HEIRS APPARENT

A hit man trying to hide his past gets entangled with people with similarly violent backstories in Thorson’s debut thriller.

A government contract killer, intent on starting a new life, finds an alias among authors’ names in a South Dakota bookstore: Malcolm Winters. He orders corresponding fake identification from a Nashville-based forger known as “Freddy Four-Fingers.” In the Music City, Mal is nursing his third drink at a bluegrass dive when a woman named Fyre Stockton,whom he sees as “every man’s fantasy,”sits next to him. The two share small talk before she announces she has to leave. The next morning, he runs into her at his hotel, and soon they’re in her room, “crashing down upon the mattress.” After they part ways, Mal decides to head to Chicago, where Fyre said she lives. Oddly, once there, he waits over a month to call her, but he’s been busy: He bought a three-apartment building and conned the University of Illinois at Chicago into hiring him as a visiting English professor. He begins seriously dating Fyre but also forms a close relationship with fellow faculty member Vinn. Fyre and Vinn both have a penchant for danger and secrecy, just as Mal does. Then a shocking murder propels Malcolm into a century-old mystery—one that needs to be solved to prevent more killing. Large sections of the book move quickly, as when Mal tails Fyre from her apartment to a deserted building where danger lurks. However, portions involving Mal’s tenant, who suffers from dissociative identity disorder, border on caricature. Mal’s haughty critiques of others are also overdone, be they heavier than him, middle-aged, or cat lovers. Thorson, who lives just outside Chicago, describes the city and its neighborhoods beautifully. However, it seems naïve to suggest that UIC would hire a professor without a background check. It’s also unrealistic that Mal would outfit his kitchen with “a selection of knives, knuckles, canisters of mace, and one wicked, spiked cross between a hammer and a club,” engineered to drop down from the ceiling whenever he yells the word tequila.

An intriguing mystery, although some elements strain credulity.