Penzler Pick, April 2002: First-time novelist Kurt Corriher makes his debut with a theme that"s hard to beat when it comes to offering satisfying suspense: revenge for a ghastly crime that is not just wantonly committed, but that may have been commissioned by shadowy forces close to home. John Pavlak"s wife, Judith, from whom he"s recently been separated, and his 4-year-old daughter, Tasha, are blown up in their car one windy March morning by a professional assassin. Judith was an investigative reporter who"d made enemies over the years and might therefore have been a target for violence. But Tasha"s presence on the seat next to her mother, when she was meant to be securely tucked up at her daycare center, could not possibly have been planned. Pavlak, once a highly decorated member of the Special Forces in Vietnam and now the pacific director of athletics for a small North Carolina college, is--suddenly--a broken man. All that holds him together is the desire to find whoever is responsible for Judith"s and Tasha"s deaths and then... what? Not surprisingly, he"s feeling murderous himself, and he has more than enough arrogance and anger, plus the necessary professional skills, to ensure that the FBI and the CIA--both now involved--must try to stop him the moment he crosses any line leading him too close to the secrets they"re protecting. What"s more, Pavlak has sufficient money to indulge himself in his grief-fueled quest, even as it takes him across Europe and home again. He is the child of autocratic industrialist Gustav Pavlak, a man whose wealth and influence he has long sought to avoid, a man whose regard for his older son is hidden behind a screen of relentless scorn. Someone to Kill unfolds at a believable pace, with its characters behaving as real people might if real people were to be plunked down in the midst of such scorching melodrama. John Pavlak is no superhero, though he"s a credible one. Facing down an array of both familiar and unfamiliar demons as believable as he is, Pavlak is a protagonist whose raw determination drips off nearly every page. --Otto Penzler