Dangerous To Know (Alvie Knightly Trilogy Book Three) by Chloe Esposito

 

Dangerous To Know (Alvie Knightly Book Three) by Chloe Esposito.

Published 15th October 2020 by Penguin Books.

From the cover of the book:

Once, serial killer Alvie Knightly was living the dream.

Unlimited cash.
An Italian getaway.
A hot new boyfriend . . .

How the mighty fall.

One year - and one very unfortunate incident - later, Alvie is homeless, surviving on meal deals, and counting her dwindling pennies.

It's time for one last hit, and if anyone can pull it off - in six-inch heels - it's Alvie.

But if she's to succeed in her mission to avenge her ex, win back her money and secure her future, she'll have to face her most terrifying enemy yet . . .

Her past.

**********************************

The first two books in the Alvie Knightly Trilogy by Chloe Esposito, Mad and Bad, were certainly quite a ride, so I was really looking forward to meeting up with the audacious Alvie once again.

At the beginning of this final instalment in Alvie's story, we find her in a major slump after the 'unfortunate' Nino incident - living in a hostel in north London and surviving on whatever she can scrape together of her seriously dwindled funds, while avoiding the attentions of the police.

Alvie needs to get her act together if she is going to embark on her scheme of revenge against those she considers responsible for her plight, and get what she feels she deserves. To do this she must take on yet another identity - this time as Cork born Irish colleen Siobhan Faelan... dyed ginger hair and all (and in ALL the right places!). The target is wealthy businessman Edwin Forbes, who she hopes to ensnare via his Instagram famous, do-gooder wife, Tiffany...

The story does take a little time to get rolling in this third book before Alvie has fully broken out of her depressive fug, but once she gets going we are off on another mad-cap, darkly comic and blood-letting adventure of the Alvie brand - via sushi-chef knife skills, pug puppy-sitting responsibilities, farcical Venetian escapades, saucy seductions, and murderous Machiavellian schemes, in pursuit of her plan.... which doesn't turn out quite as she intended.

Interestingly, this time around we get to see a different side of Alvie, because she develops feelings which distract her from her goals and cause her to reflect on her past in a way she never has before. The scenes she recalls from her childhood give us an intriguing glimpse into the development of her character and the complicity of her mother in how she has turned out, and it is for this reason that this third book is not as full on as the first two. This is a trade off of sorts on the part of Chloe Esposito, but I rather enjoyed learning more about the Alvie inside as it makes her less of a caricature -  and it makes the ending of the book all the better, I think.

It's mad in ways that are unexpected, bad in the form of the dark secrets revealed, and very dangerous for the emotions - everything you need to tie up the threads of the last episode of a trilogy - and I thoroughly enjoyed it! Plenty of laughs too, especially over Alvie's attempts to be spiritual... and Irish.

Dangerous To Know is available to buy now from your favourite book retailer in paperback, ebook and audio formats.

Thank you to Chloe Esposito and Penguin Books for providing me with a gifted copy of this book in return for an honest review, and to Sriya Varadharajan at Penguin for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.