Synopses & Reviews
The blistering new novel from the author of the multi-award-nominated The ProfessionalsLaukkanen is one of the best young thriller writers working today” (Richmond Times-Dispatch).
When youve got nothing left, youve got nothing left to lose.
Cass County, Minnesota: A sheriffs deputy steps out of a diner on a rainy summer evening, and a few minutes later, hes lying dead in the mud. When BCA agent Kirk Stevens arrives on the scene, he discovers local authorities have taken into custody a single suspect: A hysterical young woman found sitting by the body, holding the deputys own gun. She has no ID, speaks no English. A mystery woman.
The mystery only deepens from there, as Stevens and Carla Windermere, his partner in the new joint BCAFBI violent crime task force, find themselves on the trail of a massive international kidnapping and prostitution operation. Before the two agents are done, they will have traveled over half the country, from Montana to New York, and come face-to-face not only with the most vicious man either of them has ever encounteredbut two of the most courageous women.
They are sisters, stolen ones. But just because youre a victim doesnt mean you have to stay one.
Review
Praise for KILL FEE
“Blistering pace and a stomach-turning homicide-for-hire scheme . . . Laukkanen keeps readers engaged with a serpentine plot that writhes through high-tech and low-life corruption.” —Publishers Weekly
Praise for CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE
“Fans of crime thrillers shouldnt miss this one or anything else with Laukkanens name on the cover. The writing is so crisp, the pages almost want to turn themselves. Hes a terrific storyteller.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Action-packed and powerful. Criminal Enterprise showcases Laukkanens original storytelling. We cant wait to find out which everyman-turned-criminal Stevens and Windermere tangle with next.” —South Florida Sun-Sentinel
“A bloody good thriller.” —Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Review
“Fasten your seat belts, Owen Laukkanen’s The Professionals is one heck of a wild ride. A first-class thriller by a terrific new voice.”—John Lescroart
Review
“Really terrific – characters that live and breathe, a just-right story, and chills aplenty. Highly recommended." —Lee Child
Review
“Smoothly written, with a slam-bang ending, The Professionals is a brutally beautiful piece of work. Owen Laukkanen takes us straight into the hearts of the bad guys, and what we find there is something very complicated and still very bad. The cops are just as complex as the villains, and Laukkanen nicely captures the personal and sexual tension between Kirk Stevens and Carla Windermere as they track down the gang: this is a pairing that will wear well.” —John Sandford
Review
“A coiling plot, insightful characters, and a tale fraught with danger. What more could any thriller reader want? The Professionals has it all. It’s top-notch entertainment.” —Steve Berry
Review
“A page-turning blend of classic suspense fiction and chillingly postmodern amorality. Ingenious plotting, perfect-pitch characterization and evocative sense of place combine to create an impressive debut.” —Jonathan Kellerman
Review
“A spectacular debut novel written with intelligence, toughness, and heart. Owen Laukkanen is a writer to watch.” —Thomas Perry, author of The Butcher's Boy and The Informant
Review
“The Professionals is a high-octane adrenaline and gunpowder-fueled rocket ride across the country from Seattle to Miami to Detroit and points in-between. What is remarkable about Owen Laukkanen’s debut is how skillfully he makes the reader care for his characters on both sides of the law. An excellent first novel!” —C. J. Box
Review
“The Professionals grips you on page one and doesn’t let go until the last, satisfying page. Laukkanen provides plenty of twists along the way while developing a well-juggled array of complex and evolving characters. Highly recommended.” —Alafair Burke, author of Long Gone
Review
Praise for KILL FEE
“Laukkanens fast-paced, no-frills style is brisk, blunt, and fueled entirely by adrenaline.”—Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review
“Enthralling . . . Kill Fee works well as an in-depth police procedural and an insightful look at amorality and greed. Laukkanen employs the same strengths of brisk plotting and incisive character studies that he established in his first two novels.”—Associated Press
“[Kill Fee is] further proof that Laukkanen is one of the best young thriller writers working today. His pace is relentless, his plots are satisfyingly intricate and his prose is cut-to-the-bone lean . . . Perhaps as importantly, his books boast social relevance. Like David Baldacci, a veteran of the thinking mans thriller genre, Laukkanen understands the value of tying an exhilarating adventure back to the pressing concerns of the real world.”—Richmond Times-Dispatch
“Just two books in [The Professionals and Criminal Enterprise] and Laukkanen is a master at elevating stakes and keeping those prize pages turning. Book No. 3 in the Stevens and Windermere series, Kill Fee, is even better.” —Sarah Weinman, National Post
“Blistering pace and a stomach-turning homicide-for-hire scheme . . . Laukkanen keeps readers engaged with a serpentine plot that writhes through high-tech and low-life corruption.” —Publishers Weekly
