Part 1:Dorothy

Bud Corliss wants a lot of money for a golden future. So he starts a relationship with Dorothy Kingship, who has a rich father; Leo Kingship: president of Kingship Copper, an enormous corporation. But then she gets pregnant and he is very angry. He pretends he loves her and makes her promise to take some pills to get rid of the baby. In a flashback it is shown that the young man (Bud) was very popular at school. After the war he had several jobs and had an affair with a rich widow. He decided to study at Stoddard University, where he met Dorothy Kingship.
He gives Dorothy the pills, promising to marry her if they don’t work. Dorothy has two elder sisters, Ellen and Marion. Their mother died a year after she and her …ver más…

The following day Marion, Bud and Mr Kingship fly to one of the Corporation’s smelters. Gant accompanies them under the name of Gordon Dettweiler. When they are standing on a forty-foot-high catwalk; Kingship suddenly asks Bud how he got Dorothy to write the suicide note. Gant a! nd Kingship confront Bud with everything they have found out. They have weakened the chain railing of the catwalk, so that it will look as if it broke by accident. Bud becomes desperate but still denies all the charges. Bud realises they want him to fall off the catwalk and to die in the same way Dorothy did. He confesses, then slips on the wet surface of the catwalk and falls into a vat of boiling liquid copper just passing beneath them.
Marion, Gant and Mr Kingship return to Kingship’s apartment where Bud’s mother is waiting for them.

ANALYSIS

Explain the Title:

The title is ‘A kiss before dying'. The kiss stands for love that came from Dorothy and Ellen. Dying stands for dead, Bud kills the persons who loved him.
Genre:
Thriller and detective

Setting:

The story takes place in America. Partly in Blue River, Iowa where Dorrie's school was, and partly in New York where Marion lives.

Time:

The story begins in 1949 and ends in December 1951.

Main characters:

Dorothy, Ellen and Marion Kingship: three sisters.

Dorothy Kingship: blond, brown eyes. She is very naive, believes