The Killing

CHERUB #4

by Robert Muchamore

When James is given the mission of digging up leads on Leon, a small-time crook with big money, James unravels a larger plot than expected with the only person who might know the truth being a deceased eighteen-year-old boy.

Genres: Young Adult, Fiction, Action, Adventure, Childrens, Espionage, Thriller

325 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published October 13, 2005

About the author

Robert Muchamore was born in Islington, London in 1972. He still lives there, and worked as a private investigator up until 2005 and the critically-accepted release of Maximum Security.

The Hunger Games phenomenon is part of the huge YA / Children's book explosion that has grown, thanks to the British Rat pack of YA authors, Anthony Horowitz, Robert Muchamore, Mark A. Cooper and Charlie Higson. We owe much of the hunger games sucess to authors such as Robert.

Robert was inspired to create the CHERUB series by his nephew after he complained about the lack of anything for them to read. CHERUB: The Recruit was Robert's first book and won the Red House Children's Book Award 2005 in the Older Readers Category.

Following the last book in the CHERUB series, it was revealed that a trilogy would be released starting from August 2011 that will focus on a new set of CHERUB agents centred upon Ryan Sharma and also involve an sixteen year old Lauren Adams. The first book will be called People's Republic.

Check out the Hendersons Boys series. Henderson's Boys is a series of young adult spy novels written by English author Robert Muchamore. The series follows Charles Henderson, the creator of the fictitious CHERUB organisation.
CHERUB is currently being made into a TV series.

Reviews

[Chris Horsefield · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book was an ongoing thriller. With a great start to the story including the training exercise it really brought a feeling to what cherub is about leaving a small cliff hanger to what will happen to Mr. Large in the oncoming books. The start also brought the feeling I have when reading the CHERUB series as it brought that taste of teenage hood and the everyday life of seeing your friends and what they will go through on a day to day basis. The one and only downside to the book. Was the small part in the middle of the book where there was limited action.
The CHERUB series along with Alex Rider and Jason Steed are great for getting teen boys interested in reading, or if you are still a kid at heart like me.

[Llama's rule (not Aaron Francis) · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was one of the best cherub books. First of all I read this book in 2 days which meant I was totally addicted to it. James Adams is sent in the find enough information to bust some criminals in a robbery. However everything turns out wrong. The police are the bad guys and the criminals are also bad. The only person who might know of the robbery is a 18 year boy called Will. The only problem is that Will had accidentally fell of a roof top and died around a year before the mission. However what James Adams finds is unbelievable because Will wasn't drunk and fell of the rooftop. He was murdered!

[Henri · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think that this book isn't as good as the other ones from the Cherub series. On this one, there is much less actions then on the other ones. And James (the main character of the book) has lost all of his friends because of his temper. This time, the mission involves only him and a seventeen years old which is probably more worried about his attractiveness then the mission. But when the mission which is ranked "Low Risk" comes to a murder, the cherubs decide it's time to send backup...

[NoConforto Dos Livros · Rating 5 out of 5]

https://www.noconfortodoslivros.com/l...

[Pablo Murcia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picked this bad boy up from a bookshelf at my hotel to relive my teenage years reading all of CHERUB and Henderson's boys, finished it in 6 hours flat.

Definitely geared towards YA, overly simplified relationship dynamics and a somewhat flat main character that's basically a 13 year old boys idea of cool, but then again that is what these novels set out to do and they do it so well.

Plot is interesting, with a good cast of characters and a story that is untangled masterfully as the book goes on.

Muy epico, 4/5.

[Alice]

another alice w

[Emma Roche · Rating 4 out of 5]

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨ from memory this was my favourite cherub book. It was very good but James was much more flawed and frustrating in this book (probably more true to 13 year old boys!!) plot - 5 stars

[16CsepeliN · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story itself is not too bad - it is a bit less action-packed than the previous ones in my opinion, though. However, the characters are just not likable. The main character (James) especially as he does not treat other characters with enough respect and does not feel very guilty about bouncing from one girlfriend to another. I really hope that in future books, his attitude towards others changes.

