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It is a tribute to THE KILLING KIND that Chris Holm's new thriller about a hitman who assassinates other hitmen comes off as an introduction to a new series rather than as a stand-alone work. Holm has cleverly placed a former Special Forces Op out of Afghanistan named Michael Hendricks at the center of this twisted tale of redemption. Allegedly blown up, presumed dead, and therefore without anyone looking for him, Hendricks has returned to the United States to use his military skills to eliminate other hitmen. Plagued by a sense of guilt over what he did, whom he left behind, and whom he killed in a war that was supposedly for a good purpose, Hendricks now determines his own destiny through his own moral guidelines, however unconventional they may be. He takes on "cases" for money, but he deems the targets all worthy of execution.
Hendricks reasons that he takes out the bad guys without harming innocent bystanders and seems to have a perfect track record of removing only dangerous people from the street. Be that as it may, the less precise local law enforcement agencies and the FBI still aren't happy with vigilante mindsets, no matter how well-intended assassins are or how little mourned the victims may be. So despite the fact that Hendricks is officially a "ghost" who lives entirely off the grid, he has not escaped the notice of FBI Special Agent Charlotte Thompson, who has developed a bit of a mania in looking for the man behind murders all over the country—a person who just pops up, kills, and then vanishes.
Also dismayed are members of crime families who have lost their loyal soldiers to Hendricks' quick justice. One of them hires a suave European hitman named Englemann, an inverted James Bond type, to track down Hendricks and avenge the mobs.
What results is a fast-paced and thoroughly entertaining hit-for-hire story that would make a compelling television series as well as what is surely going to be several novels.
Will Collyer, a prolific audio narrator, brings a lot of masculine drive to the story, as he runs through the fast-paced plot with military precision, good timing, and canny character impersonations. It would be easy for Collyer to let Englemann, for instance, become a stereotype of the finicky killer - another sociopath who likes a nice dry wine with his corpse - but Collyer works the fine line between capturing the character's eccentricities and having him become a stereotype. The same is true with Hendricks: the ex-Ops officer gone rogue is no longer a new figure in the American landscape. Collyer makes Hendricks sound thoughtful yet ruthless enough not to hesitate to pull the trigger.
THE KILLING KIND has a clever premise. Better yet, the audio does not let the listener down after the novelty of the situation has worn off. This well-crafted thriller will keep most listening to the end and hoping for more.
§ An avid audiophile, Karla Jay is a retired professor of English and Women's & Gender Studies. She is a frequent contributor to this site.
Reviewed by Karla Jay, December 2015
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