A Gift Before Dying by Malcolm Kempt Book Review

A Haunting Spiritual Horror & Crime Thriller Debut

A Kiss Before Dying by Malcolm Kempt | Silk & Sentences | Danielle Robinson - Literary Critic, Writer & Curator of Pretty Things

Five Star Review | A Gift Before Dying by Malcolm Kempt

There are very few books that cross the line from excellent into something far more personal for me and I have a mere handful of books that I instinctively know I would reach for again if I could only choose a few books to read for the rest of my life.

A Gift Before Dying by Malcolm Kempt has moved into that esteemed category and rating it five stars does it no justice. It's not even a ten-star read! It’s one of those rare novels that taps a finger to your forehead, looks you in the eye and says - ha! I've got you now, my new friend.

But, what makes this all the more remarkable is that this is a debut. What?! There’s a level of control, of tone, of restraint, that many seasoned authors spend entire careers trying to master. And yet, nothing about this feels calculated or contrived. It feels comfortable, and felt, and even deserved.

The first strength for me is balance. This is a novel that moves between spiritual horror and crime thriller with an ease that never feels objective or performative and one thread actually deepens the other. The mystery gives structure to the horror, and the horror gives weight to the mystery. A literary ying and yang of sorts. It’s not horror for shock value, though there are moments that are genuinely confronting and gruesomely graphic. But those elements aren't really all that gratuitous because they ultimately serve something deeper and incredibly unsettling. Because the true horror here isn’t always what's narrated to us, but in what we grow to understand.

The landscape and location is rendered with a kind of precision that goes beyond articulated description. You don’t just see it—you truly feel it. The bone-biting cold is constant and it's the kind that doesn’t simply exist in the background, but actively shapes the character's behaviour, thought, and survival. Every decision feels tethered to it, carrying forward to the weight of every movement. Just getting through each day requires relentless stoicism and determination and the harshness of the physical landscape erodes away at the emotional landscape of the protagonists. So we see the people who inhabit this world, especially the children, written with a kind of bleak honesty that never tips into exploitation or romanticism. This is visceral and paints a picture of what it means to live in a remote location where hope is a fragile, abstract thing that you have to choose each day to avoid being swallowed by the bleakness of this existence.

Holding all of this together is the interplay between the extraordinarily textured characters and the way they move around each other. It's a beautiful exercise in literary analytics to dissect what's said, what's withheld and what's understood without the need for verbose dialogue . The relationships feel worn in, shaped by environment, history, and survival rather than convenience. Nothing feels like it's been inserted for effect or for prose-sake. Every interaction in these pages carries consequence.

So, let's now discuss the imagery because there are visuals in this book that stay with you in a slow, persistent, almost cinematic way. But the horror itself isn't what keeps coming to mind for me, it's the undercurrent of recognition that speaks to something far more tangible. There's this non-stated, pseudo-political facet that reveals the juxtaposition of gentrifying a beautiful ancient culture that's now, quite possibly, irrevocably damaged. In one scene, the question is raised as to whether the longer life-span of the inuit people as a result of European influence is worth the cost of the debilitating conditions these people now live with.

Here's where I found the book truly haunting and it has nothing to do with the fictitiousd spectral imagery and ghoulish descriptions, but with the very confronting reality of non-fiction.

And, can we just take a moment to absorb these five words:

THIS ... IS ... A ... DEBUT ... NOVEL

I mean, seriously? How can a brand-new author portray such confidence (which is not the same as arrogance) and such control the first time a dream becomes reality. This story knows exactly what it has to do (and does it), and what it doesn't need to do. We don't find excess, no superfluous fluff or filler. But what we discover is a steady unfolding that trusts us to sit within the incredible discomfort of some of the scenes and the developments and to draw our own connections ourselves without everything being spelled out to us.

This is one of those books that shifts categories once you’ve finished it. I started with "I can highly recommend this book", but as I started to write this review for y'all and then write my own personal reflections in my highly confidential Mission Impossible 'This message will be destroyed' journal, I realised how personal it became for me, especially as a mother when I consider the plight of those children.

It moves beyond “highly recommended” into something far more personal. A book you would keep and return to and my first book that I read on my Kindle!

For me, A Gift Before Dying now sits in that rare space:

• the books I would save from a fire

• the books I would take with me if I could only choose a handful

  
  

And these are my treasured categories, believe me.

Book Details

Title — Author

A Gift Before Dying — Malcolm Kempt

Paperback ISBN: 978-1-916825-XX-X (varies by edition; confirm for store listing)

eBook ISBN: 978-1-916825-XX-X (varies by retailer/region)

Genre: Literary Fiction, Psychological Horror, Crime Thriller, Contemporary Fiction

Tropes: Small town isolation; spiritual unease; investigative mystery; buried secrets; cultural displacement; generational trauma; survival against environment; moral ambiguity; missing persons; community silence

Publisher: Independent / Small Press (varies by region and release format)

Series:Standalone

Formats Available: Paperback, eBook (audiobook availability may vary by region)

Where to Buy: Available via QBD Books, Booktopia, Dymocks (on request), The Nile Australia, and select independent bookstores across Australia

Silk & Sentences | Danielle Robinson - Literary Critic, Writer, Interior Curator

Danielle Robinson is a literary critic, writer, and interior curator whose work explores the relationship between literature, home, and heritage through a reflective lens. Holding a double degree in philosophy and theology, she brings academic rigour to her writing alongside a cultivated, deeply aesthetic sensibility. Danielle is an internationally published, multi-award-winning makeup artist and former fashion stylist and interior stager, with over 30 years’ experience shaping visual and cultural spaces. She reads widely and rigorously, reviewing more than 200 books each year as both an ARC reader and commissioned critic. Through her platform and podcast, Silk & Sentences, she considers literature not simply as text, but as atmosphere—something that informs the way we live, curate, and remember. She writes from her meticulously curated rural Queensland home, where she lives with Alex, her husband of 33 years, her dog, Oscar, and surrounded by family & close friends at every opportunity.