A clever and unique plot. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Was surprised it didn't do better in sales

Many thanks to Netgalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Set in Chicago, Last Hope For Hire is the story of a man who is so financially defeated by the American healthcare system that in his forties, and past his prime, he returns to a dangerous yet lucrative life as a mercenary.

His two year old son, Benjamin, is severely epileptic with daily seizures causing him to lose developmental functionality. Benjamin is unable to deal with the slightest of illnesses without hospital treatment and the bills are mounting up.

The main character, his father Allen, was once a highly sought after mercenary known as “Mystic’” due to his ability to leave no trace behind him when on a mission.

He was once college roommates with Eamon Tor, the worlds first trillionaire, who has kept an eye on Allen’s career and who has a job for Allen that would mean an end to all the bills and may even lead to a cure for Benjamin.

Such “offers you can’t refuse” tend to come with a price though, and this one will involve Allen destroying a newly developed cell-editing technology known as “Eden Therapy”, which has been shown to cure cancer and would seem to be the answer to Benjamin’s and therefore Allen’s problems.

Nobel prize winner Tor is asking a lot of Allen:

“Are you asking me to break into wherever this Eden Therapy stuff is and steal it for you? Then you’ll use it to help Benjamin?”

“No,” Eamon responded.

“I’m asking you to destroy it. Then I’ll help Benjamin.”

Allen’s team are keen to sign up for the mission, after spending a little time with Benjamin and seeing some of the problems the family has to surmount on a daily basis. They comprise Daryl, Allen’s ex-partner who originally trained him. Haley, Daryl’s daughter and Allen’s newest partner who is in her twenties. She is a rookie and this will only be her second mission. Haley’s friend Kyle is their remote support specialist, going by his online handle of “Meat Tank“. Their first job will be an intellectual property heist to get them the blueprints of the research facility in Greenland, where the Eden Therapy is being tested, owned by octogenarian Olivia Rusk, recently cured of cancer and now seen kick-boxing on a video feed.

Dr Sloan is the scientist working in the underground Greenland facility. He is not allowed to leave and has been tasked with stopping the side effects to Eden Therapy which seem to send patients into a psychotic rage resulting in multiple deaths.

Tor wants Allen to rescue Dr Sloan and destroy his work, then bring him to work for Tor instead.

There are plenty of exciting action sequences in this book as the team attempts their dangerous mission(s). In fact the story begins in the midst of Haley’s first mission as Allen’s partner and sets the scene nicely for the type of work they do. The story is peppered with hi-tech gadgets: Allen has a personal drone cycle, futuristic (but out of date to Allen) weapons, a data cloning device and somewhat outdated but functional high tech armour.

The slower-paced sections involving Allen and his relationship with his wife and son are full of heart and treated with care and just enough detail to be believable for the reader and for us to understand that the author is experienced in this subject. The social commentary on the dire state of healthcare billing in the US is telling, and probably only relatable to people living in this country, although it may act as an eye-opener to readers from other countries. Just how far would you be prepared to go to pay for necessary healthcare for your family?

The characters are all fully fleshed out and believable. Allen’s wife Kelsey is harried yet tireless in looking after Benjamin; Haley is excited to be on the team yet somewhat nervous about her inexperience. Daryl is concerned for his daughter’s safety, yet proud of her capabilities. Allen is a desperate man driven back to a life he had hoped he left behind for good.

All in all this was an intelligent and enjoyable book and I would recommend it to fans of thrillers with futuristic gadgets and dangerous missions.

This is good sci-fi. Like most stories, it's built around conflict and problem solving. It's occasionally uneven and thus the pacing was off at times. I liked the story overall and a couple of the characters stood out for me. This is probably hard science fiction, and should appeal to a lot of those genre fans.

Thanks very much for the review copy!!

Last Hope for Hire is in many ways a straightforward sci-fi techno-thriller. All in all, the action comes fast and furious. Have no fear that there is so much nonstop action you'll feel worn out reading the novel. The author has good sci-fi action scenes intermixed with plenty of gentler scenes that carry an emotional punch instead of a knee to the groin.

Most of the characters will be readily recognizable to anyone who has watched or read this type of story. The villains are solidly villainess without being caricatures. I personally enjoyed the sadistic security chief, who pleasantly reminds me of several other unsavory types from film and novels. The good guys have a decent mix of personalities too. The protagonist Allen is a grizzled merc coming out of his semi-retirement as a hired gun for one last score. We have his one-time partner, who is now a wheelchair-bound military hardware wizard. There's the partner's daughter, an up-and-coming if somewhat reluctant and wet around the ears merc. Rounding out the team are Allen's coder wife and a network/hacker guru who goes by the handle MeatTank. The group is a solid set of characters for this type of book. At times, their banter made me smile. I give the reluctant up-and-coming merc and MeatTank solid marks as my favorites of the bunch.

The world-building to construct this near-future dystopia is well done. You won't find as much world-building as you might in a red-blooded science fiction novel, but I found the world logically constructed and jived with the characters' motivations. For example, health insurance is hard to come by, and the protagonist Allen is desperate for health insurance or anything really to provide medical care for his epileptic son.

Allen's son Ben, who suffers from epilepsy, is the emotional core of the story that is surprisingly moving and differentiates Last Hope for Hire from other techno-thrillers. It's obvious the author has real-world experience with the disease. His knowledge of epilepsy's physical and emotional toll on a family is used to great effect. As a parent, I couldn't help having empathy for the plight of Allen and his family. The dénouement is short and sweet, nicely tugging on the reader's heartstrings without being melodramatic.

Last Hope For Hire
by Matthew Wilcox
The Wild Rose Press, Inc.

I want to thank the publisher, author, and NetGalley for letting me read this action packed book! This book shows what any parent would do to save their child.

This has Allen and his wife worried over their son who has a rare form of seizures and it is only getting worse. Over the few years of the boy's life he still can't do what other kids do. The seizures are causing brain damage. The parents are desperate and using their money for hospital bills.

Allen then hears from an old classmate, Eamon Tor, that made it big, real big! Tor offers him a chance to get money and care for his son but it may be a suicide mission. Tor claims that he knows there is a cure for his son. He could get it for him. What can a father do?

Allen then sets out to get a team together. From then on it is action packed, rock-n-rollin mission. Things don't go as planned at first but the information they receive is valuable.

This is a pretty good story about family, friendships and hope. It also has great action and plot. I thought it a bit long winded in spots but overall a solid 4 stars.