This is book one of four that make up The Kills.

This is a complete book in itself but is part of a series so you go into it knowing that the story will open out and have connections built in that will only be revealed slowly although the opening makes it clear that this will be a hunt for a man that has disappeared.

John Jacob’s morning began at 3:03 with a call from Paul Geezler, Advisor to the Division Chief, Europe, for HOSCO International.

Listen. There’s a problem and it can’t be solved. You need to disappear.

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The essence of the book is that an employee embezzles money from a company, reconstruction in Iraq, only to be chased by a claims investigator amongst others. It is a page-turning thriller but also a tragi-comedy where unexpected events and misunderstandings occur leaving the employee free and on the run. There are also the murky goings-on behind the scenes where Geezler, a man with fingers in many pies, seems to be pulling the strings.

The hunt for the employee, Stephen Sutler – real name John Jacob, is a cat and mouse chase with both Sutler and Parson, the claims investigator, being amateurs in this field. Both are helped and hindered by the same characters along the chase with several coming to Sutler’s rescue in the most unexpected ways but at the critical moment.

As you move through the book it becomes less about the embezzlement and more about corporate behaviour, read greed, in a country that is on its knees and ripe for fraudulent abuse.

House describes the places, the heat and the shabbiness of working overseas particularly well. Most of the characters are civilian contractors just trying to survive in what is not an easy place. Sutler befriends a young man, Eric, who becomes obsessed with him, there are dog tags with important information on them that are lost and a pair of journalists that seem to argue a lot.

The author manages the micro as well as the macro extremely well. We get the big picture about corporate companies but also the lives of the individuals involved in the story. And we get four books that come together to create one larger one so micro to macro. It’s clever.

I am going to have to get a copy of the book to read the rest. Audiobook just won’t do it for this novel. I need to see the words on the page!