ROBBIE MCNEIL'S HIT LIST

The partners in an Indiana karaoke bar who are “queerplatonic soulmates” double as hit men—sorry, hit persons. And that’s only the opening premise of this criminal romp.

Robin Ann McNeil has a rare combination of skills and limitations—she can read people a lot better than words or music, and she’s utterly incurious—that made her a perfect choice for her mentor, James, to train and hire out as a contract killer specializing in meticulously faked accidents. Dee Machado, Robbie’s “transmasc lesbian” housemate, partner, and friend, but not her lover, is a sniper who shares both her day and night gigs. Now that they’re branching out still further by planning to stage a musical Robbie wrote and Dee will star in, James, who’s stopped handling Robbie, emerges with a new client for her: Mr. Clark, who offers to pay her $20,000 if she kills the gambler Xavier Landerman, about whom he knows virtually nothing, within the month. Robbie’s first job is to identify the target and track him down. Against all her instincts, she gets so interested in him that she keeps putting off the job, which turns out to be a big mistake. Meanwhile, James presses her to take on another contract against financier Kyle Lynch. The two jobs inevitably conflict with each other, with Robbie and Dee’s day jobs, and with their musical, which runs into serious logistical problems of its own. Luckily, politically minded businessman Fletcher Ingram steps up to help finance the show—but is that such a lucky development after all? And how much sympathy will readers accord hired killers?

Heath’s brightly written debut ends with an extra treat: a Reading Group Guide whose questions are actually worth discussing.