Kill Your Boss (A John Lago Thriller)

The concept was definitely interesting! But instead of expanding on it, the story just became a rehashed spy story. It's alright for a quick read.

Interesting concept but it went too long.

Kill Your Boss is certainly a title that instantly catches your eye when looking for something to read on a shelf. Who hasn't worked somewhere, sometime in your life and fantasised about doing that? But this isn't a bully victim has had enough of an evil boss, frustrated with the system that doesn't work and decides to stop the torment by doing away with their boss. What Kill Your Boss instead is an instruction manual by a hit man to new trainees about how to cope on the job and deal with the organisation that has recruited them from juvenile prisons to go undercover as interns in major corporations where they can get close enough to kill a target and make it look like an accident, or serial killer, mob hit, whatever is required. Since John is approaching his mid twenties, his age at passing for someone who will work for free and just take whatever is thrown at him in an office is fast approaching being implausible. He knows the organisation will either kill him when he completes his final assignment or let him retire on an isolated beach somewhere. John takes the reader step by step through his final assignment from day one arriving at a law firm as an intern. He also recounts past assignments throughout the story as well as flashbacks to his childhood, including being recruited from his jail cell after he murdered his abusive foster parents. He disputes Hollywood myths of his profession as he tells his tale as well. The book is more of a through the eyes of the narrator style flashback and as it happens style novel than an instruction manual. In fact the instructional manual scenario doesn't entirely make a lot of sense but still being addressed as a hit man trainee is a fun scenario for a reader, at least I thought so.The story is fairly predictable, you'll work out what is going on before John does. There's sort of two stories in here, the main one involving the final assignment and manual, then a sort of pretty long epilogue. I think the story may have been better off ending when the main story did, mainly as the implausibility factor got higher and higher as the epilogue went on. Kill Your Boss is not a realistic tale at all, like an 80's action film with its fight scenes, which is more fun as it is pointing out how those sorts of heroes are implausible within its story.But you read a fiction novel to be entertained. This one certainly does that and has the want to keep turning the pages until the end factor, well at least until the untitled epilogue. John is also a very likeable character as well. I'd definitely read a second book by Shane Kuhn if he writes one.

