Killer Choice

by Tom Hunt

Overview

“Terrific…full of shocks and twists you won’t see coming—unputdownable and highly recommended!”—Lee Child, #1 New York Times bestselling author

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780399586408
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	01/30/2018
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Tom Hunt is an award-winning advertising copywriter. He has worked for some of the nation’s largest and best-known agencies, including J. Walter Thompson and Saatchi & Saatchi. Killer Choice is his first novel.

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Excerpted from "Killer Choice"
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Copyright © 2018 Tom Hunt.
Excerpted by permission of Penguin Publishing Group.
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Editorial Reviews

10/30/2017
The future looks bright for Gary Foster, the hero of Hunt’s engrossing, if flawed, first novel. He owns a small retail business in his hometown of River Falls, Mich., with his brother, and his wife, Beth, is pregnant with their first child. Then Gary gets a call from the local hospital, where an ambulance has taken Beth after she collapsed and went into convulsions at a shopping mall. Tests soon show that Beth has a rare form of inoperable brain cancer. The couple’s only hope for her survival is an experimental treatment that costs $200,000, which their insurance won’t cover. Gary’s life becomes a nightmare as he and Beth futilely try to raise the money. Meanwhile, a stranger approaches him with a Faustian bargain: if he murders a man, the money to save his wife is his. Hunt does a fine job of maintaining tension and dread throughout, though some thriller fans will be disappointed that the straightforward plot builds to a predictable, anticlimactic conclusion. Agent: Laney Katz Becker, Massie & McQuilkin. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

2017-10-31
A husband faces the prospect of losing his wife to cancer or committing a brutal crime in this debut thriller.Despite a plot that revolves around the choices we make in dire circumstances, Hunt's tepid thriller telegraphs nearly every character's intent, so the decisions they make are hardly a surprise. Gary Foster and his wife, Beth, are expecting their first child when she experiences a seizure that leads doctors to diagnose an aggressive form of brain cancer. Gary and Beth, scrambling for any shred of hope, find an experimental treatment in Germany that could save her life but comes with a $200,000 price tag—and, of course, insurance won't cover it. They start a Kickstarter-type page, and while donations trickle in, they're not nearly enough and Beth's time is running out. In a poorly integrated side plot, a local drug dealer, Otto Brennan, is stuck between a rock (a cartel leader) and a hard place (a crooked cop), both of whom want money from him, though he only has the funds to pay off one. Otto sees an article on the local newspaper's website about Gary and Beth's plight, and he reaches out to Gary with an offer: all Gary has to do is get rid of the cop, Devon Peterson, permanently, and Otto will give him the money for Beth's treatment. In predictable fashion, nothing goes right, and Gary and Otto become embroiled in a Keystone Cop-like investigation into the murder while Gary spins lie after lie to Beth, lies that no one would realistically believe. The resolution—to the case, Beth's cancer, the Fosters' marriage—is as implausible as they come.Stock characters populate a plot that takes the suspension of disbelief to ridiculous levels.

Kirkus Reviews

A promising debut with a Hitchcockian hook, Killer Choice is a terrific, cinematic read from a new writer to watch.”—William Landay, New York Times bestselling author of Defending Jacob

"[An] outstanding domestic suspense debut...In the harrowing tale that follows, the readers are craftily put in the position of considering what extremes they would go to... Recommended for fans of fast-paced thrillers that pose moral dilemmas (Lee Child, Harlan Coben, Joseph Finder). A real nail-biter."—Booklist (starred review)
 
“Fans of Harlan Coben or Mary Kubica will want to add this promising author to their lineup of favorites.”—Library Journal

"[E]xciting, thought-provoking, and just plain fun to read....KILLER CHOICE features a brilliant concept, and Tom Hunt excels at translating raw emotions onto the page. There’s a handful of very solid debuts coming out in 2018, and this is definitely one of them."—The Real Book Spy


“Killer Choice is a sharply-crafted debut thriller that fans of Harlan Coben will devour. Tom Hunt masterfully ratchets the suspense until your fingers can’t turn the pages fast enough.”—Grant Blackwood, New York Times bestselling author of Tom Clancy Duty and Honor
 
“A thrilling, masterful debut. Yes, the plot moves quickly and furiously, with twists and turns until the very last pages. But the book’s real strengths are its rich characters and vivid writing. This is a fast, powerful, agonizing read, impossible to put down.”—David Bell, bestselling author of Bring Her Home

“Killer Choice ensnares the reader in a complex and chilling plot, forcing you to consider your own humanity and answer the ultimate question: just how far would you go when faced with the impossible? Each twist and turn wraps the reader in a tighter coil until you're racing to the end so you can take a breath once again. This debut thriller is not to be missed.”—Graham Brown, New York Times bestselling co-author of Nighthawk (with Clive Cussler)           

“Tom Hunt’s debut speeds along like the best of Lee Child, and takes dark turns that would make Dean Koontz proud. Killer Choice is a harrowing ride into desperation, and Tom Hunt is a writer to watch.”—Jonathan Moore, award-nominated author of The Dark Room and The Poison Artist
 
“With a premise torn from the pages of a psychology textbook and a furious cascade of twists, Killer Choice is a lightning-fast ride that’ll keep you guessing until the end. You can go ahead and throw away your bookmark now. This is a one-sit read.”—Brad Parks, author of Say Nothing
 
“A riveting thriller about the lengths a man will go to save the woman he loves. A twisting, spiraling ride with an ending that hits you in the gut and makes you think about love, death and the limits of forgiveness. A fantastic debut!”—Jamie Freveletti, international bestselling author of Dead Asleep

From the Publisher