Book Review: EXIT by Belinda Bauer

EXIT

by

Belinda Bauer

IT WAS NEVER SUPPOSED TO BE MURDER . . .

Pensioner Felix Pink is about to find out that it’s never too late . . . for life to go horribly wrong.

When Felix lets himself in to Number 3 Black Lane, he’s there to perform an act of kindness and charity: to keep a dying man company as he takes his final breath . . .

But just fifteen minutes later Felix is on the run from the police – after making the biggest mistake of his life.

Now his routine world is turned upside down as he tries to discover what went wrong, while staying one step ahead of the law.

Exit is the heart-pounding, heart-breaking, and often hilarious new novel from Sunday Times bestselling author Belinda Bauer.

***

My Thoughts

Belinda Bauer, you’ve done it again! EXIT is simply a marvellous read.

For a book dealing with the sombre subject of euthanasia, I found myself often laughing out loud. The dark comedic theme running throughout deftly showcases that droll, understated British humour that I so love.  

Felix Pink, a 75 year old widower, is fastidious, has excellent manners, and talks as often to his dead wife Margaret, as he does his dog Mabel. Felix is also an exiteer – someone who sits with a terminally ill person during the last minutes of their life, a life they have decided to end by suicide using nitrous oxide (laughing gas). Exiteers are not involved in any way in assisting the suicide, thus making what they do technically legal.

When a visit to a client’s home with a new exiteer results in the wrong person dying, Felix is convinced he’ll soon be imprisoned. The police are on the case and the well plotted mystery contains a goodly number of twists that kept me interested from start to finish. But there’s also Felix, who has his own ideas about how to solve the mystery and somehow make amends to the wronged family.

As good a role as the other characters played in this book, Felix is definitely the star. He often reflects on his life – past and present. He is perceptive about what it means to be noticed and remembered and thought of once you are old or have died. Felix escapades and internal thoughts were often comical, especially since Felix, in his earnestness, is unaware of how funny he is.

EXIT is definitely one for the keeper shelf. 

Review copy courtesy of Netgalley and Bantam Press

About the Author

Belinda Bauer grew up in England and South Africa. She has worked as a journalist and screenwriter, and her script THE LOCKER ROOM earned her the Carl Foreman/Bafta Award for Young British Screenwriters, an award that was presented to her by Sidney Poitier. 

She was a runner-up in the Rhys Davies Short Story Competition for "Mysterious Ways," about a girl stranded on a desert island with 30,000 Bibles. Belinda now lives in Wales.