Rarely can one combine "Snark" yet likability for me. Gregg has done this in this wonderfully fun read.
The story moves fast and it's not until the sunlight creeps through before you realize you've stayed up all night saying, :Just one more chapter..."

Rick Carter is The Recruiter. You need a group of people for a job? He’s the guy you call. After a new client contacts him, things go awry.
As with any debut novel, I went into this book not really sure if I’d like it. I was more than pleasantly surprised.
Rick Carter was a great character. It was easy to get pulled along with his story, even at the pace the book sometimes set.
The mood shifted between a noir feeling to relentless action. All the while interspersed with gallows humor.
If this Podolski’s debut novel, I greatly look forward to his second novel.

Barely a quarter of the way in, I gave this four stars. It deserves five - what a roller-coaster ride through the murky underworld and the shady world of espionage. The bad guy is the good guy and the villains are suitably bad.

Rick Carter is a recruiter - he lines up "staff" for those who are willing to pay big bucks for a job to be done - no questions asked. However, things go a little awry (understatement) when a new client comes on the scene and makes Rick an offer he cannot refuse. Now Rick must use his skills and contacts to ensure that this new client does not achieve their end game - and it will come at a personal cost.

It is so easy to become invested in Rick's narrative as the tale rockets along - sometimes a break-neck speed - to an inevitable outcome, which is not a a tidy affair at all. The body count is high, the violence oft times gratuitous, the humour suitable dark, the undertones noirish, the action non-stop. For a first novel, the reader could not ask for anything more. Except more!

A couple of years ago, I was lucky enough to read a number of books of a similar genre. Podolski is in good company and I look forward to reading more.

A witty thriller that takes you on an adrenaline-rush of a ride with bike chases, shootouts, and double crosses and assassins with a relatable yet flawed protagonist who really gets put through the motions by a syndicate cabal using the protagonist to put together a kill-list. Will he stake his professional ambitions at risk when his family gets caught in the crossfire? The smooth prose is a superb and captivating ride across danger.


Full review to be posted on https://www.bestthrillerbooks.com/kashif-hussain