Killer Instinct
Joseph Finder
(Reviewer - Rebecca Brown)
2006 St. Martin's Press
ISBN: 0312347472

When Jason Steadman drives his car into a ditch, the mysterious mechanic who rescues him, changes his life.

Jason's one harried Boston husband, 30-something & a corporate sales executive, & while he's at the top of his game, the management is intimating he's hit his career ceiling because he doesn't have the “killer instinct.” That would mean he'd have to drop his trademark wit & charm, that laid-back style he's so proud of, & make a few enemies among his co-workers while he takes that all-important grab for the brass ring.

On top of that, Kate, his wife, is desperate for children, & they just can't seem to make any, no matter how much money they throw into baby-making clinics, or plan their love life around a thermometer.

Jason doesn't realize he's at the end of his rope until, as he's driving home & multi-tasking behind the wheel, he looses control, swerving his Acura into a ditch. Shortly after he makes a call for help, Kurt Semko shows up with his tow truck. Kurt is an enigmatic kind of fellow, a bit rough around the edges, & is not shy about letting it be known he's a former Special Forces specialist just back from Iraq. However, he's a very good listener as Jason pours out his woes. One thing leads to another, & before Jason knows it, he's suggesting Kurt apply for a job in his company's motor pool.

Glad to have a friend he feels he can be open with, someone who isn't looking out to better his position in the rat race, Jason continues to confide in Kurt. Then suddenly the obstacles in his life start taking care of themselves. People turn up dead from the oddest of accidents, or miss flights to important meetings, or lose vital documents.

While thrilled that grabbing that brass ring now seems a slam dunk, Jason has the feeling it's all too good to be true. It takes a while for him to put it together, & when Kurt reveals some of his secrets, Jason realizes he's headed for a dangerous showdown with a man whose “killer instinct” has been honed by the rules of terrorist war, not office pool sleights-of-hand.

A grippingly good thriller about being careful of what you whine for, guardian angels with tarnished halos & not one urbane scruple.

Joseph Finder keeps getting better & better. He is a member of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers, & was, in a former life, a journalist.

More from Joseph Finder:
Paranoia
Company Man
High Crimes
The Zero Hour
Extraordinary Powers
The Moscow Club
Nonfiction:
Red Carpet: The Connection Between the Kremlin and America's Most Powerful Business Men.
(05/07/06)

Rebecca