Killer Choice: A Thriller.
Tom Hunt. Penguin Publishing Group. January 2018. 352 pp. ISBN#: 9780399586408.
The
premise of this unusual novel is simple but oh so complex at the same
time. What if you had the opportunity to
save the life of a loved one by earning the money you needed to make that
happen? What if you had to kill to make
that happen? Posing these questions out
loud makes the writer and reader feel the tension and indescribable difficulty
inherent in making such a decision.
This
is the story of Gary and Beth. Beth has
just been diagnosed with a brain tumor, a glioblastoma, that defies usual
treatment. However, she gets the
opportunity to travel to try an experimental treatment that shows great promise
in saving her life, not just giving her a few years of borrowed time. The cost, however, is $200,000. Who has that kind of money laying
around? Gary is willing to do anything
or is he…?
Enter
a drug dealer who is unable to pay off money he owes on a large-scale drug
deal. He’s told he’ll be torn up by a
chain saw if he doesn’t deliver what he owes.
He then decides to get rid of the muscle always threatening him for
payment. This part of the story is
depicted in a way that truly elicits the repulsion and dislike of the
reader. There’s also a hole in the plot
here that this reviewer won’t expose that has to do with money that is one
minute totally unavailable and then there for killing. A puzzle for your pleasure!
Gary
makes a decision and the remainder of the novel obviously focuses on that
decision as well as its multiple unexpected outcomes. The cost of the offer is immense!
Tom
Hunt has written a nightmarish plot that one hopes will never happen. Is the plot too contrived? You decide.
A heart-wrenching debacle that hopefully will remain as outlandish as it
seems!