I won a proof copy of the book from a GoodReads FirstReads giveaway and this is the copy that I have read and will be basing the review on but keep in mind that the book may have changed slightly from this copy to the actual release copy. I WILL be buying the final release copy of the book when I can.The first thing I love about the book is the cover, it's a very striking cover and is such a strong image that fits the book down to a tee. My proof copy had a back cover and the image in yellow but the final release copy is the reverse, yellow cover with a black image, personally I prefer the black cover as it's a very dark book and fits what's within the cover better in my opinionThe second thing I love about this book is everything contained with the fab cover!The book revolves around John Lagos and John Lagos is a hitman (think James Bond with none of the glitz and with a lot more weaponry), a skilled assassin who works for a company called HR (Human Resources Inc.) who sends assassin's into company under the guise of the lowly intern so they can secretly infiltrate the company (in this case a law firm) to get close to a target within that company. This story is about John Lagos last assignment for HR before he retires at 25 years of age. He is sent into a law firm to take out one of the partners but getting into the company is one thing but getting to his target is a something of a challenge for more reasons than one that I can't go into without giving away spoilers but take it from me nothing seems to go to plan!Kill Your Boss is written in such a way that it's like reading an action movie. I know some people haven't liked this book for just that reason as normally a book written as 'a movie' doesn't work but in my opinion in this case I think it does but I can't really explain why that is, it just works. It's written as a memoir where John will tell you (you as in future interns) all about his final assignment, he'll go through the rules of being an assassins and try to show you where he went wrong so you won't, the trouble is that he consistently breaks his own rules himself! You also get some chapters that aren't written from John's point of view and are in the form of FBI conversation reports. They read almost like a screenplay, I didn't quite understand the point of them but they do break up the story nicely and allow you to take a breath before diving back into the story.Shane Kuhn's writing style is very easy to read and he has written this book in such a way that it just flows from page to page without you having to stop and take a moment to consider what has just happened like you do with some overly described books. I'm not saying that this book isn't descriptive as it really is (especially a certain scene with a very dead and badly beaten body over which I apparently made some odd noises that woke my husband up while I was reading it late one night) but the descriptive work is easy to read and understand without having to think about it. The book has some very violent scenes but these are tempered with moments of sheer humour too, it can be very tongue in cheek and doesn't take itself too seriously which is good as I don't think it would work at all if it did.The characters are fantastic especially the lead John, a young man who has been an assassin for a long time after HR found him as child who'd had a very harsh and hard childhood to that point. As someone who has been through a lot of horrible events in his life being an assassin is all he really knows and that in itself has warped him to a degree. He most definitely is not your average hero but that adds to the appeal. I really got to understand John throughout the book (and through series of flashbacks showing various points in his life up to the current events in question) and I found myself liking him a whole lot. Granted, he's not a straight cut guy, he likes a drink, does drugs (and likes drugging other people), gets into fights for living and murders people for money.As for John's relationships with other characters within the book, it's the intense relationship he has with his 'handler' within HR which is probably the best relationship in the book. Bob from HR is everything that John doesn't want to become and he's not afraid to let it show, John absolutely HATES him and so did I, I so wanted Bob to get what he really deserved. There were times I would have liked to thump the guy myself! John's relationship with co-worker from the law firm Alice is quite sweet despite the events surrounding them, it also get pretty saucy at times too and Alice's own secret, while not entirely a surprise, only adds to the immense pickle that John find himself in while trying to figure out who his target actually is. The love story side of things is a bit predictable but it's never going to change John's character despite the fact that the book tries to say that John is changed by his 'love' for Alice. If he really did love her he wouldn't be drugging her every five minutes and would be treating as the love of his life instead of an easy disposed of object (which he does, a lot!). It all stretches believability a bit but the romance is needed to soften John's harsh character, to make him seem more human. You can tell that John doesn't really understand how to be in a relationship which is proven by the way he treats Alice and how he tries to keep her at arms length. To be honest if I had been in Alice's position I'd have told John to get lost but sometimes, as many of us ladies know, you just can't seem to stay away from that bad boy no matter how badly they treat you, I know as I've been there and done that.All in all, Kill Your Boss is a very interesting read, it's different to anything I've read before and I really liked the originality of it all. It's super easy to get into and will hold your attention right the way through the book. It made me gasp and ooooooo on many occasion but I will say if you don't like reading about violence then this may not be the title for you and I will also point out that there is swearing throughout the book. I would say that if you are a fan of TV shows like Dexter then this will be the book for you! I am super excited that there is going to be a sequel and am very interested to find out where John can go after the rather spectacular finale to the book, very interested indeed.

My edition has the title Kill Your Boss but it's also called The Intern's Handbook.The concept is a good one - that young trained assassins are pretending to be interns (young unpaid trainees) in major firms in order to get close enough to a major business figure to kill that person and make it look like an enemy - mafia boss etc. - killed them. The narrator John is twenty-five, on his last case, when he starts the story.The book has to be taken as a comedy or satire, with a higher body count than just about any thriller you've read, gadgets, weapons and Kevlar galore. I don't know how legal it would be in Europe for someone to do unpaid work for six months, as it just seems like exploitation and especially in a high-rent city like New York people would find it hard to live. The bosses are all apparent sociopaths - maybe that's how they get to be on top of a business - and of course the boss of the assassin firm, HR Inc, is as bad as any.John sets out some rules such as "be forgettable" and manages to break them, untypically falling for a girl at the same firm. Obvious lying and double-dealing is going on all around him and he gives us a story of his upbringing laced with pathos and unpleasantness. Not for the squeamish, but I am sure we can all learn something from the tale, even if it's just to be kind to new staff.

I was looking in to buying this book after reading "The Intern's Handbook: A Thriller". When I read the description on this book, and then the sample snippet, it looks like it is the same book, only way more expensive. Am I missing something here? I am confused.