Like a movie is an absorbing novel for adults who read at a beginning level of English.
Sue Leather, author of this book and several others, spoke at a conference I attended. He said he had a tendency to write murder mysteries; sometimes he would try to write a romance, but always a corpse appeared in the story. That trend is clearly in play here.
I’m a handyman, like I told you. I mean that I was a handyman. I worked in homes and office buildings in Toronto. Hard work and little money. Well, one day I worked in Rosedale, the wealthy part of Toronto. Really rich. I was in a house. Carrie’s house. I put it there. . .
Brad Black, the narrator, is self-centered and greedy, but he knows how to make women trust him. When he meets the rich and lonely Carrie, he decides to marry her for her money. He imagines that he will return to his true love, Gina, and live happily ever after, once he arranges for Carrie to have an “accident”.
Brad has seen too many movies. Learn the hard way that life is not like one. Although he is not a pleasant character, and he is certainly not a hero, his story is compelling to the end.
It’s a very easy read, but the themes of exploitation and murder make it an adult book.
Like a movie (2000 by Sue Leather, Cambridge University Press: English Readers, Level 1, 32 pages) is also available as an audiobook.
