Kill Fee

November 25, 2013
A blistering pace and a stomach-turning homicide-for-hire scheme rockets Laukkanen’s third thriller featuring the detective odd couple of Carla Windermere and Kirk Stevens (after 2012’s Criminal Enterprise) from Minneapolis to grungy venues all over the United States. Since Windermere, a gorgeous African-American FBI agent, and Stevens, a middle-aged and married investigator with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, first worked together, they’ve stayed close—though not as close as both suspect they easily could be. While meeting for lunch, the pair witness the sniper killing of billionaire Spenser Pyatt and glimpse a boyish killer fleeing the scene. Windermere and Stevens begin tracking the organization responsible, Killswitch, an Internet contract killing business run by Department of Defense contractor Michael Parkerson, who’s brainwashing damaged vets into drone-like “assets.” Despite some unbelievable plot elements, including a villain’s quasi-redemption through his do-gooding girlfriend, Laukkanen keeps readers engaged with a serpentine plot that writhes through high-tech and low-life corruption. Agent: Stacia Decker, Donald Maass Literary Agency.

Someone is selling murder on the Internet, and FBI Special Agent Carla Windermere and Minnesota State Investigator Kirk Stevens must stop him. Narrator Edoardo Ballerini rises to the challenge of portraying a varied cast of characters, starting with Windermere, Stevens, and a series of mentally unstable killers. Additional characters include Stevens's wife, a killer's girlfriend, and sundry cops and FBI agents. Whether Southern or Midwestern, white or African-American, male or female, Ballerini nails each character and captures the urgency of the manhunt. When he portrays the terrifying visions of assassin Malcolm Lind, Ballerini's voice becomes smoother to reflect the nightmare world of the killer's mind. This book is bolstered by Ballerini's outstanding performance. G.S.D. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine