies... Kimball offers one engrossing scene after another... The tough, pull-no-punches narrative is loaded with spellbinding action... Kimball hits the mark with this high-wire revenger's tragedy: a pitilessly intelligent examination of a family tortured by mistakes, misunderstandings, and malicious vengeance from the invigorating opening to the catastrophic finale' Kirkus Reviews

'In his second thriller, Kimball seduces the reader... He has created characters on which we want Neal to wreak his brand of justice, then makes us painfully aware of the finality and horror of that justice... The story and characters are compelling and believable' Library Journal

'[MOUTH TO MOUTH] is a dark ... story with a serpentine plot, intriguing but thoroughly revolting characters, and a stunning finale. Highly recommended, but not as bedtime reading' Booklist

'Suspenseful psychological thriller' Irish News (Belfast)

'MOUTH TO MOUTH sustains the trenchant storytelling ability Kimbal displayed in UNDONE' The Times

'This is an excellent novel... MOUTH TO MOUTH will please readers across a number of genres, but mostly it will please fans of quality writing' Crime Time