''Codename Villanelle'' is a 2017

thriller novel Thriller is a genre of fiction with numerous, often overlapping, subgenres, including crime, horror, and detective fiction. Thrillers are characterized and defined by the moods they elicit, giving their audiences heightened feelings of suspe ...

by British author

Luke Jennings Luke Jennings (born 1953) is a British author, dance critic and journalist. Early life, family and education Jennings trained as a dancer at the Rambert School and was one of the students of the Expressionist and Integrated dance pedagogue Hi ...

. A compilation of four serial

e-book An ebook (short for electronic book), also spelled as e-book or eBook, is a book publication made available in electronic form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on the flat-panel display of computers or other electronic devices. Al ...

novella A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most novelettes and short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) ...

s published from 2014 to 2016, the novel was published in the United Kingdom by John Murray as an e-book on 29 June 2017, followed by

hardcover A hardcover, hard cover, or hardback (also known as hardbound, and sometimes as casebound (At p. 247.)) book is one bookbinding, bound with rigid protective covers (typically of binder's board or heavy paperboard covered with buckram or other clo ...

and

paperback A paperback (softcover, softback) book is one with a thick paper or paperboard cover, also known as wrappers, and often held together with adhesive, glue rather than stitch (textile arts), stitches or Staple (fastener), staples. In contrast, ...

versions on 24 August 2017. ''Codename Villanelle'' is the basis of the

BBC America BBC America is an American basic cable network that is owned by AMC Networks. The channel primarily airs sci-fi and action series and films, as well as selected programs from the BBC (such as its nature documentary series). Unlike the BBC's ...

BBC Three BBC Three is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was first launched on 9 February 2003 with programmes for a 16 to 34-year-old target aud ...

television series ''

Killing Eve ''Killing Eve'' is a British spy thriller television series produced in the United Kingdom by Sid Gentle Films for BBC America and BBC Three (streaming service), BBC Three. The series follows Eve Polastri (Sandra Oh), a British intelligence age ...

'' (2018–2022).

Premise

Villanelle A villanelle, also known as villanesque,Kastner 1903 p. 279 is a nineteen-line poetic form consisting of five tercets followed by a quatrain. There are two refrains and two repeating rhymes, with the first and third lines of the first tercet re ...

is a Russian orphan who, after murdering the killers of her gangster father, is rescued from prison and trained as a hitwoman by a shadowy group called The Twelve. ''Codename Villanelle'' has been summarized as pitting "heartless female assassin" Villanelle against "dowdy but dogged MI5 agent"

Eve Polastri Eve Polastri is a fictional agent working for British intelligence, and the titular character of the novel and television series ''Killing Eve''. British author Luke Jennings originally created Polastri's character in an e-book novella series w ...

, the two women "battling it out at a distance" as Polastri seeks clues at a series of killing sites.

Character background

Jennings stated that he based Villanelle's character on Idoia López Riaño, a hitwoman for

Basque nationalist Basque nationalism ( ; ; ) is a form of nationalism that asserts that Basques, an ethnic group indigenous to the western Pyrenees, are a nation and promotes the political unity of the Basques, today scattered between Spain and France. Since ...

paramilitary A paramilitary is a military that is not a part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. The Oxford English Dictionary traces the use of the term "paramilitary" as far back as 1934. Overview Though a paramilitary is, by definiti ...

group

ETA Eta ( ; uppercase , lowercase ; ''ē̂ta'' or ''ita'' ) is the seventh letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the close front unrounded vowel, . Originally denoting the voiceless glottal fricative, , in most dialects of Ancient Greek, it ...

who was convicted of murdering 23 people in the 1990s. Jennings described Riaño—nicknamed ''La Tigresa'' (The Tigress) for her "legendary sexual prowess"—as a "psychopath" and "completely without empathy."

Novella series

''Codename Villanelle'' is a compilation of four serial

Kindle edition The Kindle Store is an online e-book e-commerce store operated by Amazon as part of its retail website and can be accessed from any Amazon Kindle, Fire tablet, or Kindle mobile app. At the launch of the Kindle in November 2007, the store had mo ...

s: # ''Codename Villanelle'' (published 4 February 2014; 36 pages). Star linguistics student Oxana Vorontsova's multiple brutal murders attract the notice of a secret global power elite, which recruits her as an assassin with codename Villanelle and rewards her with a luxurious lifestyle. # ''Villanelle: Hollowpoint'' (published 3 August 2014; 56 pages). Villanelle's pattern of assassinations draws the attention of a highly intelligent

MI5 MI5 ( Military Intelligence, Section 5), officially the Security Service, is the United Kingdom's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), Gov ...

agent,

, who pursues Villanelle relentlessly. # ''Villanelle: Shanghai'' (published 3 February 2015; 49 pages). The "beautiful and sexually predatory... psychopath" Villanelle's next assignment takes her to Shanghai, where, regardless of personal cost to herself, Polastri fiercely pursues the assassin. # ''Odessa'' (published 14 June 2016; 48 pages). As Villanelle prepares to break into a fortified mansion in Odesa, Ukraine, where her mentor is held hostage, a breakthrough leads agent Polastri in determined pursuit.

Critical response

In ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'', John Dugdale likened Villanelle's character to the title character from

Luc Besson Luc Paul Maurice Besson (; born 18 March 1959) is a French filmmaker. He directed and produced the films '' Subway'' (1985), '' The Big Blue'' (1988), and '' La Femme Nikita'' (1990). Associated with the '' Cinéma du look'' film movement, he h ...

