The Distance

July 21, 2014
In British author Giltrow’s riveting debut, the rich, sophisticated Charlotte Alton is the alter ego of Karla, who operates a high-tech information network. Eight years earlier, Karla established a new identity for Simon Johanssen, a hit man fleeing gangster John Quillan. Now Johanssen wants her help infiltrating the Program, a prisoner-run society in a heavily guarded London neighborhood, to kill inmate Catherine Gallagher. Because Quillan is the most powerful man in the Program, Karla has misgivings about sending Johanssen inside, but reluctantly agrees. She also looks into Catherine’s background but finds no record of a crime, conviction, sentencing, or incarceration—only a year-old missing person report. Meanwhile, Catherine saves Johanssen from Quillan’s sadistic sidekick, and he begins to reconsider the hit. While Johanssen isn’t entirely convincing as a professional killer, the attraction between him and Karla, as well as other unexpected connections between damaged characters, add depth to an already satisfying read. Agent: Gráinne Fox, Fletcher & Company.

October 1, 2014
A literate though gritty thriller by Oxford-based mysterian Giltrow. Who guards the guards while they're guarding the rest of us? So asked the Roman poet Juvenal. Giltrow offers a wrinkle: If the guards are criminals to begin with, top dogs in a "self-regulating society made up of other criminals," then who are the criminals, and why bother guarding them? No matter: She ably imagines a near-future republic of miscreants that exists alongside our own. The Program, as it's called, is impregnable-supposedly. Populated by the dregs of society-supposedly-it allows no entry or exit. That's before elegant socialite Charlotte Alton goes all Batman, of course, and in her alter ego as the tough sociopath Karla, helps insinuate the even tougher sniper and spook-on-the-run Simon Johanssen into a place run by an archfiend who's tougher still, a "professional criminal, gangster, murderer" who wants Simon dead. Now, why would Simon, who certainly takes his lumps in this tale, want to go to such an uninviting place? Apparently, because some sniper justice needs to be visited on a woman who has done Very Bad Things, a sentiment that seems to be widely shared. But hasn't everyone in The Program done such VBTs? Well, there's the question. The cat and mouse that ensues is satisfying though not without flaws: Giltrow's characters can't stop gabbing, the narrative suffers from occasional patches of overwriting ("But my brain won't let me sleep: I lie there while the thoughts tick in my head, metronomic, insistent, like the drip of a tap"), and it stretches credulity and patience for everyone in the story to nurse a secret-life back story. Still, Giltrow's villains are just right (who doesn't hate medical insurers, for one thing?), and the worldbuilding she does in imagining The Program to begin with is worthy of a well-made sci-fi yarn, pushing genre bounds in interesting ways. Well done overall. A pleasurable, complex read that runs a touch long-and, as Giltrow reminds us, "It is all about distance."

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September 15, 2014

Beautiful, stylish Charlotte Alton is seen at the opera, art galleries, and generally flitting about London. Few people know that the socialite has a secret life in a shadowy land of spies and criminals. When our protagonist goes home, she throws off her Charlotte persona and becomes Karla, a master manipulator of information who can make anyone disappear from computer databases and offer them a new life with a clean slate. Karla is perfect for a man like Simon Johanssen, an independent-contract sniper with an elite military background. Simon's misstep on a job years ago led him to Karla, and now he needs her help to infiltrate an experimental prison, complete a hit, and get out alive. But Karla's focus on the Johanssen project is diminished as she evades members of various governmental spy agencies determined to uncover her identity. VERDICT Like Stuart Neville's gritty novels, Giltrow's debut thriller is a sophisticated and hard-hitting read with many intricate layers and duplicitious characters who rely on violence and torture to get things done.--Joy Gunn, Paseo Verde Lib., Henderson, NV

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2014
Charlotte Alton is leading a double life. A prominent London socialite, she is also known in criminal circles as Karla, a fixer who specializes in information of the most sinister kind. Karla can wipe out all traces of a person and conversely can reincarnate a person into someone else with a few strokes of the keyboard. No one knows of her dual identity save for one man, Johanssen, who needs her help to break into an experimental prison to kill a woman housed there. Unfortunately, the prison is run by Quillan, a man who would dearly love to kill Johanssen, and Karla can't find any trace of the targeted woman. Not only does she need to get Johanssen in, she also has to get him out, at seemingly impossible odds. Determined to keep her client safe, Karla keeps digging and doesn't like anything she finds. Most of the characters in this highly layered story are duplicitous, but despite the narrative's complexity, Giltrow keeps it tight and moving. The graphic violence and torture has this thriller bordering on horror, like the work of Chelsea Cain, so be forewarned that it is not for the squeamish.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)