Wrong Man Down

"This first installment of a series introduces a talented hit woman . . . The entertaining novel is full of twists and turns and colorful characters . . . Masinton has a particular knack for dialogue . . .  A fun crime tale with an intriguing protagonist."  —Kirkus Reviews 

Millie Henshawe—intrepid, smart-talking, gay ex-GI—is the field agent (hired gun) for Continental Removals, LLC, in Boston, a niche firm catering to very special clients. Millie's well-honed skills are tested when the unexpected happens and the hired gun becomes the target! A pitch-black comic novel. Gallows humor and dead-on dialogue.

This fun, off-beat, murder mystery introduces wacky, unconventional characters.  Millie's boss Ralph Klammer and his assistant Mary Michael Mulloy, who founded Continental Removals around the time of the Vietnam war with Ralph's mother, Sheila. Their assassin out-fitter and clean-up guy, Mr. Moustakas,  Jauncey Chambers, the off-kilter driver for Millie's first hit who thinks the whole set-up is just like the movies.  And then there's Ray Roth, a sad-sack gambler who leads Millie to an unlikely story and the unsettling truth about the business.

The author keeps the reader guessing with zany zig-zags in the plot, and the dialogue pops with energy and invention.  Whether it's Jauncey's be-bop cadences, the Mob-speak of thugs, or the high-wire improvisations of Ralph when he, Millie, and Mary Mike get together for postmortems, the punchy dialogue sets a new standard in fun murder mysteries.

Wrong Man Down is the first Millie Henshawe novel in the series, followed by Who's Who Among the Dead.  These novels upend and reinvent the genre of crime fiction.  Millie, the killer, is also the detective:  she is the one who understands everybody's story, figures out all the details of the fiendishly complicated plots, and explains how  everything fits together.

Part of the fun comes with the off-beat, original characters she meets.  There's Jauncey Chambers in Wrong Man Down, the off-kilter driver for her first target who thinks the whole set-up is just like the movies.  And there's Ray Roth, a sad-sack gambler who tells Millie an unlikely story that nevertheless leads to the unsettling truth underlying the entire plot.