“Pulse-pounding…you wont put this third Stevens and Windermere installment down unfinished.”—Kirkus Reviews
Praise for CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE:
“[Criminal Enterprise is] one hell of a wild ride - full of corkscrews, cutbacks, blind curves, and barrel rolls. The pace is quick, the plot is intricate, and the stakes start out high and increase exponentially over the course of the tale.”—Crimespree
“Laukkanen, one of the best thriller writers to emerge in the wake of the Great Recession, has a keen understanding of what readers expect in a crime thriller. His pace is relentless, and he shifts expertly between his characters perspectives, short chapter by short chapter, as he hurls readers toward an inevitably explosive finale.” --Richmond Times-Dispatch
“"Criminal Enterprise" showcases Laukkanen's original storytelling. We can't wait to find out which everyman-turned-criminal Carla and Kirk tangle with next.”—South Florida Sun-Sentinel
"Fans of crime thrillers shouldn't miss this one or anything else with Laukkanen's name on the cover. The writing is so crisp, the pages almost want to turn themselves. He's a terrific storyteller."—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Laukkanen as clearly avoided the sophomore slump, deftly alternating taut narratives and building toward a grand climax that's completely organic to the story. Windermere, Stevens, and Tomlin are strikingly realistic characters sharing varying degrees of dissatisfaction with their lives, and readers will identify with their struggles to reconcile their own needs with their responsibilities to others."—Booklist (starred review)
“Criminal Enterprise is a bloody good thriller” --Ft. Worth Star-Telegram
“Laukkanen keeps the tension high…this is a suspenseful ride.”--Houston Chronicle
“Owen Laukkanen: Latest novel is Criminal Enterprise. Laukkanens 2012 debut The Professionals was my favorite debut of the year and seems to have set a tone for his series—focusing on the impact of the economic downturn. While that might not seem to be the basis of an exciting thriller, Laukkanen has made it so. His are action-packed stories that also are contemporary cautionary tales. Laukkanen also gives a vivid look at amorality, entitlement and consequences.”—Mystery Scene
“If youve ever wanted to write a terrific crime novel, Criminal Enterprise could well be the blueprint.” --New York Journal of Books
“This high-voltage thriller practically deserves a warning label on its cover... the writing is so crisp you can almost hear it crunch between your teeth, and the action builds to a jaws-clenching finish.”-- Read Me Deadly
“The Professionals was highly and rightly praised...Criminal Enterprise is even better. Laukkanen has a plot line built on the death of the American Dream.” -- The Globe and Mail
Review
Praise for THE STOLEN ONES
“...breakneck pacing, scarily plausible evils, and steadily rising stakes...”—Christine Tran, Booklist
“From start to finish, a fast-moving and satisfying thriller starring a likable if unlikely duo....The two agents have worked together before (Kill Fee, 2014, etc.), and if there's justice in the literary world, they will team up on many more cases.” —Kirkus Review
Praise for KILL FEE
“Laukkanens fast-paced, no-frills style is brisk, blunt, and fueled entirely by adrenaline.”—Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review
“Enthralling . . . Kill Fee works well as an in-depth police procedural and an insightful look at amorality and greed. Laukkanen employs the same strengths of brisk plotting and incisive character studies that he established in his first two novels.”—Associated Press
“[Kill Fee is] further proof that Laukkanen is one of the best young thriller writers working today. His pace is relentless, his plots are satisfyingly intricate and his prose is cut-to-the-bone lean . . . Perhaps as importantly, his books boast social relevance. Like David Baldacci, a veteran of the thinking mans thriller genre, Laukkanen understands the value of tying an exhilarating adventure back to the pressing concerns of the real world.”—Richmond Times-Dispatch
“Just two books in [The Professionals and Criminal Enterprise] and Laukkanen is a master at elevating stakes and keeping those prize pages turning. Book No. 3 in the Stevens and Windermere series, Kill Fee, is even better.” —Sarah Weinman, National Post
“Blistering pace and a stomach-turning homicide-for-hire scheme . . . Laukkanen keeps readers engaged with a serpentine plot that writhes through high-tech and low-life corruption.”—Publishers Weekly
“Pulse-pounding…you wont put this third Stevens and Windermere installment down unfinished.”—Kirkus Reviews
Review
Praise for Criminal Enterprise
“Fans of crime thrillers shouldnt miss this one or anything else with Laukkanens name on the cover. The writing is so crisp, the pages almost want to turn themselves. Hes a terrific storyteller.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Action-packed and powerful. Criminal Enterprise showcases Laukkanens original storytelling. We cant wait to find out which everyman-turned-criminal Stevens and Windermere tangle with next.” —South Florida Sun-Sentinel
“A bloody good thriller.” —Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Synopsis
The new Stevens and Windermere novel from one of the most dazzlingly acclaimed new writers in crime fiction.
