This is the first in Sam Hill's fun and entertaining crime thriller series, featuring Top Kiernan, and a host of colourful, vibrant and offbeat characters, and set in Georgia. Tom is a adrenaline buzz junkie, totally addicted, who lives in a old 1930s school that he is still in the process of renovating, his bedroom is the basketball court, and he owns a rather large collection of spinning tops, almost all gifts, a tribute to the name he acquired at a volleyball match long ago. He operates his internet research company, Polymath, from the school, a front to disguise his work as a mercenary for Shaw's, although his last mission was problematic, involving a mother and daughter in Lima, Peru, which has left him haunted and suffering nightmares. He is postively itching for a new assignment from Shaw's, but they feel his need for the buzz has compromised his effectiveness and no longer wish to employ him.
It turns out that this is not such a big deal as Top, and his right hand man, the much feared Benny, whose deadly reputation and skills with razor blades strikes horror in the hearts of people, find themselves in the midst of danger coming from all directions. Dee Lane, a long time friend, and contraband smuggler has gone missing, and the rumour is that he has left a bag with one and half million dollars, belonging to the deranged, disturbed and volatile Atlanta drug lord, Raoul Menes, with Top. Menes has offering a reward for the return of the money, an act that incentivises a motley collection of characters and groups intent on getting hold of the cash by any means necessary, including murder, kidnapping, and torture. Forced to move his business, Top investigates, following Dee's trail, in a world of perilous secrets and hostile forces where it can be hard to identify friend from foe.
Top finds himself the target of a drug lord, the DEA, an ex-IRA assassin desperate for cash to retire, meth cooking rednecks, a CIA recruiter and other killers for hire. Sam Hill's plotting displays a sure touch, and his central protagonist, Top, makes for a charismatic anti-hero, at home in the chaos and mayhem that results when old friend Dee disappears, reveling and buzzing from the deadly danger he finds himself. Although when his workers and others he knows inadvertently find themselves get murdered or abducted, he pulls out all the stops to put things right and protect them. This is an engaging crime thriller, one for those times when you need something light, fun and a little crazy to read. Many thanks to Orion for an ARC.