Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: Family Money by Chad Zunker

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!

 

·         Publisher: ‎ Thomas & Mercer (March 1, 2022)

·         Language: ‎ English

·         Paperback: ‎ 239 pages

·         ISBN-10: ‎ 1542026164

·         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.