I enjoyed Codename Villanelle and TV Series One of Killing Eve. Series Two I was less keen on and Series Three I avoided completely (I only just discovered there was a fourth). Volume 2 of the books, though - No Tomorrow - I enjoyed tremendously. Here Luke Jennings seems to find his feet, nailing down the core concept and filling out his characters, something the TV adaptation never really did. Eve Polastri and Oksana Astankova (Villanelle) thus become real people we care about, Eve in particular - for example we believe she really loves her husband, Niko, which we never did in the TV version.
The original Jennings version is, of course, very different to the TV. Other than the set-up and the two central women, the TV pretty much dispensed with Jennings' plot. This was a mistake because the plot adds detail and credibility. In No Tomorrow the picture painted (in 2018) of contemporary Russia is all too credible in 2023. Jennings is forever tied to the TV series. To be fair, would he have sold so many books without it? Then again, would he have sold more with a more faithful adaptation? These are the quandries of modern fiction.
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