Fans of THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO will find EXIT STRATEGY --- the sequel to Linda L. Richards’ 2021 novel, ENDINGS --- to be intriguing. It concerns an unnamed hired killer who questions her chosen profession. Her anonymous “handler,” who had assigned previous assassinations, is aware of this career change, but there is one more assignment: protect the life of the handler’s daughter, Virginia Martin.

"Two individuals seem to battle within one well-dressed but confused person. Like the unnamed narrator, the story has no end. Planting the seed of an Academy Award-winning film?"

Martin is the Chief Technical Officer (CTO) of start-up Greenmüll, a “green” plant that converts garbage to energy. The company survives off private funding and a new stock IPO listing. Greenbacks flood the corporate office, but there is only a prototype that burns more cash than trash. “[A]ny time there’s a lot of money involved in anything, the chances of people getting killed go up.” Someone is short-selling the company stock, and Greenmüll purchased for the CTO a high-value life insurance policy. Now, someone wants her dead.

To get close to Martin, encircled by a glitzy but dubious retinue, the narrator assumes the persona of a private financial advisor for the über-wealthy. She adopts the style of a Wall Street mogul and dresses to the nines. Money is no object. Greenmüll’s CEO and other officers welcome without question the person who claims to wield control over the portfolios of wealthy investors.

After the deaths of her family members, the unnamed narrator became an assassin because “the sum of my life left me in a black hole. I was desperate, but I was also empty.” Her only friend is an unnamed dog.

The narrator’s inner voice reflecting on her job as a hired assassin and that of the Virginia Martin protector suggest dissociative identity disorder. Think the Joanne Woodward film The Three Faces of Eve or, more recently, Erin Kelly’s phenomenal WATCH HER FALL. Two individuals seem to battle within one well-dressed but confused person. Like the unnamed narrator, the story has no end. Planting the seed of an Academy Award-winning film?

Linda L. Richards is a journalist and award-winning author of 16 books who is known for strong female protagonists in the thriller genre. She is the founding editor of January Magazine and one of the co-founders of "The Rap Sheet" blog. ENDINGS has been optioned by a major studio for production. She divides her time between Arizona, California and Vancouver, Canada.