Friday, February 2, 2018

Killer Choice: A Thriller by Tom Hunt

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!