Kill Fee

A blistering pace and a stomach-turning homicide-for-hire scheme rockets Laukkanen’s third thriller featuring the detective odd couple of Carla Windermere and Kirk Stevens (after 2012’s Criminal Enterprise) from Minneapolis to grungy venues all over the United States. Since Windermere, a gorgeous African-American FBI agent, and Stevens, a middle-aged and married investigator with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, first worked together, they’ve stayed close—though not as close as both suspect they easily could be. While meeting for lunch, the pair witness the sniper killing of billionaire Spenser Pyatt and glimpse a boyish killer fleeing the scene. Windermere and Stevens begin tracking the organization responsible, Killswitch, an Internet contract killing business run by Department of Defense contractor Michael Parkerson, who’s brainwashing damaged vets into drone-like “assets.” Despite some unbelievable plot elements, including a villain’s quasi-redemption through his do-gooding girlfriend, Laukkanen keeps readers engaged with a serpentine plot that writhes through high-tech and low-life corruption. Agent: Stacia Decker, Donald Maass Literary Agency. (Mar.)