FICTION

The Killing Kind

by Chris Holm
Mulholland: Little, Brown. Sept. 2015. 320p. ISBN 9780316259538. $26; ebk. ISBN 9780316259507. F
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Michael Hendricks is a hit man who kills only other hit men. As a military special op assassin in Afghanistan, he was declared dead, leaving his childhood sweetheart Edie to marry someone else and him to reinvent himself. Hendricks's guilt at what he did as a soldier drives him to kill killers—for ten times the killer's fee. Unfortunately, many of his victims are mob-connected, and the organization hires Edelmann, a nasty piece of work, to eliminate Hendricks. Charlotte Thompson, an FBI agent, also is pursuing Hendricks. Events come to a head at a casino at which all three converge, only to emerge from the carnage to meet again for a fiery climax at Edie's home.
VERDICT Holm's "Collector" trilogy, which blended urban fantasy with pulp crime fiction, featured an unusual but likable antihero, and so it is the same here with both Hendricks and his crippled war buddy Lester, who helps him with computer wizardry. The ending slips into melodrama, but the wild and furious action, the unusual plot featuring assassin versus assassin, and the memorable characters all keep the reader racing through this skillfully told tale of vengeance. [See Prepub Alert, 3/23/15.]
Reviewed by Roland Person, formerly with Southern Illinois Univ. Lib., Carbondale , Aug 07, 2015
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