Tami (Large Print)), Kill the Messenger (Hoag

I have read several other Tami Hoag novels and loved them all but this may be one of the best just for the danger and suspense alone!

The book starts with Jace Damon, a 19-20 year old bike messenger, racing to finish a delivery and getting the call from his friend and dispatcher, Eta Fitzgerald, to do a late pickup and delivery from a sleazy defense lawyer named Lenny Lowell. Jace has done deliveries for Lowell in the past so he knows where to go. Jace arrives to pickup the package and while waiting for the very drunk Lenny who is talking about his daughter, a law student, Jace wanders in the office looking at and picking up Lenny's old bowling trophy and handling other things. Lenny tips him $20 which is a very big tip that Jace is grateful for.

Jace takes off to deliver the envelope which due to the rain he has tucked against his chest under his T-shirt and jacket. As he looks for the delivery address he realizes it is a vacant lot. As Jace tries to decide what to do, a car starts chasing him and he is shot at. He heads down alleys and his bike is wrecked by the car and he is attacked but manages to escape although his bike messenger bag is dropped. He runs away and hides and finally the car leaves. His bag is gone but he picks up the bike and starts heading toward Lenny's office to find out what was going on. Why was someone trying to kill him? It is some time before he gets near the lawyer's office when he stops at a gas station for some snacks.

Meanwhile we are taken to the scene at Lenny's office where he is now dead with his head crushed by the bowling trophy. Detective Kevin Parker is the lead with his trainee partner, Renee Ruiz who is a pain. He is working the crime scene when two detectives from Robbery/Homicide elite division show up and try to tell him it is their case. Abby Lowell, Lenny's daughter, arrives and states that a cop called her and told her to come over to the office. The cop called her cell phone but no one recognizes the number although Parker writes it down and no cop on the scene called her or would have as that is not how the police notify relatives. Then coronor's investigator, Diane Nicholson, comes on the scene to do her crime workup. Parker is also trying to make his trainee understand how to take notes and so on. They learn that Lenny had called for a bike messenger to take a package somewhere but they don't know which service or what.

We also learn that Jace Damon, hurt, injured, wrecked bike, is an orphan with a ten year old brother, Tyler. Jace lives in Chinatown and is sheltered by the Chen family headed by Madame Chen - a formidable Chinese woman. Jace and his brother never knew their father(s) and their mother has been dead for nearly 8 years. While she was alive they went from place to place always running, changing their names but yet Jace was not aware of his mother engaging in anything illegal but yet she taught him right from wrong but to NEVER trust the police. Jace is now in a dilemma as he wants to do the right thing but he also wants to protect his brother and not have Child/Family Services take Tyler away from him. This is the setup that starts Jace and Kevin Parker down the road to find clues and for Jace to nearly be killed again and people he knows and works with to be placed in extreme danger.

I found the events leading to the climax to be suspenseful and exciting and loved the surprise ending!! A great read!!

I very much enjoyed this book. From start to finish, the writing, the story, and the characters were vivid, precise and moved along at a clip that was difficult to put down. This is the first Hoag book that I have read and I am eagerly anticipating reading everything she has written. You can tell from the first paragraphs that this is a story that will be well worth the flipping of pages and whatever you pay for it.

The story itself revolves around a young bike messenger who was messed up as a kid when his parents die. He is taking care of his younger brother and living in the home of a wise old Chinese lady in China Town of Los Angeles. In the opening pages, Jace (the bike messenger), is delivering on his route. His last customer gets him involved with a seriously bad dude and things take off from there.

The other main character is the thoroughly enjoyable Kev Parker. For my money I enjoyed the scenes concentrating on this adult detective with a little bit of a history much more than that of Jace. I take it from reading other reviews here that Jace is Hoags first younger character and I have to say that a lot of what I have against this book revolves around him.

Jace is almost two dimensional. Though he takes up about half the pages here, if you look closely at who Jace is, you are left with a very narrow individual. Hoag spends most of the character development time on Jace talking about his past and why he cant trust anyone. In fact she hits this topic so many times that I became a little weary of reading about it. I think she focuses on it so intensely because she needs him to be in exactly the frame of mind he's in later in the book. I wont give anything away, but when you get to that point you will be pulling your hair because Jace does just about everything the wrong way and I think from how Hoag constructs the rest of the story that this is beneath her writing talents.

