Angel Reddish texts his wife to disappear and prepares another partial message to lifelong friend Curt Hinton. He dies from stab wounds as his thumb hovers over the Send tab: “Don’t take the job. Just run. They are…”

Curt struggles as a print journalist, with yesterday’s news losing the battle against digital. Angel wears $4,000 suits purchased by Bay Area Logistics Company, aka Balco, which is based in Oakland. He recruits his Best Buddy to join Balco and head the Office of Corporate Communications. A $350,000 salary may have influenced the decision. Curt's first day is a bummer as he learns that Angel is dead. As the flack, Curt must put a positive spin on his friend’s suspicious death, which he finds out was not from a carjacking as Balco’s executives imply.

"Brad Parks poignantly brings the plight of human trafficking to light, yet through a slightly myopic lens.... [He] solidifies his thriller track record with THE FLACK, following 2024’s impressive THE BOUNDARIES WE CROSS."

Curt’s nose for news retains a journalistic olfactory sense. He learns that Balco is shipping more than manufactured goods to and from Mexico at an astounding 80 percent profit margin. When a video of a migrant being raped appears on social media, the man wearing a Balco cap is identified by AI facial recognition. The only way to put that into the spin cycle is for Balco to spearhead efforts to find the assaulted woman and accelerate citizenship eligibility.

Brad Parks poignantly brings the plight of human trafficking to light, yet through a slightly myopic lens. A migrant voluntarily pays $8,000 to subversively cross into Mexico to attend a family event, as well as the same amount to be smuggled back into the States.

As more dead Balco employees pile up and Curt is summoned to the CEO’s office, a slew of thugs approaches him in the deserted parking garage. An acrobatic stunt from the third level puts him on the run --- without a car or cell phone.

Not for Curt, but readers are introduced to “the quiet woman,” La Tranquila, several unidentified people in “the windowless room,” and a union boss who “could get a hundred guys with baseball bats to show up anywhere in a heartbeat.” They all thicken the suspense soup.

Parks solidifies his thriller track record with THE FLACK, following 2024’s impressive THE BOUNDARIES WE CROSS. He is the only writer to have taken home the Shamus, Nero and Lefty awards, a metaphoric Triple Crown.

Reviewer’s note: In journalism, flack is slang for a publicist, public relations or press agent. It is often used with a slight derogatory tone by reporters who deal with them to get stories or deflect criticism. The term “flack” originated in the 1930s, possibly named after famous publicist Gene Flack.