Kill Yours, Kill Mine, Katherine Kovacic

KILL YOURS, KILL MINE (aka SEVEN SISTERS) is a standalone novel from Katherine Kovacic, a beautifully written, powerful, provocative take on the concept of justice and vengeance, coming from a place of grief, guilt and the failure of the justice system. It's based around the deaths of women at the hands of domestic partners, and their sisters, left behind to pick up the pieces and make sense of the past.

Mia is a psychologist with a practice specialising in grief counselling. It's called "The Pleiades", named for the seven sisters of Greek mythology, companions of the Goddess of the Hunt. (As a sidebar I've always found it fascinating that the Australian First nations have their own Seven Sisters story, based on the star cluster in Taurus, about the Napaljarri sisters from one skin group, fleeing an interloper man from the wrong skin group who is forbidden to take one of the sisters as his wife. But I digress as that story is relevant in that many of the perpetrators in this story should definitely have been forbidden from being near any woman).

Back to the book, and Mia is treating a relatively new patient, Naomi, who she invites to join a group therapy session. Despite her reluctance Naomi does participate, making the group 7 in total, at which point the true reason for its existence is revealed. These women have all lost sisters to awful men who "got away with it", either through light sentencing, claims of accidents, or whatever other reason that the justice system opted to use to go easy on them. Each of these women is suffering awfully - from grief and the guilt that's associated with not stepping in to help, not recognising the signs, not doing enough to get their sister out from under the control of these monsters. So each member, with one other as aide, has agreed to kill another woman's nemesis. There's no overt connection between these women and the intended victim, the member of the group with the obvious connection having enough time to ensure their own alibi. Member's of the group keep their distance from each other, all communication goes through Mia (except for the allies and the intended perpetrator), most of the deaths are planned to look like accidents.

It's cleverly done - the women aren't always committing great feats of daring, sometimes the deaths of these men are opportunistic, sometimes they are designed through preparation and understanding of the environments in which they live and work, sometimes it's a bit of a fluke - right time / right place / right intention. Whether or not you agree with the murders, there's something very satisfying about this group taking back control over the perpetrators - many of whom have gone out of their way to intimidate and control their victim's extended families, and are repeat and ongoing offenders. 

There's suspense aplenty for the reader in this scenario. The background stories of all these women, Gabrielle, Brooke, Katy, Olivia, Amy, Naomi and Mia are revealed as the action progresses. Pace is never sacrificed however, the interweaving of the past and the present cleverly done, ensuring that the reader is fully invested in each of these women's lives and their dangerous undertaking. You're never allowed to forget that danger - from the perpetrator and, eventually from the law, with one policewoman just as interested in the stories of these DV perpetrators as the women and acutely aware that something, even though she's not sure what, is going on.

It was absolutely impossible not to be on the side of the sisters in this equation. Right now, with the appalling numbers of domestic violence incidents, the deaths, injuries, the damage, and the frequent token slaps on the wrists for the perpetrators, it was easy to sympathise with the idea of squads of sisters... But more than KILL YOURS, KILL MINE playing into any wish fulfilment you might have, it's cleverly constructed, fast paced, bravely plotted crime fiction with twists and turns, and a kicker ending. Utterly compelling reading.