But besides that, Hoags writing is so enjoyable that you will happily overlook this eye sore of a flaw. I totally recommend 'Kill the Messenger'. Long live Hoag and I hope she writes several dozen books.

Kill the Messenger - a play on words for a clever title - is an exciting, fast-paced thriller. From the moment that J C Damon reluctantly takes an after-hours job and couriers it to an empty allotment, then is almost run down by a thug in a car, the plot thickens. Kev Packer, homicide detective on the outer, is at first pretty sure the "messenger did it" but as the story unfolds, thing are not so simple.

The characters are realistic, the main ones J.C, Tyler (his brother) Madam Chen and Kev are likable people coping with circumstances beyond their control. Ms Hoag has finely crafted her characters, encouraging me to invest care in their futures. The crooks are of course, sly and greedy, but then the good blokes sometimes can be too. We're all human, after all!

I freely admit that I did not pick the ring leader, but even then Ms Hoag manages to engender sympathy for this person.

A terrific read and one which I highly recommend.

I very seldom read freshly published books hot off the press. My to be read list includes books that were published 150 years ago...books I want to read but alas, authors keep turning them out faster than I can read them. As with many books (and the list grows) I am about a day late and a dollar short of this one but that did not distract from my reading pleasure one bit.

I like novels written by Tami Hoag. She is an excellent writer and an excellent story teller. The book being reviewed here, ‘Kill the Messenger’ is no different. I enjoyed this one cover to cover.

A young messenger boy is caught up in a web of murder an intrigue and finds himself not only the suspect in a brutal murder but also the target of an apparent stone cold killer. While at first it was difficult for me to grasp the essence of characters as they were introduced the story never-the-less sucked me in and the more I read the faster I found myself turning the pages.

Hoag sort of jumped off her normal track with this one and there was much less romance and rather vivid descriptions of love scenes in this one and I found that to be rather refreshing. There was little that was gratuitous in this one. The action rolled along at a good clip and we were introduced to some memorable characters. Yes, there was violence in this one and the tale had many twists and turns...no read herrings; just good plot swings which were logical and kept the story moving. The story can and should be classified as a thriller but it is a thriller that is pretty well believable proving that factual descriptions can indeed be as exciting as so much of the made up stuff we are fed in current “suspense thrillers.” I like this one.

And the ending....oh my.

All in all this was an excellent read.

This was a library find.

Kill the Messenger is a cleverly-constructed page-turner with a nicely twisted plot. It can also boast unusually well-written action scenes, and a keen fashion sense (both Parker and Ruiz are suspiciously well dressed - the former in designer trenchcoat and fedora, the latter in low-cut suits and Jimmy Choo stilettos). On top of this, it paints a darkly fascinating picture of life in L.A., depicting it as a little world where the urge to be a star has infected even the police and lawyers. Almost everyone is a smart-ass, speaking in carefully scripted one-liners; Robbery-Homicide Detectives seem to be selected as much for their ability to look good on the news as for any investigative ability; people co-operate with cops more out of the desire to appear on America's Most Wanted than out of any interest in justice.

Hoag has obviously had fun creating her characters, from Parker and Jace down to bit players such as Obidia Jones, the homeless man who identifies the killer. Even the walk-ons are well-drawn and interesting, and most are easy to like, if not to trust. A few - Jace, his brother Tyler, their landlady Madame Chen, Jace's workmates Mojo and `Eta' Fitzgerald - care more about other people than money or image. There are some good cops in Hoag's understaffed LAPD, and Parker may have learned enough from his earlier mistakes to have become one of them.

Kill the Messenger is fast-paced and fun and hard to put down. Read it before some Hollywood film-maker turns it into a star vehicle.