's 1990 film '' La Femme Nikita''—a former teenage killer transformed into a trained assassin. Dugdale further likened author Luke Jennings to

James Bond The ''James Bond'' franchise focuses on James Bond (literary character), the titular character, a fictional Secret Intelligence Service, British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels ...

author

Ian Fleming Ian Lancaster Fleming (28 May 1908 – 12 August 1964) was a British writer, best known for his postwar ''James Bond'' series of spy novels. Fleming came from a wealthy family connected to the merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co., and his ...

: "at once tongue-in-cheek and serious, paying obsessive attention to the details of both Villanelle's

chichi Chi-Chi or variations thereof may refer to: Geography *Chichi (village) or Çiçi, in the Quba Rayon of Azerbaijan * Chi-chi, Nantou, a township in Taiwan People *Chi Chi DeVayne, stage name of American drag queen Zavion Michael Davenport (1985 ...

lifestyle and her lethal assignments." Though calling "Jennings' version of

007 The ''James Bond'' franchise focuses on James Bond (literary character), the titular character, a fictional Secret Intelligence Service, British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels ...

"—Villanelle—"great fun", Dugdale wrote that the "imperfectly integrated" novella series was repetitious and lacked a "proper

denouement A story structure, narrative structure, or dramatic structure (also known as a dramaturgical structure) is the structure of a dramatic work such as a book, play, or film. There are different kinds of narrative structures worldwide, which have bee ...

Jeff Noon Jeff Noon (born 1957 in Droylsden, Lancashire, England) is a British novelist, short story writer and playwright whose works make use of word play and fantasy. Noon's speculative fiction books have ties to the works of writers such as Lewis C ...

wrote in ''

The Spectator ''The Spectator'' is a weekly British political and cultural news magazine. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving magazine in the world. ''The Spectator'' is politically conservative, and its principal subject a ...

'' that the book "reads a little like

Terry Hayes Terry Hayes (born 8 October 1951) is an Australian screenwriter, film producer and author. He is best known for his work with Kennedy Miller production house, with whom he won the AACTA Award for Best Film twice, for '' The Year My Voice Brok ...

’s '' I Am Pilgrim'' in miniature". Noon added that Jennings focused more on "hunting and killing" than on character building and that the book, though having final pages that are thrilling, ends without final resolution. Similarly, trade magazine ''

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...

'' praised the book as an "exceptional spy thriller" with "superior prose" and "cracker jack plot", noting its "wide-open ending points to more to come in the struggle between these two resourceful antagonists".

Television adaptation

'' was created by British actor and writer

Phoebe Waller-Bridge Phoebe Mary Waller-Bridge (born 14 July 1985) is an English actress, screenwriter and producer. As the creator, writer, and lead star of the comedy series '' Fleabag'' (2016–2019), she won various accolades, including three Primetime Emmy Aw ...

and produced by Sid Gentle Films Ltd for

. In addition to writing for the television series, Waller-Bridge was chosen as executive producer with Sally Woodward Gentle and Lee Morris. The television series stars

Sandra Oh Sandra Miju Oh (born July 20, 1971) is a Canadian and American actress. She is known for her starring roles as Rita Wu in ''Arliss (TV series), Arliss'' (1996–2002), Cristina Yang in ''Grey's Anatomy'' (2005–14), and Eve Polastri in ''Kill ...

as Polastri and

Jodie Comer Jodie Marie Comer ( ; born 11 March 1993) is an English actress of screen and stage. She began her career in an episode of '' The Royal Today'' in 2008. Comer gained recognition for appearing in the series ''My Mad Fat Diary'' (2013–2015) an ...

as Villanelle. The show was renewed for a second series before its series 1 debut on 8 April 2018, then renewed for a third series the day after the premiere of series 2. The fourth and final season of the show premiered in 2022.

Sequels

Due to the success of the television adaptation, a sequel, '' Killing Eve: No Tomorrow'', was published on 25 October 2018. The third and final volume, '' Killing Eve: Die for Me'', was released on 9 April 2020. As both were published after the premiere of the TV series, the new books carry the ''Killing Eve'' branding.

Literary rights

Publishing industry magazine ''

The Bookseller ''The Bookseller'' is a British magazine reporting news on the publishing industry. Philip Jones is editor-in-chief of the weekly print edition of the magazine and the website. The magazine is home to the ''Bookseller''/Diagram Prize for Oddes ...

'' reported in April 2017 that John Murray bought the novel just before the

London Book Fair The London Book Fair (LBF) is a large book-publishing trade fair held annually, usually in April, in London, England. LBF is a global marketplace for rights negotiation and the sale and distribution of content across print, audio, TV, film and d ...

, subsequently selling North American rights to Josh Kendall at

Mulholland Books Mulholland Books (US) is an imprint of Little, Brown and Company, a division of the Hachette Book Group. It specializes in publishing mysteries, thrillers, and suspense novels. History Little, Brown and Company announced the creation of Mulholl ...

, an imprint of

Little, Brown and Company Little, Brown and Company is an American publishing company founded in 1837 by Charles Coffin Little and James Brown in Boston. For close to two centuries, it has published fiction and nonfiction by American authors. Early lists featured Emil ...

, during the fair. World English rights were acquired from Patrick Walsh at PEW Literary Agency.

References

External links

*
Codename Villanelle
' at John Murray * * (story of the novellas and adapting to the television series) {{Codename Villanelle 2017 British novels British psychological novels British thriller novels British spy novels British mystery novels British crime novels British erotic novels Psychological thriller novels Action novels Feminist novels Novels about serial killers Fiction about assassinations MI5 in fiction British novels adapted into television shows Novels first published online Ebooks Killing Eve John Murray (publishing house) books