Synopses & Reviews
The multi-award-winning, widely-acclaimed mystery master Donald E. Westlake delivers a masterpiece with this brilliant, laser-sharp tale of the deadly consequences of corporate downsizing.
Burke Devore is a middle-aged manager at a paper company when the cost-cutting ax falls, and he is laid off. Eighteen months later and still unemployed, he puts a new spin on his job search -- with agonizing care, Devore finds the seven men in the surrounding area who could take the job that rightfully should be his, and systematically kills them. Transforming himself from mild-mannered middle manager to ruthless murderer, he discovers skills ne never knew ne had -- and that come to him far too easily.
Review
"A novel of excruciating brilliance....The Ax will gut your soul: it is engrossing and relentless and all too plausible." New York Times Book Review
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"Eerily gripping....The Ax will hold you; you can't forgo finding out how it ends." Jeff Brown, People
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"Satirical, savage, fast-paced....An expertly entertaining suspense thriller [and] a complex morality tale." The Washington Post Book World
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"Westlake...rises effortlessly to the challenge of varying these executions, keeping up the tension...by interspersing them with vignettes of Devore's quietly ruined home life..." Kirkus Reviews
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"A potentially compelling look at the effects of long-term unemployment on the psyche of a man of limited prospects and intellect, the result is merely a step-by-step guide to executing innocent people, generally lacking in conflict, irony, and farcical elements." Library Journal