Review: Not Your Father's Hit-man Story
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 02 9, 2013
This is not your father's hit-man story. Or is it? I guess Lars could BE your father, though I'd hate to break curfew or get a bad grade with this guy waiting at home in a barcalounger. He heartless and he's tenacious. Well, he WAS heartless, and he IS tenacious, as we discover pretty quickly in this book. No, he's not a hit-man with a heart of gold or any other such cliche, as Beetner does a great job of not traveling the same well-worn paths in hit-man fiction. But Lars is very human, and very much a real, unique person. I believed it when he made a couple of major choices in the course of this book.Now Trent, the young, up and comer? Well, if Lars is your dad, Trent is the douche bag cousin that you hope doesn't visit AGAIN this summer. While not a complete mess -- he's an effective, if inexperienced hit-man -- he's totally unlikable, and painted that way on purpose. There's a scene where he decides to treat a barfly like hell, just like he's probably seen every anti-hero since Jack Nicholson do in the movies. It doesn't work out for him, much to his chagrin and my pleasure.That's the thing about this book. Beetner hits all of the notes you want a hard-edged crime fiction novel to hit, but avoids the tired cliches at the same time, and the result is that he delights you in a familiar but fresh fashion.Frank ZafiroAuthor of the River City series and Stefan Koprvia mysteries