Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author, for an ARC of this book, in exchange for an honest review.
The premise of the book drew me in but once I started reading it, I just couldn’t get into it at all.

A good read. Lots of action and tension and it moves along at a fast pace. Looking forward to reading more from the author.

The idea for this book was intriguing...I just thought it was slow and boring.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy for my honest opinion.

Fabulous read. Sean and Molly live a quiet life in Houston until a shooting in the Galleria Mall shakes it up. Go with them on their trek across the US to avoid being killed. This book was so much more than I expected. Told from multiple viewpoints, it keeps the story moving quickly and with urgency.

Thank you NetGalley, Harry Dolan and The Mysterious Press for this edition and hearing my honest review. Looking forward to reading more with you
#partner

I liked the idea - a couple, creating new lives under new names to escape a past we don't immediately know about. The execution of it, though, left me feeling a bit meh.

Sean and Molly are living in Houston under new names, years after ripping off an art dealer in a heist in which Sean's friend Cole, was killed. The art dealer wants revenge and the stolen materials back, and the dead man's father (who seems to be some kind of low level gangster) just wants revenge.

One day, when Sean is at a mall - which the author tells us is the largest in Texas, or something or other - when an obsessed man grabs a woman from the store in which she works and starts shooting other shoppers. Sean walks up to him and calmly executes him with one shot each to the chest and head. After helping a couple of the injured people, he leaves. Security footage, though, gets out into the world, and now the people who want their pound of flesh know where he is.

While they make their way to Houston, Sean bugs out, heading to Montana to pick up Molly, who has gone there on a retreat. Along the way, we get some Legend of Billy Jean type narrative, with an auto repair shop owner and a local Sheriff recognizing Sean from the mall video, but not doing anything about him and allowing him to go on his way.

Jimmy,the dead man's father, and his sidekick make it to Montana before Sean, and try to kidnap Molly in order to force Sean's hand. But they miss, and Molly hops into Sean's car, as he has arrived just in the nick of time. Afterward, Jimmy tells his sidekick all about what happened to Cole, so the readers....I mean, so his sidekick will know why he wants to find and kill Sean.

It goes on like this for awhile, but not before we collect a lot of other characters along the way. Events converge on a single location and there is the requisite people dying at the end and another transformation.

The narrative was not particularly compelling and was also supremely annoying. First, it seems everyone and their brother got some narrative time, sometimes in the middle of someone else's narrative (something that was done for no good reason I could see; the second character's piece could just as easily been said after the one it broke into). Second, the writing style was full of short, declarative sentences. Lots of them. In both dialogue and narrative. Sentence fragments, too. Many of them. Third, we got a lot of step by steps of what the characters were doing. Like this:

"His hiking boots are in the trunk. He puts them on and locks the car. He sets out for one of the hiking trails, but after only a few paces he turns back.

There's a Glock nine millimeter in the glove compartment with a shoulder rig to hold it. He sits in the passenger seat and straps it on. He reaches into the backseat for his gray windbreaker. He puts it on to cover the gun."

This sort of thing is all over the place.

Finally, it's in present tense, of which I'm not really a fan.

It's serviceable, and a fast enough read. I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it, either.

Three stars out of five.

Thanks to Grove Atlantic/Mysterious Press and NetGalley for the review copy.

<i>The Good Killer</i> is a fast-paced thriller that has good and bad guys chasing each other all over the country. The two protagonists are on the run. Sean is ex-military and a trained killer who is forced out of his quiet and secluded life. Molly is willing to hide with Sean but she likes people and she wants to spend some time with friends. <i>The Good Killer</i> is the sixth mystery and suspense novel written by best-selling author Harry Dolan.

Sean Tennant makes a quick trip to a shopping mall in Houston and encounters Henry Allen Keen who is on a shooting rampage because of a jilted lover. Sean’s expertise kicks into action and he kills Henry before he can advance his mass killing spree This act spreads Sean’s face all over the evening news. Sean’s newfound fame brings him to the attention of two men from his past who are sworn enemies. Meanwhile Molly is on a retreat to Northern Montana where she can interact with some other woman and Sean can’t reach her. He quickly packs two bags, jumps in a car, and thus begins a cross-country chase. Sean and Molly are heroes on the run with many people willing to help them. In spite of all this, their enemies eventually catch up with them in an exhilarating moment where everyone comes together at once.

I like the characters. Sean and Molly are by no means innocents, but they do regret some of their past behavior and want to leave things behind. Even the bad guys have a human side that makes you understand why they do what they do. Their actions are no less evil but there is a certain empathy created which makes the book interesting. And finally, there is even one dead guy who I found played a useful role in the story.