[Lazybee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read. But employing secret service to investigate a small time crook is a bit too much. Other than that every thing is as it should be. Special mention to treating the protagonist as a human being, not some special case. If someone fucks up then they should be Punished. Getting ostracized for bullying seems fair. Loved it.

[Ted · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like this book because it's got tension in it

[Stormy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book starts with James already been on a mission we really don't find out much about the mission he was on just that he was in a fancy school bugging one of the teachers classrooms and the car it goes between James's mission and the cherub campus where they're getting ready for a training mission James is supposed to be going home later that day from his mission and going straight into his training mission there are three groups James and his sister Lauren are on the same group and Carrie is on another one so they have sort of white paint ball machines and the group with the most eggs at the end of the mission wins this was a great start to the story but I don't want to spoil too much you must read this series it's so good

[Nathan Falkner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Favourite book of the series so far. James is treated rightfully as the complete asshole he is.
"I don't much care about your life" - Dave.
Doughnut read this book... I mean don't.

[Beth Walker · Rating 3 out of 5]

not as good as the others but still good

[Izzy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Okay so I finished it, and it wasn't baaad. For some reason I just didn't really like James I don't know why but everytime he said something funny or I started to think " huh he's actually not that bad" he said something or did something or thought something and I was like okay nevermind taking that back. Allllso I didn't really like Kelly she was very dramatic I think, but maybe it's because I didn't read the first few books 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️
I did like the ending and how it all fit together. So overall not bad but not amazing or anything.

[19BhatA · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic book, and a very complex plot, the danger levels rising throughout the book, lots of dilemmas for James, and some poor decision making and bad anger management on his part, really wondering how the next book is gonna go, if he’s gonna be a social outcast forever. The mission was very, very good, and some really tense parts, but the ending was satisfying and I can’t wait to read the next book, Divine Madness.

[Sofia · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was hard for me to stay concentrated while reading this book. Nothing memorable happened...

Once again I'm annoyed by Kerry, she's the most annoying character, hopefully James will get his shit together and dump her for good soon.

I was hoping for something else, the mission wasn't that interesting, and it was mostly dealt by Dave or John and Millie, and then later by Lauren and Kerry, these last two weren't needed at all in my opinion. - annoying little brats

[Maddie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is still one of the more confusing books to me. Not as much action in it as the others, more background story and complex situations, more about what took place already prior to this book than about what actually went down in this book. Took me a while to read, just wasn't feeling it! Glad I did finally get it finished up though.

[Grace · Rating 2 out of 5]

not bad, but didn't produce the sort of adrenaline rush I got form reading maximum security and the nausea of reading about girls from a stereotypical guys p.o.v. further killed the enjoyment factor.

[Owen S · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one was cool. Love the series in general but this one was kind of meh. Writing this a while after I read it so don’t remember too much.

[Kireth · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Killing felt like a story of three parts, which hurt the overall pacing for me. The first third of the book shows the reader what typical small missions and CHERUB training exercises are like. This was exciting, but largely inconsequential, which I had no problem with after the previous three books attached higher and higher stakes to them.

The thin middle section is what bogged down the book for me, as James actually undergoes some emotional character development. My issue was that when the final third of the book emerged, the mission grew into something bigger and somehow James's character development was lost in the exciting police plot. Whilst the story itself was engaging and different to the other CHERUB books so far, I never really felt like James solved his anger issues by the end of the book.

Past that criticism, the interesting character interactions and unfolding plot (individually in both the first and third parts) made this an enjoyable read.

