Family Money by Chad
Zunker (Thomas & Mercer, 2022) is a stand-alone from the author of the
David Adams legal thrillers and the Sam Callahan series. This is a mix of a
domestic thriller and a legal thriller and a fine mix it is.
Alex Mahan is
leading a dream life in Austin, Texas. He is happily married to his high school
sweetheart Taylor, they have two beautiful children, and his new tech company
is growing beyond expectations. He has his supportive father-in-law to thank
for the latter. Joe Dobson was a successful lawyer who always backed Alex, even
before he married Joe’s only child. It was Joe who found the money to establish
Alex’s start-up and to market it properly.
On a family vacation
to Mexico, Joe is seized by three men in a busy marketplace and dragged to a
van in front of a crowd. The local police tell Alex that kidnappings are quite
common and to go home and wait for a ransom note. The note doesn’t come.
Instead the burned-out van with a charred body in it turns up. The body can’t
be identified but Joe’s wedding ring is in the ashes. The family is shattered.
Alex is the
executor of Joe’s estate and as he sorts through bank information, he finds no
records of the money Joe gave him for his company. Joe’s financial planner did
not know about the venture capital Joe invested and was startled to learn he
had that much money. Alex begins looking for the source of his company’s
funding and unexpectedly walks into a hornets’ nest.
This story reminded me of Linwood Barclay’s thrillers. An ordinary person goes about his basic boring life until everything suddenly turns sideways. Some of the plot elements are shiny from overuse but like a good cook faced with a refrigerator full of leftovers Zunker tosses them into his blender with some original ingredients and turns out a fresh and absorbing thriller. Recommended!
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Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
(March 1, 2022)
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Language: English
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Paperback: 239 pages
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ISBN-10: 1542026164
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ISBN-13: 978-1542026161
Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2022
Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.
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