Synopses & Reviews
AN EPIC MASTERWORK OF INTERNATIONAL INTRIGUE SET IN THE ASHES OF WAR-TORN IRAQ, ITALY, AND AREAS IN BETWEEN.
The Kills is an epic novel of crime and conspiracy told in four books. The story begins with a man on the run and ends with a burned body. Moving across continents, characters, and genres, you wont find a more ambitious or thrilling novel this year.
Camp Liberty is an unmanned staging post in Amrah City, Iraq, the place where the detritus of the war is buried, incinerated, removed from memory. Out of the blue, plans are announced to transform it into the largest military base in the country, code-named the Massive, with a postwar strategy to convert the site for civilian use. Contracted by HOSCO International, the insidious company responsible for overseeing the Massive, Rem Gunnersen finds himself unwittingly commanding a disparate group of economic mercenaries at Camp Liberty when the mysterious Stephen Lawrence Sutler arrives.
As the men are unwittingly pitted against one another by HOSCO, the situation grows increasingly tense. And then everything changes. An explosion. An attack on a regional government office. When the dust settles, it emerges that Sutler has disappeared, and more than fifty million dollars of reconstruction funds are missing. Sutler finds himself accused and on the run. Gunnersen and his men want revenge for months of abuse and misinformation. Out of the chaos Paul Geezler, a man more involved than hes willing to admit, rises to restore order. And then theres the vicious murder of an American student in Italy. A murder that replicates exactly the details of a well-known novel that has found itself into the hands of various characters throughout this gripping tale.
Review
"One of the best novels about the collateral damage of the second U.S.-Iraq war, The Kills is also a tale of horror, fate, the arbitrariness of interpersonal connections, and the mysteries we can never solve. It's by far the most underrated novel on this list and a must for fans of 2666." — Jeff VanderMeer, bestselling author of Annihilation
Review
"Remarkable...Part Olen Steinhauer spy thriller and part Roberto Bolaño art novel...The Kills is a work of intense artistic conviction and demands a serious commitment from its readers. They'll be rewarded." — Booklist
Review
"A sprawling, subterranean, sometimes-surreal novel of the new world order, longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, in which Bolaño and Pynchon wave in passing as we dodge between IEDs and sinister plots....Ambitious and often brilliant." — Kirkus Reviews
About the Author
Richard House is a writer, artist, filmmaker, and teacher. He is the author of two short dark novels, Bruiser and Uninvited, published by Ira Silverberg in the Serpents Tail High Risk series. He is a member of the Chicago-based collaborative Haha, whose work has appeared at the New Museum, New York; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; and the Venice Biennale. He teaches at the University of Birmingham and is the editor of Fatboy Review, a digital literary magazine.