Killer Instinct

Joseph Finder

There are few sure things in the book world. It is a sure thing that Stephen King will sell millions of copies of his next novel (though it's certainly not a sure thing that it'll be a good book), and it's a sure thing he'll be one of, at most, a handful of authors to do so. It's a sure thing that Tom Clancy will release another doorstop or two this year, and they'll probably be written by others and billed as "Tom Clancy Presents." It's a sure thing that the romance-novel mavens-- you know the ones, Sandra Brown, Danielle Steel, Nora Roberts and her many alter-egos-- will have released six more novels apiece by the time I finish typing this review, and all of them will sell extraordinarily well.

It's also a sure thing that when Joseph Finder releases a book, it's going to be a hell of a ride, and a readable one at that. It's not always a sure thing, however, that it's going to reach the quality of Finder's best efforts (High Crimes and Paranoia). Killer Instinct hits a pothole or two along the way, but this one's still a great read.

Jason's a nice guy. He's a sales rep for a big electronics company who married way above his station. While under considerable pressure to apply for a promotion that opened up, Jason meets Kurt Semko, an ex-Marine who's driving a tow truck for a living. Jason gets Kurt a job at the firm where he works, lands the promotion, and everything looks like smooth sailing.

I read an ARC of this book, and I really, really hope they change the jacket copy on this (by the time you read this review on Amazon, we'll know, won't we?), because what's on the ARC violates just about every common-sense rule of jacket copy writing. If they don't change it, I stopped there about halfway through where the jacket copy does. Unfortunately, I also stopped about 3/8 of the way through the book. Major, major spoilers, and I can't go into the rest of the plot without doing the same. Let's just say that while it doesn't look too interesting from a plot synopsis standpoint, if you've read a Joseph Finder novel before, you know there's a whole lot more going on behind the scenes-- and hopefully the jacket copy won't spoil it for you.

As one expects from a Joe Finder novel, this is fast-paced, readable technothriller fun. The characters are well-drawn, though some of the minor ones could have used a bit of fleshing out. I'm tempted to say some of the foreshadowing here is a little too overbearing, but I honestly can't make that judgment-- did I catch the foreshadowing as being overbearing because it was, or because I knew what was coming thanks to bad jacket copy? I've no idea. I'm willing to give Finder the benefit of the doubt, because he hasn't written a nakedly transparent novel yet.

Killer Instinct is good, old-fashioned-yet-newfangled fun. Another winner from Joseph Finder.