The Killing Game

The Killing Game by J. S. Carol
Published October 13, 2016 by Bookouture
Rating: ★★★★


Actions have consequences.

A gunman bursts into Alfie's, an exclusive L.A. restaurant where several A-listers are having lunch. These Hollywood VIPs, used to answering no one, are now his hostages. The gunman has a bomb strapped to his chest, attached to a heart rate monitor and set to detonate if his pulse goes too far above or below its normal range. If he gets agitated, if a swat team takes him out... his hostages will explode, along with the rest of the city block.

JJ is used to being able to fix any situation. It's why her big name clients pay her the big bucks. That actress from that thing who ran over someone with her car while drunk, maybe-- JJ is the reason you can't quite remember the details; she's the reason it barely made the news. It's her job to smooth over celebrity scandals and re-build their image. 

But JJ has finally found something she can't fix. And the more she tries, the worse the hostage situation gets. People keep dying...

Actor Alex King knows all about JJ's power to manipulate someone's public image. He only came to Alfie's for lunch that day because JJ set up a "date" for him with a supermodel. King gave up a real relationship in exchange for a life of fake-dating starlettes (paparazzi invited along, of course) at JJ's insistance. He realizes how deeply he regrets that decision as he faces the chance he won't make it out of Alfie's alive. But he didn't crawl his way out of a trailer park childhood and drug addiction to go down without a fight...

Everyone has a price.

The media can't believe their luck. A hostage crisis involving more than a dozen L.A. big wigs? It doesn't even matter who lives and who dies, or even if anyone comes out alive, as long as they can be the first network, the first reporter to break the story. Pay a rent-an-expert to push the agenda you want... pay off a cop to get insider information. But when the media realizes they have a direct line to Alex King, will they betray him to air the exclusive scoop? Will they get him killed?

I thought this was a really good book. I've had a lucky reading streak as of late, but nothing quite as addictive as this one. This is a true thriller, not a dressed up mystery novel, and a real page-turner. The writing didn't impress me. As the story progressed, I didn't much care, because I was riveted. There's a lot of perspective switching in this book, probably too much. There is one major, unforgivable plot issue that prevented me from giving me this 5 stars. I also had a problem with the bad guy's motivations. We find out why he targeted Alfie's, and two patrons in particular, but there's no reasoning behind how he acted toward the other hostages.