Shoot The Messenger by Shane Kuhn
Nov. 13th, 2016 09:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
Meet John Lago: hitman, film fan, dangerously in love.
The object of his affection is Alice, who also happens to be John’s nemesis, a fellow killer and now the wife he never knew he wanted. Together, this thrill-seeking, lethal couple aim to take over John’s former employers Human Resources Inc – a group of assassins who get close to their high-profile targets in the guide of office interns.
But an anonymous tip about an FBI mole in the organisation drives a wedge between the happy couple and all hell breaks loose in a hail of bullets.
Till death do us part.
It’s 3 years after KILL YOUR BOSS and John Lago is in prison, having been captured by the FBI. But if Assistant Director Fletcher thinks he can control the interrogation, he’s got another thing coming. Lago will give Fletcher all the information he wants, but he has one demand: he wants to see Alice. While Fletcher uses the information Lago gives him to track Alice down, Lago tells the story of how he tracked Alice down after what happened in Honduras and how the two got married and proceeded to take over Human Resources Inc. But every marriage has its problems and when the couple are paranoid killers who get a tip that Human Resources Inc has been infiltrated by a FBI mole, their marriage breaks down in a more deadly way than most and the bullets really begin to fly …
Shane Kuhn’s black comedy crime thriller sequel to KILL YOUR BOSS is a laugh-out-loud thrill ride that kept me entertained despite a few pacing issues towards the end and a plot twist that manages to be guessable without making a huge amount of sense. I really enjoyed the twisted courtship between John and Alice (especially the mutual shooting) and how that devolves amid mutual suspicion and paranoia following the tip that there’s an FBI mole in Human Resources Inc. There are some genuinely hilarious scenes (my favourites revolve around their posing as interns in an organisation where Alice is trying to kill a target and John is trying to keep him alive with the pair trying to kill each other in the interim) and I loved the introduction of Sue (a ruthless, technically proficient Human Resources Inc employee who becomes John’s confidant). However there are also some pacing issues (I didn’t need to see John go through another training rebirth no matter how entertaining it was) and a key twist towards the end really didn’t make a lot of sense given the way the story unravels. I also think there were points where Alice risks becoming a two-dimensional psychopathic killer sex doll and I wished that she’d been as switched onto risks as John tells us he is. That said, I really enjoy the energy to these books and the black humour really appeals to me. If Kuhn produces a third novel then I’d definitely read it or failing that, his next project.
The Verdict:
Shane Kuhn’s black comedy crime thriller sequel to KILL YOUR BOSS is a laugh-out-loud thrill ride that kept me entertained despite a few pacing issues towards the end and a plot twist that manages to be guessable without making a huge amount of sense. I really enjoyed the twisted courtship between John and Alice (especially the mutual shooting) and how that devolves amid mutual suspicion and paranoia following the tip that there’s an FBI mole in Human Resources Inc. There are some genuinely hilarious scenes (my favourites revolve around their posing as interns in an organisation where Alice is trying to kill a target and John is trying to keep him alive with the pair trying to kill each other in the interim) and I loved the introduction of Sue (a ruthless, technically proficient Human Resources Inc employee who becomes John’s confidant). However there are also some pacing issues (I didn’t need to see John go through another training rebirth no matter how entertaining it was) and a key twist towards the end really didn’t make a lot of sense given the way the story unravels. I also think there were points where Alice risks becoming a two-dimensional psychopathic killer sex doll and I wished that she’d been as switched onto risks as John tells us he is. That said, I really enjoy the energy to these books and the black humour really appeals to me. If Kuhn produces a third novel then I’d definitely read it or failing that, his next project.
The object of his affection is Alice, who also happens to be John’s nemesis, a fellow killer and now the wife he never knew he wanted. Together, this thrill-seeking, lethal couple aim to take over John’s former employers Human Resources Inc – a group of assassins who get close to their high-profile targets in the guide of office interns.
But an anonymous tip about an FBI mole in the organisation drives a wedge between the happy couple and all hell breaks loose in a hail of bullets.
Till death do us part.
It’s 3 years after KILL YOUR BOSS and John Lago is in prison, having been captured by the FBI. But if Assistant Director Fletcher thinks he can control the interrogation, he’s got another thing coming. Lago will give Fletcher all the information he wants, but he has one demand: he wants to see Alice. While Fletcher uses the information Lago gives him to track Alice down, Lago tells the story of how he tracked Alice down after what happened in Honduras and how the two got married and proceeded to take over Human Resources Inc. But every marriage has its problems and when the couple are paranoid killers who get a tip that Human Resources Inc has been infiltrated by a FBI mole, their marriage breaks down in a more deadly way than most and the bullets really begin to fly …
Shane Kuhn’s black comedy crime thriller sequel to KILL YOUR BOSS is a laugh-out-loud thrill ride that kept me entertained despite a few pacing issues towards the end and a plot twist that manages to be guessable without making a huge amount of sense. I really enjoyed the twisted courtship between John and Alice (especially the mutual shooting) and how that devolves amid mutual suspicion and paranoia following the tip that there’s an FBI mole in Human Resources Inc. There are some genuinely hilarious scenes (my favourites revolve around their posing as interns in an organisation where Alice is trying to kill a target and John is trying to keep him alive with the pair trying to kill each other in the interim) and I loved the introduction of Sue (a ruthless, technically proficient Human Resources Inc employee who becomes John’s confidant). However there are also some pacing issues (I didn’t need to see John go through another training rebirth no matter how entertaining it was) and a key twist towards the end really didn’t make a lot of sense given the way the story unravels. I also think there were points where Alice risks becoming a two-dimensional psychopathic killer sex doll and I wished that she’d been as switched onto risks as John tells us he is. That said, I really enjoy the energy to these books and the black humour really appeals to me. If Kuhn produces a third novel then I’d definitely read it or failing that, his next project.
The Verdict:
Shane Kuhn’s black comedy crime thriller sequel to KILL YOUR BOSS is a laugh-out-loud thrill ride that kept me entertained despite a few pacing issues towards the end and a plot twist that manages to be guessable without making a huge amount of sense. I really enjoyed the twisted courtship between John and Alice (especially the mutual shooting) and how that devolves amid mutual suspicion and paranoia following the tip that there’s an FBI mole in Human Resources Inc. There are some genuinely hilarious scenes (my favourites revolve around their posing as interns in an organisation where Alice is trying to kill a target and John is trying to keep him alive with the pair trying to kill each other in the interim) and I loved the introduction of Sue (a ruthless, technically proficient Human Resources Inc employee who becomes John’s confidant). However there are also some pacing issues (I didn’t need to see John go through another training rebirth no matter how entertaining it was) and a key twist towards the end really didn’t make a lot of sense given the way the story unravels. I also think there were points where Alice risks becoming a two-dimensional psychopathic killer sex doll and I wished that she’d been as switched onto risks as John tells us he is. That said, I really enjoy the energy to these books and the black humour really appeals to me. If Kuhn produces a third novel then I’d definitely read it or failing that, his next project.
