Customer Reviews

Pay Off

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The lesson of Stephen Leather's PAY OFF is that revenge, rather than being a dish best eaten cold, is perhaps best not consumed at all.

As I sat down to write this review, I realized that the author didn't give a name to his novel's hero. I've flipped back through the pages to ensure that I didn't miss something; I apparently didn't, so let's call him "Mac" because he's a Scotsman.

Mac, a co-partner of Scottish Corporate Advisors, is a financier with a grudge. His father had managed an investment trust, Scottish Commercial Overseas Trust, until it was hijacked by Ronnie Laing and and Alan Kyle, the former a vicious drug dealer and the latter a specialist in hostile corporate acquisitions. During the SCOT takeover, Mac's mother died in an auto accident, perhaps arranged by Laing as a warning to her husband. In any case, the day after losing control of his company, Mac's despondent father blew his own brains out with a shotgun. Mac wants revenge, and plans an intricate sting that will frame Laing and Kyle for the theft of a large cocaine shipment from the IRA, an outfit you don't want to annoy. To that end, Mac enlists the help of a high-end courtesan, a car thief, an ex-SAS mercenary, and a driver who once worked for Laing. But the best laid plans oft go awry, and by the time Mac is dumping bodies into a Highland loch, events have spun out of control. Don't try this at home.

This is only my third Leather thriller, with five more on the shelf to read. So far, the protagonists have been nominally law-abiding citizens forced by circumstance to the far side of the law. PAY OFF, at 240 paperbacked pages, is relatively short. While perhaps offering lo-carb plot and character development, this thriller met expectations for concept and action. However, as an otherwise honest Brit, Mac's knowledge of criminal activities, which allows him to set up the scam, seemed unseemingly comprehensive. I mean, I wouldn't know where to start. Perhaps Mac read too many crime novels.

The book suggests one authored early in Leather's writing career, and perhaps kept on the shelf until it was needed to meet a publisher's deadline. However, it's a good and quick read for a plane trip or day at the beach.

all fans of stephen leather will enjoy this book as usual his caracters shine . but it will seem a little short