The storyline is very fast paced. There seems to be action around every corner. The middle of the book threatens to become a little slow, but the use of multiple narrators keeps the reader involved and interested.

The end of the novel is a little abrupt but all of the storylines are finished so it doesn’t leave you hanging. There are no twists which is disappointing but not too serious.

I recommend this book to all people who like fast paced thrillers. I give it a 4 on 5. I want to thank NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for providing me with a digital copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review

This is a good psychological killer. A man who is in hiding suddenly finds himself a national hero. Now he has to go on the run. The book is told from multiple points of view. It is a fast paced, page turner. Thank you to net galley for a copy.

Harry Dolan is an author who is new to me. (I prefer psychological thrillers as opposed to more male-dominated ones like this one.) I thought this was a good, well-executed thriller. There were a lot of moving pieces and multiple POVs (one of which was so brief I'm not sure what the point was) and as a result, not as much character development as I would have liked (pretty much Jack Reacher level) but it was still a gripping read.

The premise is that a man foils a random shooter in a mall, propelling him into the spotlight. Unfortunately, he's been hiding for years after a notorious crime. Now he has people after him. He and his girlfriend Molly have been preparing for this. Can they survive?

Definitely recommended for Jack Reacher fans.

Loved this book., couldn’t put it down! Have never read books by this author-I will now! As Sean and Molly’s story unravels the reader is transported into a fast paced, hold your breath experience. A complex set of characters are all tied together as the reader anxiously awaits the conclusion.

Published by Grove Atlantic/Mysterious Press on February 4, 2020

The Good Killer is worth reading just for the epilogue. It balances a dark story with a message of healing, a suggestion that there is a path out of the darkness.

Sean Tennant joined the military with his best friend, Cole Harper. Cole’s brother Jimmy was disappointed that Sean didn’t talk Cole out of the military adventure. Cole lost a foot in the war, for which Jimmy blamed Sean. Later, Sean decided to pursue a theft that went sideways. Jimmy blames Sean for bringing Cole along. Now Sean is on the run from Jimmy. Accompanying Sean are Molly Winter and Cole’s ghost. At least, Sean carries on conversations with Cole, although to others, he seems to be talking to himself.

The victim of the theft, Adam Khadduri, lost cylinder seals valued at a few million dollars. He also lost Molly, or she lost him before telling Sean where to find his valuables. Like Jimmy, Khadduri is trying to track down Sean.

Sean and Molly have new identities and feel reasonably safe until Sean stumbles across an angry man in a mall who is shooting random customers to impress Rose, the woman who rejected him. Sean shoots the killer, saving Rose and earning the status of a folk hero. But since his picture, captured on security cameras, is now on cable news, Sean and Molly need to flee before Khadduri or Jimmy Cole find them.

After the shooting, law enforcement agents who know about his theft are also looking for Sean. He is occasionally recognized by people in small towns, but since Sean and Molly have attained the status of cult heroes, there isn’t much risk that anyone will turn them in. America loves its celebrities.

Some of this seems improbable and forced. In particular, I didn’t buy Jimmy’s vendetta. Khadduri has a stronger motivation to chase down Sean, so the story is at last partially believable. In the end, if a reader can buy into the premise, The Good Killer delivers a satisfying action story.

The law enforcement characters have standard law enforcement personalities. Sean isn’t necessarily an admirable guy, but he at least feels remorse about his reckless behavior, which accounts for the ghost of Cole that he carries in his head. While taking out a mall killer might be seen as an act of redemption, I never entirely warmed to Sean. While I prefer conflicted bad guys to stalwart good guys, Sean seems more like an artificial construct whose job is keep the plot moving than a flesh-and-blood character. The “dead best friend in my head” theme has been done so many times that it comes across as a shopworn tool of the writing trade.

Although I didn’t entirely buy the story and wasn’t in love with Sean, Harry Dolan scores points by underplaying Sean’s ability. He is far from a typical thriller superhero. I was more intrigued by the characters of Molly and Rose, although they both play much smaller roles. In fact, Rose is a negligible character until the epilogue, when she reappears to give the story an emotional power that is absent until that point. The Good Killer is an uneven performance, but it does maintain an escalating level of tension, and its touching epilogue earned it a recommendation.

RECOMMENDED

Unfortunately I was not able to get into this book not because it wasn't written well (it was) but more because of the plot of the book. I'm sure many readers will really like it it just was not for me.

Unfortunately, this one was not for me. I struggled to get in to it and found myself not wanting to pick it up. Perhaps, at another time I would have enjoyed it more.

This was certainly an entertaining read. I liked the storyline and the character of Sean. It was pretty fast paced with lots of twists and turns and something I didn’t see coming.
Many thanks to Grove Atlantic and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Thank you Grove Atlantic and Netgalley for a copy of The Good Killer by Harry Dolan for an honest review.