This novel jumps into the action with a seedy lawyer's murder and the unsuspecting bicycle messenger a witness, still carrying his delivery package and no one to deliver it to - except the police, and no way that is happening. No way will Jace Damon jeopardize his life or the life of his ward and younger brother Tyler. Or the kindly Chens, who have generously taken them into their home in Chinatown. So, who to trust? Kill the Messenger carries its weight throughout the first two-thirds of the book, then the story gets a bit lackluster. The protags are likeable, easily related to, caught in "real life" situations. But I thought Hoag could've done more with the baddies in this one, expanded on them a bit, rounded out the characters more. Granted, there is a surprise ending - but it left me feeling deflated. Overall, in my humble opinion, Kill the Messenger is worth a one-time read. It's not one of those memorable novels I'll go back to in a few months and read again, nothing like her Prior Bad Acts or her earlier works like Dark Paradise and Cry Wolf. Hey, but I'm still a fan.

Being an avid Tami Hoag fan, I eagerly awaited her next effort after a two-year hiatus following DARK HORSE. Without a doubt, KILL THE MESSENGER was well worth the wait! From the scene-building, character-developing exposition stages of the novel, to its staggering climax, KILL THE MESSENGER is fast-paced, stimulating, and highly addictive. WARNING...Readers who have essential projects to perform, should not even BEGIN the novel until their projects' completion, because this spell-binding thriller will latch on with a serious death grip until the last page is turned!

A refreshing departure from Ms. Hoag's traditional formula of combining lust with intrigue, KILL THE MESSENGER still treats the reader to unbridled action and suspense; captivating and well-drawn characters; realistic and crisp dialogue; intelligently-crafted prose; and a lightning-paced plot--all set against a Los Angeles backdrop that is painted alternately with upper-class pseudo-glamour, middle-class nouveau-chic, working-class ennui, and lower-class desperation-within which crime, greed, cruelty, and courage are not bound by arbitrary social distinctions.

I anticipate a cinematic portrayal of Ms. Hoag's latest achievement in the very near future, because the adventures of Jace (the hapless, yet resourceful, bicycle messenger); Parker (the ambitious, intuitive, and self-enlightened police detective); Tyler (Jace's brainiac, yet charmingly innocent, 10-year-old brother); Abby (the beautiful and misunderstood daughter of the murdered and maligned decedent); and Andi Kelly (the only journalist who ever gave Parker a break during his long-ago fall from grace within the police department), should not be confined exclusively to the printed page. The novel's EXTREMELY satisfying conclusion (which I will not reveal here) said it all, and, hopefully, some enterprising movie producer will take notice.

Kill the Messenger starts off with Jace Damon, a bike messenger, being given one last delivery on a cold, rainy night for lowlife attorney Lenny Lowell. Unfortunately, the delivery does not go down as planned, and Jace is almost killed. When he returns to confront Lenny, he finds that Lenny has been murdered. Believing himself a suspect, Jace tries to stay one step ahead of the cops and killers. Throw into the mix Kev Parker, a disgraced LAPD detective who doubts Jace's guilt, and you have yourself one heck of a thriller. The plot is very fast, filled with important details, useful subplots, and red herrings. All of the little subplots come together nicely, not all of which contribute to the final ending. James Patterson could take a note from this.

The characters are excellent. Each one has his/her own unique flavor to them, much the same way people do in real life. Even though you may not agree with all of Jace's actions or logic, you can still understand how he came to them and respect him as a character. Even secondary characters like Parker's rude new partner, Ruiz, are interesting.

So, if I like this book so much, why am I giving it only 3.5 stars? Two reasons. First, Jace has a younger brother Tyler that he have been protecting and raising in secret since his mother died (thus his fear of policy stems from fear of child services). Tyler is a genius with a 168 IQ. Hoag tells you he has a 168 IQ no fewer than twenty times. Tyler tells everybody he meets that he's smarter than them because he has a 168 IQ. It gets ridiculously redundant. I also think it's a cop out. A lot of authors don't take on the challenge of writing a believable normal child. They give the child a high IQ or something else to make it easier for them to write as a child. Secondly, the very ending... (I don't want to give away anything here) falls right into a cliché. I am not talking about the big "twist," which is totally awesome. I'm talking about the fallout of the twist. Let's just say...the bad person gets what they deserve even if that isn't realistic. Combined, the novel lost 1.5 stars.

