Owen Laukkanen reunites the team of FBI agent Carla Windermere and Kirk Stevens of Minnesota's Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (from 2012's The Professionals
) in Criminal Enterprise.
Windermere and her partner are tracking a gang of bank robbers whose
crimes keep getting bigger; while her colleagues are investigating
typical criminals, she suspects the main perpetrator is an accountant.
Meanwhile, Stevens has taken a desk job investigating cold cases so that
he can spend more time with his family. He's busy coaching his teenage
daughter's basketball team, until he bumps into Windermere and realizes
he has a strange connection to the robberies she's investigating.Criminal Enterprise is a fast-paced thriller that keeps the reader guessing as Stevens and Windermere narrow in on the robbers' identities. Adding to the tension are alternating chapters told from the point of view of the main bank robber--detailing his transformation from an ordinary businessman into something much more deadly.
Laukkanen has done an excellent job creating an entirely plausible criminal--a man who would do anything to protect his family. The heightening tension of the escalating crimes keeps the pages turning, making the reader eager to see just how far things may go. Set in a vividly cold Minnesota winter, Criminal Enterprise
offers a perfect escape into a freezing, suspenseful world.I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked this one. It seemed like a pretty generic thriller at first glance, but it was well-written, and I was fascinated by the bad guy's evolution from a typical family man into a vicious killer.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Should I recommend this to my grandma? Possibly not. There are a couple of scenes with a lot of language/violence.
What's the best thriller you've read recently?
I originally wrote this review for Shelf Awareness. This post contains affiliate links.
