Killer Choice
Berkley (January 30, 2018)
Suspense Thriller
Setting – Michigan
Hardcover: 352 pages
ISBN-13: 978-0399586408
Kindle ASIN: B0722TJD9G
The electrifying debut thriller that asks the question: To save the one you love, is there any price you wouldn’t pay?
His wife is sick.
He needs $200,000 to save her.
A mysterious man offers to give him the money with just one catch: He has to murder someone to get it.
Gary Foster’s life is finally heading in the right direction. After years of trying, his wife, Beth, is pregnant, and he recently opened a business with his brother. But one phone call changes everything…
After collapsing suddenly, Beth has been rushed to the hospital. Tests reveal a devastating diagnosis: an inoperable brain tumor. Their only hope is an expensive experimental treatment available abroad, with a cost that’s out of their reach. And Beth’s time is running out…
Then a strange man approaches Gary and offers the money he needs, on one condition: that he kill someone, no questions asked. End one life to save another.
In this nail-biting debut novel of domestic suspense, one man makes a choice that forces him to confront the darkest reaches of his soul and betray those closest to him. As he’s swept up in a nightmare of escalating violence, he must question his own morality—and determine just how far he’s willing to go to save the woman he loves.
Dollycas’s Thoughts
Beth has glioblastoma, the same kind of cancer as John McCain has and Beau Biden had. But for Beth there is a cure, she just needs to have her baby, fly to Germany and have $200,000 to pay for the clinical trial care and other expenses. Beth and her friends start a funding page and calling friends and family. Her husband Gary receives a phone call offering him the full amount but he has to kill someone. Yes, it is a Killer Choice, but he decides to do it.
There was something just really off to me about Gary. Yes, he wanted to do anything to save his wife, and clearly, he was not thinking straight, but the way he accepted the offer and carried the act out just didn’t hold water for me. He came across to me as a very weak individual. He rubbed me the wrong way from the start and by the finish I really disliked this character.
The plot follows the murder and the aftermath. The viewpoint shifts between Gary and Otto, the drug dealer. After a slow start, the story picks up the pace but to me, some of it was pretty predictable. There was one moment I was totally shocked by an occurrence and near the end, things got pretty exciting.
Beth’s part is the story was minimal and never really delved into her treatment or the birth of her child. There could have been added drama here. She never became real to me. Maybe as a woman reading this story I need more of this to become engaged by her character.
Hunt has been compared to Harlan Coben, I am a huge fan of Harlan Coben, so I truly expected to love this story, but for me, it just missed the mark.
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of this book. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