Do I recommend the book though? Absolutely. It was a great book. I just didn't like the two above aspects, and I may just be a little harsh. But, definitely read it. You'll probably enjoy it! Grade: B

I liked this story better than anything Hoag has written in the past 6 or 7 years. She gives us two kids, brothers Jace and Tyler Damon, classic underdogs, and a dedicated cop, Kevin Parker, unfairly victimized by L.A. politics. Add in a fascinating murder mystery, along with Parker's new partner, a totally unlikable female cop, and you have a book that I could not put down. The two kids are living totally under the usual bureaucratic radar in an attempt to remain together, thanks to their paranoid upbringing by a mother we learn practically nothing about. Additionally, Kevin Parker's past is only hinted at until the very end of the book. These loose ends are the only reasons I can't give the book 5 stars! Despite these flaws, I loved the story and the characters, and was on the edge of my seat during Jace's continued attempts to escape the bad guy through the streets of downtown L.A. This is a story that will appeal to anyone who loves a story with heart! I only wish there was a sequel in the works.

Kill the Messenger is a fast paced thriller with an interesting lead character, Jace, a bicycle messenger. Both Jace and his brother Tyler are well developed characters. After their mother died, Jace at age 14 strikes out on his own so that he and his brother's won't be orphans, getting an apartment in Chinatown and working at a fish market. Jace is at the wrong place at the wrong time, while sending a message on his bike, someone attempts to kill him. From there, he gets embroiled in a murder investigation and has to do his best to escape the authorities and the people who are trying to kill him. The book is well written. It moves along quickly and has good characters. I've read other Tami Hoag novels that have fallen short, and this is the best of her novels I've read.
Carl Alves - author of Two For Eternity

This is a spine-tingling, action-packed mystery with characters you cannot help but fall in love with starting with Jace, the bike messenger on his last delivery of the day. He's a great guy who just wants to provide a good home for his 10-year-old brother while hiding from the watchful eyes of society and the people who would take his little brother away.

But the real hero of this story is Kev Parker, an unconventional police detective, who becomes intrigued by and later protective of young Jace and his sibling, while trying to solve a dark mystery and a series of crimes surrounding the elusive bike messenger. Jace is the main target and the bad guys will do anything to get to him, including brutally murdering everyone he knows and cares about.

There is a reason critics call Tami Hoag the "Queen of Suspense," and once you read this book, you will understand why. As are all of her books, this one will make you laugh out loud, while simultaneously mesmerizing you with breath-sucking suspense. This was the first one of Hoag's books my husband read and he is now also a big fan of hers. Enjoy!

From page one we are immediately plunged into the world of bike messengers, as we ride along with Jace through L.A. traffic. I'd not realized what a dangerous and perilous occupation it was, with the messengers putting their lives at risk every day just to deliver documents from one place to another. It was a tense and gripping opening for a book that stayed pretty tense and gripping all the way to the end.

There are lots of characters, and the narrative jumps around at times from one character's POV to another's. We first meet Jace, and stay with him for awhile as he goes on that last ill-fated ride, where the danger he faces is more than the ordinary traffic hazards. He finds himself being chased by a man in a long black car, and while he manages to get away, it's not without injury to himself and destruction to his bike. The attorney he made the pick up from is killed shortly after Jace leaves his office, and whoever killed him is now after Jace and whatever is in the package he carries.

Kev Parker is the lead detective investigating the attorney's murder. He used to be an arrogant hot shot whose career bit the dust after he scuttled a prior investigation. The more involved he becomes in this case, and the more he learns, the more it looks like it could be the case that brings him back. Or the one that ends his career altogether.

There are many other characters seamlessly woven into the plot, and the author does a wonderful job with developing each one, but most particularly (besides Jace and Parker) Jace's younger brother, Tyler. He's a wise beyond his years ten year old who never hesitates to tell an adult he's smarter than they are (with a high IQ to back up that claim), but the author manages to stay away from the dreaded precocious plot moppet trope and make Tyler a realistic little boy. Even when we don't really learn much about a character, he or she is still vivid and individual. And with the detailed descriptions of the city and the characters' surroundings at any given time, L.A. is as much a character as any of the hapless humans roaming it's streets. The good guys are good and the bad guys are bad, and there's not a lot of deviation or surprise in that particular characterization, until suddenly there is.

The action zips along at a quick pace, and without being predictable. KILL THE MESSENGER is an absorbing read with a satisfying conclusion and, for me anyway, a perfect introduction to Tami Hoag's work.

