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Thanks to the Criminal Elements blog for alerting me to this book. Link to their review below.
This is my first book by Angel Luis Colón and based on my reaction to Hell Chose Me I need to read more of this author. The man knows how to write action. There is a running gunfight that reminds me of something you see in a John wick movie. There is a high body count and level of gore so it won't be for everyone but if you like a good, violent, action thriller with interesting characters then this is the book for you.
When the book opens, Bryan Walsh is at work. He's a hitman for Paulie Gigante, a childhood acquaintance who is the middleman for contract hits. Paulie operates out of a daycare which is a fun bit of plotting. After carrying out the hit we find out something intriguing about Bryan, he sees dead people. Bryan is haunted by those he kills who utter the last words they spoke over and over until they finally move on. These visions are extremely graphic and realistic. Bryan knows that they are all in his head but he still has to live with them. There is a slight similarity here with Stuart Neville's protagonist of his Belfast novels, Gerry Fegan, a Northern Ireland hitman who is also haunted but Colón takes it much, much further.
Bryan is a depressed loser with frayed nerves, teetering on the edge, who doesn't have the heart for what he does but can't escape. He joined the US Marines and went to fight in the first Gulf war where a horrible incident presented him with his first ghost. He deserts and his uncle Sean arranges to have him taken to Ireland where Sean, hardcore IRA, puts him to work as an assassin and bomber. Another bad experience where Bryan overreacts during a hit and he is back in the US where his brother Liam refers him to Paulie for strong arm work. Liam enters the Army post 9/11 but is dishonorably discharged after assaulting a superior office. He suffers a diabetic stroke which puts him is a persistent vegetative state. Bryan wants to do something right and can't stand to lose Liam. Desperate for the money to keep Liam on life support, Bryan becomes a contract hitman for Paulie. When a hit goes wrong, Bryan finds himself the target and on the run trying to save himself, the one person in the world he loves, Liam, and to find out what went wrong and whose after him and who is on his side.
Hell Chose Me puts the reader in the uncomfortable position rooting for a very bad person. There is just enough inner conflict and existential fatalism to make the reader understand, even sympathize, with Bryan while at the same time knowing that he'd put a bullet in your head if told to. Along the way we meet more very bad people two of which, Palestinian sisters, seriously deserve their own book.
I enjoyed everything about this book: the way the story is paced, the way the action is presented, the characters and the Palestinian sisters in particular, the way Bryan's inner turmoil is shown, the family dynamics, the way Bryan is haunted (is it real or in his head), the way the environments of the story are described. Colón takes us right up the edge of noir in this story but doesn't make that additional step and I'm ok with that.
The one complaint I have is that the author uses the term clip instead of magazine throughout the book. Bryan was a Marine and would know the correct terminology. When I was in the Army no one ever said clip.
I wondered about the cover but after reading the books, it's terrific.
Hell Chose Me is a very good read and my introduction to Angel Luis Colón whose other books I intend to pursue.
Here are some other reviews of this book
Hell Chose Me at Crime Fiction Lover
Hell Chose Me at Criminal Element
Momento Mori: On Angel Luis Colón's "Hell Chose Me" at Los Angeles Review of Books
Keywords: hitmen, assassins, existential fatalism, crime fiction, action thriller
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