[Review] Exit - Belinda Bauer

Summary: Felix Pink is retired. Widowed for more than a decade, a painfully literal thinker, he has led a life of routine and is, not unhappily, waiting to die a hopefully boring death. He occupies himself volunteering as an Exiteer—someone who sits with terminally ill people as they die by suicide, assisting with logistics and lending moral support, then removing the evidence so that family and friends are not implicated in the death. 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 whether what went wrong was a simple mistake—or deliberate. Murder. (Pub Date: Feb 02 2021)

I haven't been getting the best books lately so it could be that I'm overrating this. And yet, I'm sure this was a great book, the best of the year so far. 

Felix works for a secret group that assists suicides. As a widower himself he prides in how he help those close to death take the final step in life, a help that wasn't available to his wife, but after so many cases, a big mistake occurs. So big, he has no idea how it happened. With the police after him, he has little time to make reparations and prepare for being behind bars. And yet, he's never felt this much alive since his wife's death.

This wasn't my second book by Bauer and I wasn't ready to enjoy this even more than Snap, my first. I did remember how well she wrote the psychological and emotional part of the story, but this was at another level! 

My favorite thing about this one was the hidden humor, the ironies, especially with how cynical the narration could be. To be honest, there were times I wanted to laugh before I even noticed it had really been a joke. It's surely a heavy topic—suicide, murder—, so the tone made this book even more worth it. Aside from that and the wonderful characters, I have to note how perfectly all the random things we're introduced to just fit as we go on.

I don't think this is an extraordinary story though. Of course there were a few plot twists, but nothing that blew my mind. On the other hand, it wasn't predictable at all, not until I was close enough to the big reveal. I was at 90% of the read and still wasn't sure of what to expect of the solution, that's the truth. Again, nothing big happened, but it was gripping all the same. 

Highly recommended for fans of thrillers and crime stories.

Honest review based on an ARC provided by Netgalley. Many thanks to the publisher for this opportunity.

Rating: 4 out of 5.