Well, it was something I was thinking about this week, after I finished a short piece setting up Character A and Character B, and to do so I had to kill off Character B's girlfriend along the way. I was wondering whether to mention character death when I wrote up the summary, but ultimately decided against it as it would have spoiled how the story built.

But hey - I've decided to do that before with other ones I've written. Sleeper for example, I killed Buffy off in, but that was mainly for the effect on Xander and Faith's relationship. I think it all comes down to how the author feels - whether they want to build slowly to the point, or just smack you over the head with it at the appropriate time and place.

I'm reminded of an Alan Moore quote:
"As I see it, a successful story of any kind should be almost like hypnosis: You fascinate the reader with your first sentence, draw them in further with your second sentence and have them in a mild trance by the third. Then, being careful not to wake them, you carry them away up the back alleys of your narrative and when they are hopelessly lost within the story, having surrendered themselves to it, you do them terrible violence with a softball bat and then lead them whimpering to the exit on the last page. Believe me, they'll thank you for it."