The Distance by Helen Giltrow #15in2015

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The DistanceThe Distance by Helen Giltrow
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Book 9 in #15in2015

Charlotte Alton is a socialite with the money, manners, clothes, and a secret identity as, Karla, an underworld information broker and fixer who arranges impossible crimes, new identities for fugitives, and carefully leaked tips to government spy agencies.

Sound far-fetched? Well, that’s just the start.

I’ve been trying to read more thrillers lately, in an attempt to get a handle on the way they handle exaggeration. This one…

It’s a weird book. It has high thriller characters but for most of the book it’s a low thriller plot: Karla arranged a cover ID and temporary entrance into an experimental prison colony for a hit man she’s secretly in love with. He has a troubled past! The big boss in the prison wants him for his troubled past! His target is a mystery woman that everyone thinks is already dead!

Eventually, the plot turns it around to big stakes and state secrets, but it takes a long time to get there. In the mean time, there are a lot of dead end investigations, scary prisoners being scary, and our protagonist putting herself more and more at risk for her personal haunted tough guy.

Honestly, I would have given it an extra star if it had been shorter. I enjoyed it, but the plot had too much flailing. Still, it was fun.

Buy this book.