Killer Potential by Hannah Deitch
Killer potential, the debut novel by Los Angeles-based Hannah Deitch is a compelling, twisty murder mystery/adventure of the queer crime subgenre where two female main characters (Evie Gordon and Jae) lend LGBTQ+ representation to the story in an arguably surprising type of relationship formation whilst on the run. Deitch, like her chief protagonist Evie Gordon, was a SAT tutor and an academic so she writes from experience of the academic world. The reader learns of the lives of the Los Angeles super-rich through the eyes of Evie as she tutors their children in their homes.
Deitch uses Evie and later Jae as first person narrators. The narrative voice begins with great spunky clarity through Evie's thought-provoking commentaries and internal thoughts coloured by her potty-mouth and ruthless decision making. Evie is funny, sharp, uncouth and rough; not a totally likeable central character. Even though she has graduated from an elite university as a whip-smart, straight A student, she feels socially apart as a scholarship student on the edge of the society of her peers. In order to fit in, she becomes an excellent faker and mimic-a chameleon. Killer potential interrogates the notion of education as a provision or step-ladder to upward social mobility. Her suffering parents are a tragic sidenote in the narrative. The silent Jae emerges as a less successful later narrator. Deitch uses Jae's internal monologue to fill in the gaps about her origins and motivations.
Killer potential is overwhelmingly an escape story. Evie discovers her rich employers brutally murdered in the mansion where she tutors their daughter. The modern-day mansion is an important setting, bookending the narrative. Designed with hidden interior walls, rooms and passages, the interior of the house is central to the plot and reminiscent of stories of concealed rooms in ancient homes in the vein of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte with the secret room on the third floor of Thornfield Hall and J.K Rowling's Harry Potter and the chamber of secrets. Houses with creepy, interior secret rooms have long been a fascination for people.
Through a series of rapid-fire unfortunate events and decisions, Evie becomes a chief suspect on the run, trying to outrun and outsmart a nation-wide manhunt. With her on the run is the silent woman who she found locked up inside the walls of the mansion. The two women become increasingly close as they flee across America as fugitives, living outside the law and surviving through their combined skill-sets, by their wits, cunning and brutality. Once a gifted student, Evie becomes the wanted killer on the cover of every magazine, newspaper and TV news program. Her aim is to find the real killer in order to redeem herself. More and more killings happen and the characters change and harden, becoming more desperate and ruthless. Always there is the impending possibility that the daughter in the coma who witnessed much will awaken...
This reader had trouble with various unbelievable aspects of the plot including Evie's decision to not dial 000 immediately. Being an intelligent girl, stupid decisions led her on the slippery slope of the whole story. And the police must have been totally incompetent and the public must have been blind to allow two women to achieve such a long road trip across America, spanning almost the entire continent. Still this is writer's licence and all in the service of story.
Being an escape story, Killer potential very strongly channels Thelma and Louise by Susan Kollin in terms of the fugitive/violent clashes with the law and The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles in terms of the idea of young people on road trips across America. Few of these characters are particularly troubled by ethics or morals although a sense of fairness emerges at times in decisions made to recompense and/or allow certain hapless potential victims to survive. After a wild ride, the aftermath is probably the most realistic part of the story.
Edgy, racy, raunchy, raw and also very funny, Killer potential asks the question of all of us - do we all, given the right circumstances, have the potential to be a killer? With its very contemporary themes, setting and characterisation, Killer potential could easily be made into an action-packed TV-series. As a book, it is entertaining.
Themes: Escape, Hiding, The fugitive, Murder, Queer crime, University debt, Social mobility, Lesbian romance.
Wendy Jeffrey