The Accounting
Mortgage broker Jon Willing rode the real-estate wave to the height of suburban envy, obsessively burying any links to his past. For the past 20-plus years, his life has been consumed with concealing the fact that he and his friends Augie and Ben stole more than a million dollars of a biker gang’s drug money. Sealed together by the theft, they vowed to check in weekly to report any sign of exposure. When Augie doesn’t call in, Jon’s investigation reveals his friend’s tortured body and freshly ransacked home. Just seconds ahead of the hitmen, Jon warns Ben and starts running. Minutes from faking his death, Jon realizes he can’t abandon his family, even though it’s disintegrating under the weight of his dishonesty. His only option is to discover who ordered the hit and broker a deal. Jon’s belated coming-of-age and sardonic voice are engaging aspects of the everyman hero, and this thriller is the more suspenseful for Jon’s early realization he’ll have to swap guns for duplicity, his best weapon. For fans of Harlan Coben and Linwood Barclay. --Christine Tran