The Fourteenth Book of 2026: Killing Eve: Medusa, by Luke Jennings
Read May 12 - 14, 2026
When I finished the Agatha Christie biography I thought I would devote all my reading time to Inventing The Renaissance. The publishing industry had other plans, however, releasing two entries in two of my favorite series, one close on the other’s heels.
Medusa is the sixth book in Luke Jennings Killing Eve series of espionage thrillers. Originally the series was titled Code Name Villanelle, but when the stories came to TV under the title Killing Eve, the books changed their identities as well.
Oxana, code named Villanelle, is an assassin, and a psychopath. She can act pretend to normal human behaviors and emotions, but not actually feel them. She’s an assassin, and what she’s good at is killing people. Eve, on the other hand, is a counter-intelligence operative, tasked with finding and eliminating the mysterious assassin. She’s a normal person with a husband and an unfulfilling job she doesn’t hate. In the course of the hunt, the two women become obsessed with one another, disrupting their lives completely.
Over the course of the series, the two women become lovers, but always in conflict with one another. Eve loves Oxana, but Oxana, unable and unwilling to free herself of Eve, struggles to reconcile her nature with what she wants to feel.
In Medusa, it appears Oxana has gone too far and alienated Eve, who runs away to the town she grew up in, while Oxana carries out a mission.
I love these books, but because they’re short, Jennings doesn’t go into the depth I wish he would. Unless I missed it, there was little indication that where Eve got off the train after leaving Oxana was her childhood home. That it’s familiar to her is clear; that she has strong associations with it is not.
Jennings does have a way of getting into his character’s heads, though his method is something of a blunt instrument. Many scenes end with a block of italicized, interior monologue from that chapter’s point-of-view character. I wish these expositions were less obvious, more interwoven with the events of the chapter.
But I still love these characters, who are far from static. This story shows Eve finally getting fed up with Oxana lies and selfishness, and Oxana starting to realize Eve isn’t someone she can gaslight. I’m hoping the next book, due out in November, will see Oxana taking their partnership seriously, but without ruining the conflict at the heart of their story.
