Risk Management by Reid Winslow -- BOOK REVIEW

BOOK REVIEW

Risk Management by Reid Winslow

Reid Winslow's second thriller, Risk Management, explores a dark world of corruption and double (triple?) dealing. Larry Welk makes an almost anti-hero of a protagonist as a dry drunk, disbarred lawyer working as private detective. This time, he's working off the books after his former lover is shot by Chicago police and Larry is the main suspect. 

When Larry meets Birdie Thurmond, a whip smart but socially awkward state auditor, though a dating app, he wants her help with the case as much as he wants a little romance. Birdie is willing – on both counts – but it's quid pro quo because Birdie is working on her own mystery -- trying to figure out why so many people involved in a city water project keep turning up dead. The next one may be her.

There’s a lot to keep track of in these dual storylines, but Winslow does a good job of keeping both on track. The novel builds slowly, but once it hits its stride, it speeds right along to an exciting and satisfying ending.

NOTES

Risk Management is billed as the second book in Winslow's Narrow Track series. There is overlap, but both stand on their own just fine. In the first, The Dead Bell, the protagonist is a hardboiled Chicagoland cop named Tom Edison. In my review of The Dead Bell, I described Edison as having "an alcoholic wild man for a sidekick." That wild man is Larry Welk, sobered up but still wild in Risk Management. Edison makes a cameo, but isn't part of the story. Both books are good entertainment so I hope Winslow continues the series. 

I'm not wild about the cover. I find the red color and sightless stone head disturbing. But the image makes sense and ties in with the story. 

Reid Winslow is a pen name for former attorney turned countryman author George Mead. I know George and we even worked together for a brief time a long time ago. Now he is living the life so many lawyers dream of. Good work!

FROM THE PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION

Exiled from Texas, disbarred, and white-knuckling sobriety in the Midwest, criminal defense attorney Larry Welk has learned to manage risk the hard way: by living inside it.

A carefully curated dating profile lands Larry a date with Birdie Thurmond, a brilliant state auditor who believes risk is just a math problem waiting to be solved. Birdie has a spreadsheet for everything, and Larry can't shake the feeling he's already been reduced to a set of variables. The night ends awkwardly, and they part ways.

Then a late-night call detonates Larry's fragile new life.

His former lover Darlene Pepper has been shot eight times by police and is clinging to life in a Chicago hospital. Before Larry can even process the news, Darlene is dead and Larry is the prime suspect. The motive points to a fortune that vanished years ago: millions stolen by Darlene's ex-husband, Larry's former client, money that was never recovered.

Now Larry is trapped between the law he once practiced and the danger he can't outrun: federal investigators closing in, a killer who seems to know his every move, and secrets that don't stay buried. With nowhere left to turn, Larry makes one desperate play: trust Birdie, the one woman convinced every problem has a solution if you run the numbers long enough.

But Birdie's equations never accounted for a man like Larry.