You may not be familiar with Chris Holm, but you will be soon. Holm is the author of a somewhat off-the-radar semi-supernatural trilogy known as the Collector series and has garnered a great deal of acclaim from far-flung and varied corners. His new novel, THE KILLING KIND, takes him in a somewhat different direction. It’s a crime thriller with a surprisingly sympathetic protagonist and a startlingly original premise that moves along so smoothly and quickly that you almost forget you’re reading.

"As the pages quickly dwindled away, I thought that the ending was either going to seem rushed or be one of those 'to be continued' conclusions. I was wrong on both counts. Holm’s pacing is nearly perfect from beginning to end."

Holm sets up a great scenario in THE KILLING KIND that gets things moving ever forward throughout the book. Michael Hendricks is a hitman who kills other hitmen. He finds out when a hit is scheduled, goes to the selected target, and offers, in effect, to save the target’s life --- in exchange for money, of course. Actually, he charges quite handsomely for this service. Hendricks is pretty much a “my way or the highway” kind of guy, and since most of the targets he contacts are not exactly model citizens, he has no problem walking away if his potential client doesn’t want to pay his fee. What we learn fairly quickly about Hendricks is that, for a stone-cold killer, he’s not a bad guy at all. It’s a measure of Holm’s talent that he’s able to believably construct this type of character.

Hendricks is doing what he does for a good and somewhat bittersweet reason, which I’ll let you discover for yourself. He has the best of all possible covers: he is thought to be dead by all but one person, and his former employer all but denies his existence to begin with. There are two problems, though. One is an FBI agent who has noticed a pattern of hitmen being killed and thinks that someone --- a ghost off of the radar --- is responsible. She is right, of course, and realizes she is on the verge of the case that may make her career. The other problem would be the guys who hire the guys who Hendricks keeps killing. They want it stopped and turn to a killer named Engelmann, who is as bloodthirsty as he is brilliant. Unlike Hendricks, Engelmann really likes killing, and has figured out a way to identify him and take him down. The result is a pursuit that takes both men across Missouri and into Virginia for an explosive confrontation from which only one of them can emerge alive. Maybe.

As the pages quickly dwindled away, I thought that the ending was either going to seem rushed or be one of those “to be continued” conclusions. I was wrong on both counts. Holm’s pacing is nearly perfect from beginning to end. Furthermore, THE KILLING KIND is complete in itself. Holm leaves himself some wiggle room for a potential sequel or even a series, but he also could have those characters who make it to the end simply walk off the page and into the sunset. I’d like to see more, and my guess is that you will as well.