Cilla was born in the Soviet Union and as a young girl was taken by the authorities to a special school. There she learned to be a killer
Even though she is a Hit Woman I quite liked Cilla and really enjoyed this audio book and listen to it within a couple of days
I would have given this 5 stars but I thought the book could have ended better as it left things hanging I even listened to the last chapter again in case I had missed something

🎧Audio Book Review🎧

Murder By Natural Causes
Helen Erichsen

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

I absolutely loved this! It was quite different to anything I've read recently and I just couldn't put it down.

I adored Cilla, our main character. She's completely unremarkable in her outwardly daily life....but that's exactly what is needed in her line of work - a dry job assassin.

We follow Cilla in her present day life, working, part time, for Vlad - drug lord, club owner, impaler! - definitely not a man to be messed with.
On the side, she is able to take on jobs of her own but as things develop we see the lines becoming blurred.

I loved that Cilla, although completely invisible, she was the bravest, cleverest and strongest character I've read about in a while.

As the storyline unfolds, we learn of Cilla's childhood and education - born in a very communist Soviet Union, she was whisked away at a young age and trained at the specialist academy 43 where she excelled.
I really felt sorry for her missing out on a traditional childhood but given the status divide, certain areas of life were actually better where she was? It's a tricky one!

This was a complex plot but brilliantly written. I both read the book and listened on audio and loved them both.
The narrator was amazing especially depicting all the different characters and accents. It really brought the story to life and helped to add context to the plot.

The ending was one that leaves us wondering - no spoilers here - but it's a little ambiguous.
I'm really hoping that it's because there is going to be a sequel, but even if not, this is definitely an author that I'll be reading again! Brilliant read!


💕Thank you to the author, publisher and Netgalley for my audio copy - this is my honest review💕

Who knew you could like a stone cold multiple killer so much?
Not me!

Cilla is quite the character, and I enjoyed the dual timeline that meant we got to know her as she was now, and what had made her like this.
A good few twists, but mainly just an entertaining story.
Very much enjoyed.

I went in to this book without knowing much about what it was and overall it was good but it just didn't grab me how I wanted. I liked that we got Cilla's origin story but by the end, I didn't really know who she was as a character. I know why she ended up working for Vlad but I feel like I might've missed the key point where we were told why she ended up at that school and ended up in that scenario. I also did not feel like she was only 22. While listening, I thought she was in her 30s.

This may have been down to me and perhaps I didn't take everything in, rather than an issue with the book but it is what it is. I'd be interested to see what the author writes next and perhaps I'd opt for physical over audio that time.

Following the life and perspective of cilla, a 22 year old contract killer, the way she views the world is certainly different and her life has never been an ordinary one.

The chapters are split timelines, between her earlier life and training and now, with her current cases. It was constantly entertaining and the audiobook narrated in a way that will draw you in and have you listening with ease.

It was a fun book (albeit laced with no nonsense death and contract killing!) and listening to Cilla’s life was an intrigue. Despite her character committing regular acts of murder (and sometimes to other likeable characters) the author still manages to make you like and root for her. Her thought processes and plannings for her jobs was interesting to follow and I knew the book was going to end one of two ways and had no idea which way it would lean. It was a great debut !

Small, nondescript and invisible - no-one sees Cilla coming. She’s a young Russian contract killer, trained in the former Soviet Union in an Assassination Academy called Academy 43. But, now she’s London-based and carries out hits for Vladimir Haugr (aka Vlad the Impaler!). Her signature assassination is the dry job - no mess or blood and gets reported as death by a natural cause or accident.

The story moves back and forth in an easy rhythm between Cilla in London in the present and her plans to escape her life and her past life in the Soviet Union. The past chronicles how Alexandria was in the first instance recruited to Academy 43 and taken from her family. Her time at Academy 43 and her evolution into becoming Cilla - named after her singing hero Cilla Black!

I thoroughly enjoyed Murder by Natural Causes by Helen Erichsen and listened to it in two sittings. It is narrated by the brilliant Natalie Pela, who did an amazing job of bringing this e-audiobook to life.

I think it’s definitely a book for fans of Villanelle and “Killing Eve”.

Huge thanks to NetGalley and the publishers Bolinda Audio for making this e-audiobook available to me in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Murder By Natural Causes is the first novel by British bridge champion and author, Helen Erichsen. The audio version is narrated by Natalie Pela. Plain, ordinary, unremarkable: Cilla Wilson finds these attributes useful in her career as a contract killer. She’s twenty-two, but she’s been killing since she was fourteen. She’s very good at it, an expert at making a death look like it is from natural causes.

Currently, she kills people for the owner of TGR's bridge club in London, Vladimir Haugr, in return for a flat, a retainer and expenses: five jobs a year for the man also knows as Haugr the Ogre or, to those who get on the wrong side of him, Vlad the Impaler. And under conditions she very strictly controls, she does a bit of selective freelance work. Her attitude is pragmatic to the extreme, rather chilling, in fact.

Despite her cut-glass British accent, Cilla is a product of Soviet Russia, plucked from the village school at the tender age of ten, and trained at Academy 43 to become an assassin for the government. The Academy’s training methods produce cold, efficient killers. The children start with intensive lessons on a wide range of topics, then later specialise.

They are trained in all manner of covert killing, but are assessed for their special quality to be harnessed in service to the state. Cilla enjoys botany and its importance in toxicology, making a myriad of poisons from plants in the Academy’s greenhouse. Her favourite subject, though, is English. She is thoroughly immersed in every aspect of English culture, which will eventually serve her well when she eliminates targets overseas. But never neglected is the children’s indoctrination into Soviet state dogma.

After two years doing jobs for Vlad, Cilla starts making preparations to leave: she doesn’t want this to be her whole life, and Vlad’s mercurial moods mean there’s always a chance of falling foul of this powerful, violent man. But, as Smithy, the talented forger whom she sometimes babysits for Vlad says, it’s highly unlikely that he’ll ever let either of them go…

Cilla’s story is told in a dual timeline: one follows young Alexandria’s metamorphosis into the accomplished assassin, Cilla, and how she ends up with Vlad; the other details her present-day activities and her attempt at freedom. Cilla is certainly an interesting protagonist, proving eventually to not be quite as cold-blooded as she first seems, and making it hard not to cheer her on towards her goal.

By necessity of the nature of the protagonist and plot, there’s a high body count and more than a little violence. Erichsen’s depiction of Cilla’s training in Russia is easily believable, and her extensive knowledge of botany and bridge lends authenticity to those aspects of the story. Natalie Pela’s narration is flawless. Original and utterly compelling, this is a brilliant debut novel.
This unbiased review is from an audio copy provided by NetGalley, Muswell Press and Bolinda Audio

Two stars for a publisher's blurb that
described a 5-star book.

Per the publisher's blurb, "Death By Natural Causes" is about the trials and tribulations of Cilla, a 22-year-old contract killer in London, specializing in murdering her targets by natural causes.

Yes, I was intrigued by the book's ultra-compelling "death by natural causes" premise.

And, of course, I was excited about the prospect of getting to know the book's 22-year-old contract killer protagonist.

The publisher's blurb, however, neglected to mention that the early portion of the book showcased Cilia's attendance at a Soviet elite school that helped "form her allegiance to the socialist state".

Allegiance to a socialist state? NOT FOR ME!

Had I known what this book was REALLY about, I never would have requested this book. (Not my preferred genre).

The beginning of the book was slow-burn and fragmented.

This, combined with the inclusion of an elite Soviet school's ideology, sent this book right to my DNF pile.

I listened to the audiobook and the narrator did a fine job with the narration.

Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.