Exit by Belinda Bauer.

Retired accountant Felix Pink, 75 has a hobby. He witnesses the deaths of people who wish to take their own lives. All is going well for Felix until one day when things go dramatically wrong.

Exit got off to an exciting and shocking start. Unknown to Belinda when she wrote her novel, the coronavirus has kicked off around the world and here in the UK. To read about characters as they took their last drastic breaths from behind CPAP masks was a shock for me and a little too close to home and reality. My wife Gail wears a CPAP mask for her Obstructive Sleep Apnoea and the thought of her taking her last breaths next to me in our bed really chilled me.

I liked how Exit mentioned the stress involved for visitors when they tried to deal with hospital car parking. I particularly liked when Belinda dealt with the feelings elderly people have with their wardrobe when she wrote…

His days of buying clothes were over. He had bought his last three-pack of Y-fronts a year ago, and the socks he had now would see him out. It was a strange feeling - that he would be outlived by his socks.

… After the initial shock, Exit became a farce as Felix and the local police buffooned around North Devon to establish what went wrong on that fateful day. Belinda Bauer has written many novels that have won a collection of awards but Exit is the first novel from her that I have read.

I found Exit to be a frustrating read and my interest faded as I worked my way through this book. If this was a television programme I would have been quite happy to turn over to another channel part way through. The story flitted about from character to character and this became rather irritating as this tale plodded along. The twists and turns were generated by trying to find out who moved the instrument on death and their motives. Laboriously the story lumbered on until the culprit was revealed. I lacked empathy for the characters because of the mistakes they were all making. I did not engage with the characters and my interest was fading fast. Although Exit got off to a very good start, I was disappointed and saddened by the lack of realism to this story. I found Exit to be quite a dull read and NOT a thriller. I think Exit is a POOR read and it gets just 2 stars from me.

Exit was written in 2020 and is available as an Amazon Kindle eBook.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Random House UK/Transworld Publishers/Bantam Press for giving me a copy of this book on the understanding that I provide an honest review.