Book Review: “A Killer Instinct” by Joseph Finder

One of my goals in conjunction with this overall effort is to read a book a month. In January, I read Killer Instinct by Joseph Finder — an action and mystery-filled thriller that left me guessing until its final page.

The plot of this novel begins with a frustrated sales rep named Jason who is based outside of Boston working for a plasma screen supplier. This book was given to me by my grandmother who I think was trying to say something to me via the recommendation, but we’ll explore that later. The story begins with Jason multi-tasking while driving and due to his distractions, he drives his car off the road. After being picked up by a tow truck, he gets to talking to its driver and they find a mutual connection in their obsession with baseball. Jason invites the driver (Kurt) to join the company’s softball team when he finds out that Kurt was a former minor league pitcher. After they get to talking, Jason finds out that Kurt used to be a Special Forces member until being dishonorably discharged.

As some additional background, Jason is being pressured by his wife, Kate, to apply himself more towards furthering himself in his career. This motivation pushes Jason to position himself for a promotion within his company. Around the same time, Kurt plays and dominates in a business softball game. Jason and Kurt start to spend more time together when Jason decides to help Kurt get a job at his company in their corporate security division.

The competition for the promotion is stiff among the sales organization and Jason is on the outside looking in. One of the other reps (Trevor) is much closer with their boss and has been closing larger, more frequent deals than Jason. However, Trevor and the other reps (other than Jason) start to have an extended run of (what seems to be) bad luck. One of their cars breaks down twice and leads to them losing a big sale, while another salesman attempts to demonstrate some of their screens and they all malfunction in front of the prospective customer.

As the story progresses Jason gets the promotion and then due to a drunken bigoted rank by his boss, is promoted again. As the coincidences supporting Jason’s rise to the top pile up, people begin to get suspicious — including Jason. Early on in the story, he had taken advantage of Kurt’s operative and intelligence background to get some information about the competition, another salesman at a different company that Jason was tasked to recruit, etc. But then he begins to realize that Kurt had taken his requests to far and begun sabotaging anyone in his way….with no regard for human life.

Near the end of the story, Jason realizes how dangerous Kurt really is when two of his coworkers are killed in what appears to be a car accident, but due to Jason’s suspicion and investigation uncovers Kurt had tampered with the mechanics of the vehicle. In an attempt to protect himself and his now pregnant wife from Kurt, he devises a plan to report his crimes to the authorities. Unfortunately for Jason, Kurt has bugged everything he owns and uses on a daily basis — his office, his cell phone, his work phone, his laptop, his email, his bedroom. Jason can’t do anything without Kurt knowing.

I won’t spoil the end, but to give you an idea of my experience…I couldn’t put the book down for the last 100 pages.

While not incredibly intellectually stimulating, Killer Instinct is an easy, exciting read that has solid character development and an unpredictable plot. Outside of the suspenseful storyline, the detail the author goes into the realities of a sales position and what is needed to be successful (i.e. A Killer Instinct) was something that was particularly useful for me in my current professional role. There were definitely some portions of the book I could relate to (negotiating with customers, being ignored by prospective customers, getting screwed over by a competitor/partner), but Jason’s overall attitude and perspective on how to be successful doesn’t necessarily align with my own. I’m not sure at this time how that relates to my career aspirations and next steps but it did force to me consider some factors I hadn’t previously.

Sne’s Rating: 8.3/10