Kirkus Review of Last Hope For Hire

Kirkus Reviews has posted their review of my novel, and I’m happy to share it in its entirety below.

An involving adventure in which the protagonist’s commitment to his child drives the story.

A former “super-soldier operator for hire” is forced back into the field to pay for his epileptic son’s medical treatments in Wilcox’s debut thriller.

There’s nothing that 40-something retiree Allen Moran would rather do than sunbathe while floating in his pool all day. But his son Benjamin’s chronic medical condition and the threat of his health insurance being cut off guide him back to his old career as a mercenary. Eamon Tor, the world’s first trillionaire and Moran’s former college roommate, makes him an ethically questionable offer that he can’t refuse: He wants Moran to destroy a competitor’s cell-editing technology called Eden Therapy. It’s the result of billions of dollars in research and is said to have cured its creator, 80-something Olivia Rusk, of stage 4 brain cancer. But Tor claims that Eden Therapy has devastating side effects, including paranoia, megalomania, and psychosis. If Moran can break into the heavily fortified research facility, wreck the therapy equipment, copy the technical plans, and retrieve a doctor who’s working undercover on Tor’s behalf, then the trillionaire promises to cover all of Benjamin’s treatments. The mission doesn’t go well for Moran, who’s captured and learns some shocking truths, and his rescue is up to his comrades in arms Haley, the daughter of a former colleague, and Kyle Thomas “MeatTank” Johnson, who’s “tall, lanky, and oozing with victorious swagger.” First-time author Wilcox takes his cue from vintage SF by presenting the novel’s high-tech, futuristic setting in a straightforward, matter-of-fact way; in the opening pages, for instance, a pre-retirement Moran is seen on a mission to wipe out “a bunch of robots…controlled by an evil dictator going village to village killing people.” One of the book’s most intriguing characters is Carol, Tor’s virtual assistant, who plays a more integral role in Eamon’s organization than merely greeting visitors. Although the banter could have been sharper, it does clearly define the relationships between various characters, specifically those between Moran and his colleagues.

An involving adventure in which the protagonist’s commitment to his child drives the story.