Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Release Date: April 8, 2014
# of Pages: 276
Book Format: ARC
Synopsis: Interns are invisible. That’s the mantra behind HR, Inc., an elite "placement agency" that doubles as a network of assassins-for-hire, taking down high-profile executives who wouldn't be able to remember an intern’s name if their lives depended on it.
At the ripe old age of twenty-five, John Lago is already New York City’s most successful hit man. He’s also an intern at a prestigious Manhattan law firm, clocking eighty hours a week getting coffee, answering phones, and doing all the grunt work no one else wants to do. But he isn't trying to claw his way to the top of the corporate food chain. He was hired to assassinate one of the firm’s heavily guarded partners. His internship is the perfect cover, enabling him to gather intel and gain access in order to pull off a clean, untraceable hit.
The Intern’s Handbook is John Lago's unofficial survival guide for new recruits at HR, Inc. (Rule #4: "Learn how to make the perfect cup of coffee: you make an exec the best coffee he’s ever had, and he will make sure you’re at his desk every morning for a repeat performance. That’s repetitive exposure, which begets access and trust. 44% of my kills came from my superior coffee-making abilities.")
Part confessional, part how-to, the handbook chronicles John’s final assignment, a twisted thrill ride in which he is pitted against the toughest—and sexiest—adversary he’s ever faced: Alice, an FBI agent assigned to take down the same law partner he’s been assigned to kill.
My Review:
I received this book from the publisher and this is my honest review.
The Intern’s Handbook by Shane Kuhn follows a young man who has never known anything but death. It’d be one thing if this death was coincidental, but John Lago, our main character, is an assassin which means he is behind all of the death he deals with. Lago lost both of his parents or so he thought at birth and at a young age was recruited by Bob, who trains him to be the fully equipped assassin he is today.
This novel is set up as a guide book for all of the new “interns” that are beginning their careers as assassins just as John did 25 years prior. To give you some background, the company Lago works for is called Human Resources, INC all of the employees aka assassins are disguised as interns whenever the person they are hired to kill works. This novel is set in an office building where John pretends to be an intern while he’s working on getting close to his target. Things go crazy from there.
Characters need to make you feel for them and love them while reading to make for a good book. I felt something whether it be hate, pity or love for each and every character which is a good sign. The main character comes off as a hard and a no feeling type of guy, but buy the end we see him break, we see emotions which makes him extremely indelible as a character. My heart breaks for him quite a few times and that's how you know you’re reading a good book.
Kuhn does a fantastic job describing all of the action scenes. I get nervous reading action scenes in book for fear of being bored but everything within this novel is so bloody and gorey I couldn’t tear my eyes away during those scenes I was so into it the entire time. Everything was so pictureable as If I was watching a movie in my head while reading.
Not only is this book filled with death and gunfire but there is also a lot of laughs and even a hint of love mixed in the pot to make one hell of a read. I cannot wait to dive into book two to see what is in store there because this book was wrapped up nicely enough to be a standalone so I’m really interested to see what's next. If you read this book then you know what I mean when I say I hope there is more of Marcus and Alice.
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