Kill For Me by Tom Wood, Book Review

I have a new guilty pleasure – reading about an amoral killer for hire. I feel guilty for being interested in such a character in the first place, and guilty for feeling intrigued by what makes him tick. This is an action book by any standard, and you might not expect characterisation to be high on the list of attributes. However, in his effective sparse style, the author Tom Wood manages to convey a lot in a few words. We don’t get much backstory about Victor, our anti-hero, only a few hints, dropped like breadcrumbs along the way. ‘He had to be a loner because he was a killer, but he had been a loner long before that.’

Victor is not just your average contract killer, he’s the best. Anytime someone hard-to-get-to needs to be assassinated, a protected politician, banker, weapons dealer, or in this case, a Central American cartel boss, chances are, Victor is your man.

I also feel guilty for enjoying such a violent book. Admittedly, it’s top drawer violence if you know what I mean. The author has obviously done his homework to a high level and even if you are horrified at the body count, you will be impressed with the skill involved in plotting and choreographing the fight scenes. Tom Wood has not just looked up Victor’s weapon of choice for a particular situation on the Internet and used his imagination to colour a scenario, you can tell he has studied most weapons, their uses and the damage they inflict, in almost obsessive detail.

The British author says in his blurb that he himself has never killed anyone, but I bet you he could. I’ve heard many crime authors speak at crime festivals and have observed how some popular male authors try, but fail, to portray a macho hard man persona. Unlike those authors, Tom Wood would be able to look out for himself and inflict some serious damage in the process. He could actually kill, in numerous ways, and get away with it.

This book’s contract takes Victor to Guatemala to face his biggest challenge ever, a sequestered cartel boss. Victor takes great care to live in the shadows, to be anonymous, but in Kill For Me, he too becomes a target. And this is why I feel most guilty – I care about his chances for survival and success.

Published in July 2018 by Sphere in hardback, £19.99. Also available in Ebook and Audio.