In a decade of work as a government hit man, Michael Harrison has learned exactly how to deal with every life and death situation... or so he thought. But when a chronic illness forces him to enlist the services of dedicated altruist Emily Preston, they both find that matters of life and death might not be as simple as they once believed. In this debut novel, Casey Muratori delivers a tightly-woven page turner with cinematic style and a remarkably fresh perspective on the way we humanize and dehumanize those with whom we share the world.
I have no idea how this book ended up in my "to read" pile but I picked it up this morning to read over breakfast, and could not put it down until I finished it several hours later. It's a fairly quick read, sucks you right into the characters, of which there are two main ones: Michael, who is a top security government agent sent into hostile situations as a sharpshooter, and who also loves his collection of several cats; and Emily, a veterinary technician who is hired to administer daily insulin shots to Michael's diabetic cat Hannah while he's away on assignments. The story alternates between their two perspectives, which initially seem very different but slowly turn out to have several unexpected parallels and both manage to change the other's perspective a bit. It wasn't at all predictable, it was very readable, and it was one of those books that, after I finished it, I kept wanting to go back and read more. Unexpectedly entertaining.