[Kepler · Rating 3 out of 5]

J'avais lu la série étant ado (j'étais accro, je lisais pendant les cours et tout xD)
Par contre, avec le recul, je me rends compte que (d'après mes souvenirs) : c'était très hétérocentré, sexiste par moments, actes sexuels décrits (alors que c'est une série jeunesse 10-17 ans).
Point positif : c'est une directrice qui dirige l'agence d'espionnage. J'ai un bon souvenir d'elle.
Là, je viens de lire en diagonale la page Wikipedia. Où je vois qu'un des personnages secondaire est homosexuel, ainsi qu'un instructeur, et dans toute la série il n'y a que 2 p. asiatiques +1 de Jamaïque. Bref, sur 17 tomes, je regarde cette série de loin avec un avis péjoratif. Je serais quand même curieux de relire les 2 premiers tomes.

[19BoxerJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my favourite book in the Cherub series so far! It’s a thrilling, action-packed novel and the plot is amazing. I read this and finished it quite quickly as it was a book where you constantly want to know what happens next. I’d recommend this to anyone Year 8 or above, as it has some violent scenes, bad language etc. But overall its an amazing book. I loved the ending as it all panned out perfectly, as leading up to the ending the author hinted at what was about to happen, which I really liked as it allows you to think about what is going to happen and make a prediction. It was gripping and full of action and mystery; I’d thoroughly recommend!

[Silberfederling · Rating 3 out of 5]

Das Buch kommt bei mir etwas besser weg als die letzten Bände, da es endlich mal ein paar Probleme von James adressiert und der auch tatsächlich Chancen auf Problembewältigung hat. Allerdings wird das gefühlt nur erwähnt und nicht auch tatsächlich umgesetzt, was etwas schade ist.
Der Fokus des Bandes ist wieder auf einem Einsatz, nicht auf den Charakteren selbst, was etwas Schade ist, da es an der Stelle etwas verschenktes Potenzial ist.
Der Schreibstil ist tatsächlich angenhmer als in den letzten Bänden und es ist endlich nicht mehr jedes zweite Wort "O.K.", was mich in den letzten Bänden massiv gestört hatte.
Kurzweilig unterhaltsam ist auch dieser Band.

[Clare Carter · Rating 3 out of 5]

*3.5 stars*

This is definitely my least favorite of the series so far (mostly because James was more of an ass than usual), but these books are just SO well crafted and such quick reads. Each mission is unique in the way it's solved, and I love seeing how each one plays out. I can't wait to keep going! :)

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

A amazing book although it does have CHERUB (An elite organization) send some of its most elite children out on a mission that could be normally solved by local police. The book is about a boy named James that goes on a mission with a few other CHERUBs in order to make a area better to live and get rid of a certain criminal that was causing problems to do with car stealing, which the mission becomes something else that revolved around a officer assualting and killing muliple children. The book was very detailed and interesting but the author should of made the mission more complicated and harder (More realistic for CHERUB)

[Joseph Ellis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Without a shadow of a doubt, this is the best of the CHERUB books for me. Maximum Security comes close, but The Killing just hits different.

And honestly, it's the paintball game that inspired a similar sequence in my own series. I re read this book just for that sometimes, and I adore it so so so much.

[Karen Barber · Rating 3 out of 5]

So, James’s ‘lad’ attitude remains unchecked and his priority is him throughout. I think this is definitely of its time in terms of attitudes to women, but he doesn’t totally get away with it.
This time round the Cherubs are sent undercover to get close to a small-time crook who seems to have a lot more money than he ought to. Nothing has stuck to him so far so, of course, James manages - along with the others - to work out exactly what’s going on and find the evidence required to put him away within a very short space of time.
This one felt a lot slower to get going, and there was a bit more of an effort made to flesh out the background of the key characters. Inevitably this meant things felt more rushed when it all got going.

[joshua sorensen · Rating 2 out of 5]

phoned in

[Elan Shellard · Rating 3 out of 5]

honestly the worst in the series so far, like it was written specifically for teenage boys and has all of their worst tendencies

[Sarah Easson · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5