Kill ’Em All

By: John Niven

Narrated by: Tom Riley

Length: 8 hrs and 31 mins

Publisher's Summary

Random House presents the audiobook edition of Kill 'Em All by John Niven, read by Tom Riley.

The long-awaited sequel to Kill Your Friends.

It is 2017 - the time of Trump, Brexit and fake news. And time for the return of Steven Stelfox, exactly 20 years on from his Britpop heyday. 

Now 47 and rich beyond the dreams of avarice, Stelfox works only occasionally as a music industry ‘consultant’. A fixer. A problem solver. He’s had a call from his old friend James Trellick, now president of Unigram, one of the largest record companies in America. Trellick has a huge headache on his hands in the shape of....

Lucius Du Pre. The biggest pop star on earth. Well, once the biggest pop star on earth. Now he’s a helpless junkie and a prolific, unrepentant sexual predator. Through a programme of debt restructuring so complex even Trellick can barely understand it, Du Pre is massively in hock to the record company. The only way he can possibly pay it off is to embark on a worldwide comeback tour he’s in no shape to do. The picture is further complicated when the parents of one of Du Pre’s ‘special friends’ begin blackmailing him. If their video gets out, Du Pre’s brand will be utterly toxic and will take Unigram down with it. 

Enter Stelfox stage right. Only he has the lack of morality to spin this one. With stealth and cunning he begins to chart a road out of the nightmare and to make a killing in the process. For this age of ‘American carnage’ - of populism, of the lowest common denominator, of the Big Lie - is truly Stelfox’s time to shine. But in this time of uncertainty, nothing is a given.

©2018 John Niven (P)2018 Random House Audiobooks

Critic Reviews

"A banging action satirical thriller. But it’s also a proper novel about the Trumpian era, of the reality TV era, the fake news era. It’s managed to say a lot of things in a way that very few other novels are doing and in a very comedic way." (Irvine Welsh)

"John Niven understands our era better than almost anyone." (Douglas Coupland)

Insane and perfect

First time I've listened to a John Niven book rather than read one. Worth it!! Hilariously funny as always but with the audiobook the characters are brought to life in quite the bizarre but brilliant way.

Not KYF but still great

A great read or listen perhaps. Not for the faint hearted nor for those with a misplaced idealisation of a particular pop icon. Incredible and scarily accurate portrayal of characters interwoven with a storyline that is very zeitgeist in a World of Donald Trump, hyper normalisation and extreme greed. Niven Has excelled again. This is probably his most rounded novel from a social analytical perspective. It’s still bloody funny though.

I can’t see what’s not to like

Ideal formula for an enjoyable audiobook. Strong characterisation, good pace and a purposeful narrative line. There’s no scope for confusion or uncertainty. Together with ‘Kill your friends’, I liked it. I’d recommend you read them back to back. Fun, light and satisfying.

I need to be clear, it’s a history of the career of a man without morals, a man of his time, prepared to do anything to get what he wants, and he wants more and more as his reach expands. Nothing essential changes. He’s rotten from start to finish. Only his capacity to maim and kill grows. In this respect the story is a warning. You might see parallels with Trump?

I really hope there is third one!

I love to hate Steven Stellfox, a despicable character with an amazing turn of phrase, I have such fun squeezing quotes from the book into meetings in an effort to get fired, sadly it’s an on going endeavour… laugh? I nearly bought a round.

Really enjoyed this one, some parts are a bit

Thought this was really good. many twists and turns as you'd expect. Narration as the 1st book was excellent.

superb!

john Niven has quickly become one of my favourite authors, Tom Riley giving a brilliant voice to all characters

Superb sequel

Well narrated , expertly delivered . The story is superb and is a fantastically construed continuation to the life of Stephen . Fully enjoyed it 10/10

Brilliant

Not every book as good as Kill Your Friends has a sequel that matches it. Completely worth the 10 year wait, highly recommend.

John Fucking Niven!

I’ve you have read “Kill Your Friends”, which I’d hope you have, this frankly brilliant book picks up that ball and runs with it the full length of the field to score the most amazing touch down! Pick it up, read (or listen) to it and don’t stop until you are done.

Niven is rather fun to read

I've really enjoyed pretty much all Nivens books, and must say enjoyed this one too. The ending was perhaps slightly lame but overall I found it very well written, simple but effective. Without prevention and with character. Now I've read all his books I'd love to see a couple of them made into British movies, they kind of remind me of a good funny British Movie when reading. I enjoyed the reading of it too. Have already recommend several Niven books to friends, and would do so with this one too. I can't wait to see what he publishes next....