The Kill Clause - Lisa Unger

For a short standalone story, Lisa Unger manages to pack a lot into the 70 pages of this crime thriller about Paige, a hit woman working for a shadowy organisation she knows only as "the Company". The story opens with her failing an assignment to kill a wealthy man, a hedge fund manager. It should have been an easy job, all the ground work and preparations taken care of in order to be able to slip into his house undetected, but at the last minute she is interrupted by the man's child who was not expected to be there.

Nora, her boss, is not happy. She thinks that Paige might be losing her edge, softening, but maybe Paige has other things on her mind like the troubling nuisance calls she is receiving from her ex, Julian, also a hit man for the organisation and a cryptic message that could be a threat or a warning. Or maybe she has taken her eye off the ball while involved with the young new recruit, Drake, she is mentoring and sleeping with. Or both. Either way, when Nora isn't happy, she is liable to invoke the 'kill clause', and remove anyone she deems a risk to the organisation.

There is not a great deal of information or background on the people she is killing and why someone might want them dead, but not it's not Paige's job to know, so that is understandable. She just has to do what she is told and not mess up. She ought to be hardened to the nature of her work by now except this one hasn't been done, and it's thrown up some confusion, so there is some degree of self-questioning. There is nothing too deep here, The Kill Clause is short, about half the length of a novella probably, so you can't expect too much other than an entertaining and punchy thriller, where even the improbable twist has to be expected as part of the deal for a Christmas themed story.


Reading notes: The Kill Clause by Lisa Unger is published by Amazon Original Stories. Having been 'obliged' to take out Amazon Prime, I discovered that there was some advantage in being given access to some free Kindle books. This seasonal story was included as a bonus to the free selection for November. Having never read Lisa Unger before, this was a good introduction, a sharp and entertaining little story with character and impact.

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