cover image Killer Move

Killer Move

Michael Marshall. Morrow, $24.99 (368p) ISBN 978-0-06-143442-6

Marshall, author of the Straw Men trilogy (The Straw Men, The Upright Man, and Blood of Angels), offers a subtle and unnerving story of the little things that can tip the balance of one's life and send it spiraling into chaos. Everything is going well for Bill Moore, a successful, ambitious, happily married realtor in Sarasota, Fla., until the day he finds a card on his desk with a single word on the front: modified printed in white letters and bold type against a black background. In a sort of malicious, Kafkaesque "butterfly effect," a reservation Moore didn't make, a book he didn't order, and an e-mail he didn't send lead to increasing trouble. Meanwhile, a convicted murderer released on parole, John Hunter, sets out on a course of deadly vengeance. Marshall skillfully spins interlocking plot lines as the agents out to ruin Moore and Hunter begin to collide in nightmarish fashion. (May)