LINDA L. RICHARDS - EXIT STRATEGY (2022)

 

Synopsis/blurb....

A shattered life. A killer for hire. Can she stop? Does she want to?

Her assignments were always to kill someone. That's what a hitman—or hitwoman—is paid to do, and that is what she does. Then comes a surprise assignment—keep someone alive.

She is hired to protect Virginia Martin, the stunning and brilliant chief technology officer of a hot startup with an environmentally important innovation that will change the world. This new gig catches her at a time in her life when she's hanging on by a thread. Despair and hopelessness—now more intense than she'd felt after the tragic loss of her family—led her to abruptly launch this career. But over time, living as a hired killer is decimating her spirit and she keeps thinking of ending her life.

She's confused about the "why" of her new commission, but she addresses it with her usual skill and stealth, determined to keep the young CTO alive against the ever-increasing odds.

Some people have to die as she discharges her responsibility to protect this superstar woman amid the crumbling worlds of high finance and future technical wonders.

The spirit of an assassin—and her nameless dog—permeates this struggle to help a young woman as powerful forces mount against her.

Fans of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Dexter will love Exit Strategy

Exit Strategy stands on its own and follows Endings in this series.

Exit Strategy was my second outing with author Linda L. Richards after the enjoyable Endings. Exit Strategy picks up with our solitary, unnamed hitwoman and main protagonist. Here she is tasked with preventing a killing as opposed to carrying one out.

Again I enjoyed this one. It's almost a study in human psychology..... loss, bereavement, solitude, fragility, dark thoughts, coping mechanisms, a pet dog as a companion and comforter, a closer connection to her handler and almost a kind of mental health therapy conducted through their ever increasing contact and conversations. There's a sixth sense at play as her anonymous handler senses that she may have reached the end of the road both as far as her career as a killer goes and with life itself. She's offering her an alternative path.  

Her mission is to save the brains of a technology company that is about to launch some revolutionary tech. Interestingly the woman she needs to save is her handler's daughter. We disappear down a rabbit hole of science, secrecy, finance, technology, investment, stock manipulation with either potential massive profits or unimaginable ruinous losses, research, beta testing, implementation schedules, failures and setbacks, romance, surveillance, burglary, sham meetings, keyboard warriors issuing threats, missing persons and investigation.

Against this ongoing drama, there are also some family matters from the past that both open up old wounds and also offer the potential for some healing and a reconnection with her former life. Always assuming our unnamed heroine is brave enough to face it.

Thoughtful as well as exciting. Linda L. Richards manages the perfect blend of an evolving story featuring an unidentified danger and attempts to thwart it, with a character trying to figure out whether her life has any real purpose or value. 

Another rock solid read.

4 from 5

 

Read - May, 2022

Published - 2022

Page count - 288

Source - review copy from Net Galley 

Format - Kindle