The billionaire picked a heck of a way to die. On a beautiful Saturday in downtown Saint Paul, Minnesota, state investigator Kirk Stevens and FBI special agent Carla Windermere, witness the assassination of one of the states wealthiest men. The shooter is a young man, utterly unremarkable
except for the dead look in his eyes.
And its only the beginning. The events of that sunny springtime day will lead Stevens and Windermere across the country, down countless blind alleys, and finally to a very flourishing twenty-first century enterprise: a high-tech murder-for-hire social media website. But just who has the dead-eyed shooter targeted next
and whos choosing his victims?
Synopsis
A Kirkus Reviews Best Fiction Selection for 2012
Four friends, recent college graduates, caught in a terrible job market, joke about turning to kidnapping to survive. And then, suddenly, it's no joke. For two years, the strategy they devise-quick, efficient, low risk-works like a charm. Until they kidnap the wrong man.
Now two groups they've very much wanted to avoid are after them-the law, in the form of veteran state investigator Kirk Stevens and hotshot young FBI agent Carla Windermere, and an organized-crime outfit looking for payback. As they all crisscross the country in deadly pursuit and a series of increasingly explosive confrontations, each of them is ultimately forced to recognize the truth: The true professionals, cop or criminal, are those who are willing to sacrifice . . . everything.
A finger-burning page-turner, filled with twists, surprises, and memorably complex characters, The Professionals marks the arrival of a remarkable new writer.
Synopsis
The new Stevens and Windermere novel from the author of the dazzlingly acclaimed The Professionals—“one of the best debuts of the year” (Mystery Scene). From the outside, Carter Tomlin’s life looked perfect: a big house, pretty wife, two kids—a St. Paul success story. But Tomlin has a secret. He’s lost his job, the bills are mounting, and that perfect life is hanging by a thread. Desperate, he robs a bank. Then he robs another.
As the red flags start to go up, FBI Special Agent Carla Windermere homes in on Tomlin from one direction, while Minnesota state investigator Kirk Stevens picks up the trail from another. The two cops haven’t talked since their first case together, but that’s all going to change very quickly.
Because Carter Tomlin’s decided he likes robbing banks. And it’s not because of the money, not anymore. Tomlin has guns and a new taste for violence. And he’s not quitting anytime soon.
Synopsis
The new Stevens and Windermere novel from one of the most dazzlingly acclaimed new writers in crime fiction.
The billionaire picked a heck of a way to die.
On a beautiful Saturday in downtown Saint Paul, Minnesota, state investigator Kirk Stevens and his occasional colleague FBI special agent Carla Windermere witness the assassination of one of the states wealthiest men. The shooter is a young man, utterly unremarkableexcept in his eyes. There is something very wrong in his eyes.
And its only the beginning. The events of that sunny springtime day will lead Stevens and Windermere across the country, down countless blind alleys, and finally to a very flourishing twenty-first-century enterprise: a high-tech murder-for-hire social media website. But just who has the dead-eyed shooter targeted next . . . and whos choosing his victims? Thats where things get complicated.
About the Author
After graduation, OWEN LAUKKANEN answered a craigslist ad, and for the next three years he was the tournament reporter for a poker website, traveling from the luxurious casinos of Monaco and Macao to the sketchiest cardrooms of Atlantic City. A resident of Toronto, he is now at work on a second book featuring Stevens and Windermere. You can learn more about Owen Laukkanen at www.owenlaukkanen.com.