The Knowland Retribution

February 27, 2006
Greener makes his debut with a simple, taut premise-a cunning killer out for vengeance, and the man charged with finding him-that gets interesting fast, and then just as quickly hits the brakes. Still, amid overlong (yet mostly compelling) descriptions of bacteria, high finance and the New York Times, Greener has a small triumph of a thriller. When successful Atlanta lawyer Leonard Martin loses his family-wife, daughter and grandchildren-to a vicious strain of e.coli, he wins a $6 million settlement and promptly disappears. Three years later, Martin begins gunning down those connected to Knowland, the meat-packing company responsible, one by one-from line workers to high-powered investment bankers. Vietnam vet Walter Sherman, aka the Locator, is the very expensive independent contractor those high-powered bankers hire to find the killer. Martin's crusade against the greedy executives and Sherman's pursuit have the satisfying sting of justice hard won and moments of whipcrack action, but the fully-formed cast of characters and their moral quandries give the suspense real weight. Though the business details tend to baffle, and the characters can get confusing (Greener refers to them randomly by either first or last name), this makes an ideal beach read. There's another Locator novel in the pipe (an excerpt's included)-let's hope it keeps the complex characters and the nimble thrills, and streamlines the rest.