"Kill the Messenger" blends a lot of complex characters into what might otherwise have been another routine "L.A." police procedural(see Michael Connelly, Robert Crais, etc.)

JC is one of the more unusual main characters I've seen in a crime novel, and his realtionship with his brother is believable, even if some of the plot developments aren't!

Kev Parker is interesting as well. We are told only as much as Hoag wants us to know about him until the latter stages of the story. His dealings with the new trainee, Ruiz, and departmental politics, are a bit derivative, and at times, too much attention is focused on them, as opposed to JC.

The "Crowne" subplot also seems underdeveloped until Hoag semingly remembers all at once that it's time to start tying things together. Somehow, she does! This is not'classic crime fiction', but it's definitely worth the time.

Reading some of the comments about Hoag's other works, I'm glad I read this one first, as I'm also kind of tired of 'serial killer' plots, especially since PJ Tracy has already covered the 'Minnesota' angle! I don't particularly care for 'L.A. cops fighting back against internal pressure', either, but at least this story's characters give the story more unpredictability.

So, while I may not try Hoag's other books basd on my impressions from reviews, I'm glad I read this one!

Bike messenger Jace Damon has one last pick-up for the night, unfortunately it may be the last pick-up of his life.
Jace has to deliver a package for Lenny Lowell, a sleazy defense attorney in the middle of a high-profile murder case involving a Hollywood star. But, en route to delivering the package, he is almost run down by a car, chased through alleyways and shot at. Jace realizes there is something worth killing for in this package so he decides to return to Lenny's office only to find the office ransacked and Lenny dead.
Now on the run, Jace must fight for his life as the police believe he's a suspect and a killer wants him dead.
`Kill the Messenger' is an exciting read, while different from previous novels by Tami Hoag; the novel is suspenseful and the ending packs a nice surprise, but the usual dark tone is missing. This novel is a lighter thriller that entertains from first page to last, but might disappoint long-time fans. However, `Kill the Messenger' is a much better novel than Ms. Hoag's last novel and based on the strength of her name alone the book should fly up the bestseller lists.
An entertaining summer read.
Nick Gonnella

It was an enjoyable read and definitely better than I expected. I had read one of her books before and wasn't that impressed but this was much better. The characters were likeable and it moved along.

I really liked this one ^_^ There have been quite a few works inspired by the old saying "Don't kill the messenger who bears bad news" or whatever the original wording was. One of them is a fantasy work called, if I recall aright, The Green Rider, and I enjoyed that one a lot, too. But I digress. (Quelle suprise.)

My favorite part about Kill the Messenger is its characters. All the key characters--Jace, Tyler, Parker, Madame Chen, Eta--are extremely enjoyable and have their own very separate personalities. Most of the time I wanted to grab Jace and shake him and say, "Go to the police!" But Hoag gives him a very believable reason for not trusting anyone. He's scared, stubborn, and he was raised by a mother who taught him never to trust anyone. Renee Ruiz, I think her name is, is a pain in the rear, but it's fun watching Parker chew her out constantly, so that makes her character tolerable. And if I were the motherly type, I would adopt Tyler in a heartbeat.

There aren't really any surprising twists in the story--aside from a surprise criminal at the end, but in most crime stories there is a 'surprise' at the end... so knowing that a surprise is coming makes it a little less surprising, doesn't it? No worries about that, though. I just love following Parker and Jace in their thought processes, their fear and frustration. And from the statistics given on the amount of injuries bike messengers in large cities receive, I know I sure as hell would never want to be a bike messenger. So for those of you reading this who live in big cities and cross paths with bike messengers, be nice to them! ^_~

Jace Damon has responsibilities beyond his 19 years. He's been trying to take care of his 10-year old brother since their mother died eluding Child Protective Services. Jace spends his days making drops as a bike messenger. His last stop one day was to deliver a package for a sleazy defense attorney, Lenny Lowell.

After he is nearly run down, returns to Lenny's office only to find the police swarming all over the place and Lenny dead. He's afraid since he was the last one to see Lenny alive that he will be the prime suspect and he must protect his brother at all costs. He still has the envelope that he never delivered not knowing that envelope will cause the death of more than one person before the story is unraveled.

