THE INTERN’S HANDBOOK. (2014). Shane Kuhn. ***.The interns referred to are those young law school graduates who go to work for law firms and work for nothing in order to maybe get a real job. It is a way of infiltrating the firm for the writer of this manual – who is not a law school grad, but has served often enough as an intern in other firms that he can get by. His name is John Lago, and he is a member of a placement firm named HR, Inc. He is about twenty-years old, and is already the most successful hit man in the city. This handbook chronicles his job of getting close to one of the partners of the firm and assassinating him. Trouble is, he isn’t told which member of the firm it is. Along the way to his finding out and executing his task, he meets up with another sassy, bright intern who turns out to be a plant by the FBI. So…there are a few adventures along the way. In the meantime, John tells his stories in the form of “how to chapters” for the benefit of new recruits to his organization. It’s mostly tongue in cheek, but it’s hard to maintain that posture for very long and keep the reader’s attention. I took a little while to adjust to this book written in the first person - well thirty pages or so...I then read the rest of it in pretty much a single day. I find that I like an anti-hero more and more these days and found John worryingly easy to like. Kuhn has written an entertaining book which certainly drew me in but isn't going to win any awards. I will probably read the prequel but I'd speculate that the best Shane Kuhn novel is still to come.
What do You think about Töte Deinen Chef (2014)?
Might be a fun summer read for some, but the tone was too disaffected for me.
—portboy88
I feel weird saying I like a novel about assassins, but this is pretty good!
—Asdf
