The Professionals

By: Owen Laukkanen

Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini

Length: 11 hrs and 43 mins

Publisher's summary

Four friends, recent college graduates, caught in a terrible job market, joke about turning to kidnapping to survive. And then, suddenly, it's no joke. For two years, the strategy they devise - quick, efficient, low risk - works like a charm. Until they kidnap the wrong man.

Now two groups they've very much wanted to avoid are after them - the law, in the form of veteran state investigator Kirk Stevens and hotshot young FBI agent Carla Windermere, and an organized-crime outfit looking for payback. As they all crisscross the country in deadly pursuit and a series of increasingly explosive confrontations, each of them is ultimately forced to recognize the truth: The true professionals, cop or criminal, are those who are willing to sacrifice...everything.

A finger-burning page-turner, filled with twists, surprises, and memorably complex characters, The Professionals marks the arrival of a remarkable new writer.

©2012 Owen Laukkanen (P)2012 Penguin Audiobooks

Critic reviews

“Fasten your seat belts, Owen Laukkanen’s The Professionals is one heck of a wild ride. A first-class thriller by a terrific new voice.” (John Lescroart)

“Really terrific – characters that live and breathe, a just-right story, and chills aplenty. Highly recommended." (Lee Child)

“Smoothly written, with a slam-bang ending, The Professionals is a brutally beautiful piece of work. Owen Laukkanen takes us straight into the hearts of the bad guys, and what we find there is something very complicated and still very bad. The cops are just as complex as the villains, and Laukkanen nicely captures the personal and sexual tension between Kirk Stevens and Carla Windermere as they track down the gang: this is a pairing that will wear well.” (John Sandford)

A 2012 Version of Bonnie & Clyde

Very depressing. Did not like this at all. Wish I hadn't wasted my time and money.

Seriously Yawn. Voyage to cliche land.

Would you try another book from Owen Laukkanen and/or Edoardo Ballerini?

Probably not the author. These authors that write these series seem to start out with cookie cutter cartoon characters. This was of course a first in a series that I got for the 4.95 sale.

Would you ever listen to anything by Owen Laukkanen again?

Nope. Plot and characters are too stupid and whatever suspense he is trying to create is completely contrived out of the how to create suspense handbook.

What do you think the narrator could have done better?

He was fine.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

Good premise, but no follow through.

Any additional comments?

Let's not have people get in the kidnapping business and feel bad about what they have been doing and having moral issues. Pretty stupid. The idea is that because these kids went to college they had a more firm grasp on morality, even though they were conducting heinous crime. Almost like the ever stupid view point of the Orange is the New Black protagonist.

Painful

This book started out fine and I was looking to settle into a good thriller but it soon began to deterioate. As the gang began to make mistake after mistake I found myself getting more and more frustrated. It was like watching a slapstick movie. The narrator was very good and made it possible to hear the book through to the end.

Resolved: Avoid getting sucked in by sales!

This book sounded like it would be exciting and, in a dark sort of way, fun. When I look back many years to when I was getting out of college into an uncertain future, I think the idea of a harmless, low-budget, kidnap for ransom career may have had a lot of appeal (well yeah, the fact that it was the era of Easy Rider and Bonnie & Clyde may have had something to do with it). I love the Hit Man series, Donald Westlake, even Dexter, and thought that this would be much of the same.. However, I gave it over an hour and found the main characters disorganized, boring, unattractive, and prone to make stupid choices. There seemed to be a backstory that when the action starts they may have already worked a number of their scams - it was hard to imagine how. I'm not going to return it - it was cheap - and maybe I'll try again, but there is so much better out there, that I probably won't waste my time.