Buzz Monkey
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- £3.99
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- £3.99
Publisher Description
'You'll enjoy the hell out of this book' Robert Crais
'Exciting, funny ... another jewel mined from the apparently inexhaustible pipeline of top class American first-time thriller writers' IRISH INDEPENDENT
Top Kiernan has been doing all right. He owns Polymath, a thriving research firm that he runs from his home, a 1930s-era schoolhouse in Georgia. He's got a bedroom in a basketball court, a drawer full of flannel shirts, and a splendid collection of spinning tops. He's also got a side-gig as a free-lance operative for a mercenary group, which sends him on periodic and often perilous errands to Latin America. Top can't live without the buzz, the adrenalin rush of being permanently on the edge - and he doesn't have very long to wait.
When Top's long-time friend Dee Lane disappears suddenly, leaving $1.5 million hidden somewhere in Georgia, everyone thinks Top's got the stash. He finds himself the target of ambitious DEA men, a drug lord, an ex-IRA assassin, and a few others who want to get their hands on the money and will kill Top to do so. He knows it's going to take more than adrenalin to survive the manoeuvres of all the players in the dangerous game that this compelling, deftly plotted debut thriller brings to a stunning and explosive finish.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this fun, fast-paced first novel set in Athens, Ga., Top Kiernan has two jobs: he's head of Polymath, an Internet research company run from his home a former elementary school building where his bedroom is located in the old gym, handy for pick-up basketball games with pals and he works undercover for Shaw's, "the world's leading booking agency for mercenaries, bodyguards, and probably worse." Top not only collects tops but spins like the best of them, an adrenaline addict who takes unnecessary risks for the rush, a buzz monkey on his way to becoming a buzz junkie. And that's his problem. Shaw's won't employ him after he made a mess of his last few jobs. When his best friend, Dee Lane, a dealer in contraband, disappears, a drug baron to whom Dee owes money thinks Top can locate Dee or at least the cash. With two associates killed and a third held hostage, Top has his work cut out for him. Like cartoon characters who get repeatedly smashed to the ground but pop up (mostly) unharmed, Top and his sidekick, Benny, just keep going, as they dodge the assorted lawmen and bad guys in pursuit, usually along Georgia highways and venturing as far as Florida. Those who like a lot of action will enjoy this witty, rollicking debut.