Going South - Tom Larsen

So happy to be on the blog tour for this book today.

Description 

Harry wants out. The daily grind has ground him down and his dreams are fading fast. Desperate times call for desperate measures and as a last-ditch resort he fakes his own death to claim on the insurance planning to set himself up on Easy Street.

Wife Lena has her doubts. Harry’s always had a hand in the hustle, but going for broke was never his style. She goes along for the ride just to see how far he’ll take it, down Mexico way, returning “widowed” and soon-to-be wealthy, waits out the weeks till they can reunite.

Only Harry sounds funny on the phone. And she knows how he gets when he’s been drinking.

Then there’s the irreversible nature of death to consider.

Harry’s scheme is seamless but the schemer has a flaw, and instead of getting what he wants might just get what he deserves.

'Going South explores conscience and consequence with a slowly building tension . . . the reader feels like they're hanging on a frayed rope with no idea when it might snap'
-ARC Reviewer

Review

When the book began I found it to be written in such an authentic fast paced American style of dialogue, that I wasn't sure I was going to be able to stick with, but I'm so glad I did.

Harry hates his job and his life and he wants to jack it all in and live a life of leisure. Except his wife, Lena, a mental health nurse and he have no other income, so he can't. Harry comes up with a plan to fake his death down in Mexico with the help of his wife. But to do that they need a body...

Lena begins the book with such a wonderful wry sense of humour. I felt I wanted to take notes and be able to recite some of these one liners myself someday. Maybe it comes from working in a mental health hospital that she's got this defence in humour. All I know is it is just genius comedic writing. I say she begins that way, because as the toll of what they've done becomes more and more pressing on her, some of that sassiness that was so great in the beginning is lost.

Told from the perspective of two killers and what the guilt of that can do is the basis of this story. It felt like real life as they go through plan B, D and D (and more) when things don't work out according to their plan. The book has a real raw American dialogue at times and I did have to google a few things which I was not familiar with, others, I just went with them.

The end was not what I expected. I'm not even sure it's what I hoped for because by then I was as wrung out by it all as Harry and Lena were.

I'm giving this book 4 out of 5 stars. My thanks to Random Things Tours for the invite to the blog tour and the ARC to review.