Tami Hoag knows how to write a page-turning thriller. This is no exception. The story dragged a bit in the first half of the book while the plot was being set up and the many characters were introduced. The second half took off at a breakneck pace. The character of Jace was extremely sympathetic and really pulled you into his story. Just be willing to suspend belief a bit because there was more than one unrealistic part to the story, but all and all it was a very good read.

The book is very well written with many divergent stories and characters that the writer is able to skillfully bring together as the book progresses. The writer spends a good part of the book in laying the groundwork for the story. A reader who is impatient might have difficulties getting int the story. When the book takes off, it becomes a real page turner and os a most satisfying read. The protagonists are very well developed, though this is not the case with many of the secondary and tertiary characters. The writer has the ability to interject humor into this work and serves as an excellent diversion for the reader. The twists are very well done and this reviewer was kept guessing throughout the work. It is very well done and is recommended.

Tami Hoag's Kill the Messenger is a gripping read.

When Los Angeles bike messenger Jace Damon tries to make his last drop of the day for sleazy attorney Lenny Lowell, he is chased, shot at, and barely escapes with the package - and his life. Lenny isn't quite as lucky; and Jace becomes a 'person of interest' to the police.

And Kev Parker, the detective of record, also wonders why the death of bottom feeder Lenny is of interest to LAPD's elite homicide squad.

These are interesting, well-developed characters, in life-or-death action; the story moves fast, the tension builds, and the characters become people that the reader cares about.

An 'A+' to Ms Hoag. btw, spotting the villian in this one isn't easy.

Nineteen years old Jace Damon has learned to keep a low profile for fear that children's protective services would take his eight-year-old brother Tyler away from him. He works as a bicycle messenger in Los Angeles, being paid off the books and living in Chinatown where the community closes ranks around them.
One rainy night, Jace picks up a package from slimy lawyer Lenny Lowell. When he reaches the address of the place he is supposed to leave the package at, he finds an empty lot. Someone tries to grab the package and Jace knows he has to get away before the thug grabs the parcel and kills him. When he returns to Lenny, he sees the cops there and learns that his client was murdered. When he opens the package, he sees negatives. Jace figures that Lenny was blackmailing someone. Not wanting to bring trouble to his brother or Madame Chan who has unofficially adopted them, he leaves but homicide detective Ken Parker and robbery-homicide detective Brandon Kyle is looking for him as well as the man who wants to kill him for what he knows.
KILL THE MESSENGER is a fascinating police procedural that readers will enjoy immensely because the quirky characters make this book very special. Jace is more mature than people twice his age are; his brother is a genius; and the lead police officer on the case Detective Parker is a maverick who does not always follow directions but manages to get the job done. Tami Hoag is one author the audience one can count on for getting the job done too as she writes juicy, entertaining and original novels.
Harriet Klausner

I usually like books like "To Kill a Messenger," but after starting this novel, I found myself quickly bogged down by annoying TSTL (too stupid to live) characters and plot threads which went nowhere.

Others have summarized the plot, but here it is in a nut shell: Jace is sent to delver a package, but upon arrival at his destination he is met by someone who tries to kill him. The killer has also murdered the client in such a manner that Jace is implicated. Jace has a younger brother he is stubbornly trying to protect, which is why he refuses to go to the authorities or seek help with his problems, and which is why we are treated to many cross-city bike chases and endless self-pitying dialogue about his mistrust of authority figures.

I might've liked this story if I could empathize with the characters. But I found Jace to be a real drag. Jace's refusal to go to the cops was just silly. This was a plot device to prolong the (albeit meager) mystery and suspense elements. Jace's kid brother was likewise annoying. If I had to hear again about his IQ, I felt like plunging a pencil into my eye!

Other characters were likewise silly. The Police detective with the Armani suits. The Internal affairs woman, and the silly explanation for his mystery bank account. Are we honestly supposed to believe Internal Affairs couldn't figure that one out? Puhleeze. Has anyone heard of the IRS? Income like that is reported.

I won't even go there about the ending. The ending was completely unsatisfying.

Overall, I found Kill the Messenger an average read with occasional brilliant moments.