I loved the unique concept for this one. A man and his wife have been on the run for a while. Living under false identities running from a mistake made in the past. When Sean finds himself in the mall at the same time as a mass shooter, his army training kicks in and he saves the day. Unfortunately, this means his picture is all over the news and the people who have been looking for him can find him. While Sean and his wife are on the run, the FBI also start the search for the mysterious man who stopped a mass gunman.

I liked The Good Killer, the mix of the present day search from many perspectives as well as the details of the past kept the book moving along with drama, suspense and mystery. I didn't connect much with the characters but the pace and the plot kept me interested.

The Good Killer by Harry Dolan was outstanding. Sean and Molly are a couple that live in Houston. They lead a quiet life. When Molly goes to Montana for a girls retreat in the wilderness, something crazy happens. Sean goes to the mall to buy boots and ends up stopping a mass shooting. Sean was in the army and has a lot of experience with guns. When a man seeking revenge on an ex girlfriend starts shooting innocent people in the mall, Sean calmly walks up and shoots and kills him, stopping the violence. Sean then leaves the mall. He does not want publicity. However, his face is all over the news everywhere in the country. This is not good because Molly and Sean are living under secret identities. It seems that two different people want them dead for different reasons. Now those people know where they have been all these years. This turns into a cross country fight for their lives. This book was so good I did not want to finish it. I have not read anything by this author before, but that will change now. The book is told in alternating chapters with alternating viewpoints. This added so much to the story because you knew what all the different characters were going through. You should definitely read this book. I could see this being made into a movie or a TV show. You will not be disappointed. Thank you to net galley and the publisher for the advanced copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

Amazing amazing amazing I can't say much else. When I first came across this the cover and title didn't interest me but the synopsis outlined the book perfectly.

Thank you to Grove Atlantic, Mysterious Press and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book in exchange for and honest review.

Sean and Molly Tennant live very private lives until one day Sean stops a gunman from committing mass murder in a local mall. Sean flees before the police arrive at the scene. As the police investigate they realize that Sean Tennant doesn't exist, so who is he really. After a news report on his heroics in stopping the gunman and his disappearance, Sean has more than just the police looking for him. Molly has been away at a retreat and now Sean has to get there before past enemies get to her first. We are left wondering who Sean and Molly really are and why are they in hiding.
This is an action filled story with many shades of grey. Sean stops a mass murderer but why was he in hiding in the first place, what is he running from?

The pace of this book is fast and keeps the story moving along quite quickly. We see elements of PTSD, family loyalty and revenge highlighted in the plot. Some characters have more presence and are more memorable than others, I especially liked Jimmey Harper's character. His motives were very clear right from the start. Sean Tennant seems very reserved in the beginning but we are slowly given his past history and can begin to see the demons he is wrestling with.
A fast read that leaves you on the edge of your seat from the first page to the last.

The Good Killer by Harry Dolan

Character driven story with each new segment introduced by the name of someone new or a returning player. I found this book a bit like watching a movie and could see it adapted for and easily produced for the big screen.

My thoughts:
* Complex plot
* Well written
* Action-packed
* What is right and what is wrong - truly
* Shades of gray
* Choices are not always clear-cut
* Love trumps all – usually
* Twisted people do twisted things
* Redemption may be possible
* Revenge doesn’t pay
* Great book

What I liked:
* That it made me think
* It is pertinent and timely
* The good guys are flawed
* The bad guys are not all bad
* I liked getting into the minds of the characters
* Cole’s part in the story
* I could visualize what was happening
* The story was credible and realistic
* All of it really except…

What I didn’t like:
* That people are willing to do anything to get what they want
* The reminder that bad things happen to good people
* Wondering what will happen to Rose – will her story be told by this author?

Did I like this book? I did
Would I read more books by this author? Definitely

Thank you to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic-Mysterious Press – This is my honest review.

5 Stars

Sean was buying boots when he had to act to stop a mass shooter- which exposes him to the world. Sean and his love Molly have a few secrets and they've been lying low to keep themselves safe. Now, though, Sean's face and location are public and the bad guys are back after them. No spoilers as to the why but know that there's a good reason why this couple has to flee. Oh, and there's Houston detective Rafael Garza, who's also after Sean, but for good reasons. This is a tautly written thriller that's really one big chase, not usually my favorite but here the characters are so well done that I found myself rooting for them and pushing them along. Thanks to net galley for the ARC. A very good read- a page turner that would be perfect for travel.

Awesomely good book. Well written and exciting from beginning to end. It starts out with a strong pace and just ramps up from there. Absolutely pick up this amazing book. Happy reading!