Kill The Messenger is my first Tami Hoag novel and before finishing the novel she landed on my list of favorites. She keeps her dialogue and action concise. Hoag's multi dimensional characters are easy to visulize and quickly grab your empathy or dislike. Hoag displays a unique talent with her plot twists and captive readers will become emotionally involved with bike messenger Jace and his little brother. If you are a fan of crisp writing, non-stop action and great narrative you can't go wrong with Kill The Messenger.

Beverly J Scott Author of JENA'S CHOICE

Hoag's style is crisp and direct, providing enough detail to flesh out the scenes and characters but with little fat to get in the way of the plot as it races forward.
The book opens with a resourceful, if bedraggled bike messenger who took an end-of-the-day message delivery and came hair close to getting killed (by a person in a big car who we know as Predator) and who also became the prime suspect for the murder of the person who requested the delivery in the first place.
After that, you are barrelled through a twisted maze of plots and counter plots and you don't know where you'll end up until you get to the end.
Books like this are far better than TV. Have fun with it!

Hoag writes a good suspense novel told from multiple points of view. The strength of this is in the fact that you get a variety of settings, making the book fuller and richer. Her characters feel authentic. They're likable but still real enough to have hard edges. The ending had an unexpected and melancholy twist and there was true resonance to the aftermath. I've been reading Hoag for some time and this is one of her best works yet.

Tami Hoag has long been one of my favorite authors. As a lifelong resident of LA, I can tell she's done her homework on this one. From Hope Street to Chinatown, she has captured the whole stinking, smoggy mess.
I must admit, the plot didn't thrill me at first but Jace, Kev, Tyler,et. al. drew me in with their quirky, fully realized "lives."
Overall an excellent police procedural, a worthy addition to Ms. Hoag's fine bibliography.

The poor messenger gets himself into a bind because he was making his last delivery of the day and ends up finding his client dead.

He and his brother are very poor and he tried to keep his brother safe from harm.

Someone is being blackmailed, but you don't find out until later.

It was a page turner...read it last summer in about a day.

Ms Hoag...at her entertaining best. This well written story intrigued me at page one and took me on an enjoyable, page turning ride. Det Parker and the Damon brothers were inspirational characters you care about from first introduction. The sad senseless killing (especially Eta), shocking revelation (I didn't see coming), and the perfect ending made this story a big winner for me. I loved it and highly recommend this compelling read.

A superb thriller that kept me reading well into the midnight hours. Suspenseful, gripping, smooth reading.

This is my first Tami Hoag book and she lived up to what my friends were telling me about her writing ... clean, well-written prose that hooked me right up front. Interesting characters, gripping plot.

I look forward to reading her previous books and future ones.

Highly recommended.

I expected to read "Kill the Messenger" slowly, a few chapters at a time. To my delight, this book "grabbed" me on page one and I could not put it down until I reached the very exciting ending.

Loved the characters, the chase scenes, the plot.

Now what will I read? Suggestions anyone?

I really enjoyed this book. It is fast paced with a surprise ending. It is written so that you care about the characters, with the story being told from many of their perspectives; not just from one characters point of view. I highly recommend it to all that like murder mysteries.

Seriously, folks, this latest from T.H. veered off the highway and plunged over a steep cliff. Admittedly there are some great little characters (Eta & Obidia Jones), and bunches of clever, 'speedy' repartee, but on the whole this trip is 2nd-class, cliched, contrived, and relies totally on a paint-by-numbers, formulaic plot. By the end of the story,(which crashed into a predictable twist that was about as curly as a chopstick), I had rolled my eyes so many times I couldn't see straight any more.

T.H.'s previous books, (apart from the early mushy ones), were definitely of a better standard, with more depth and characters that breathed substance. Ironically though, the shallowness of this book was entirely appropriate for the location in the City of Plastic Angels.

In spite of my bad-mouthing this book, I look forward to the next one from T.H., I just hope the vehicle isn't a write-off.

(And please, T.H., do yourself a favour and get a better editor.

This book had a shocking amount of editing errors - a real slap-dash effort.)

I found this thriller to be quite boring. None of the characters were believable, and neither was the premise. The motivations of the main character Jace are not fully explained. When reading, I felt like I was reading a storyboard that had not been fully fleshed out.