Summary: Bill Moore is a man with a plan. He's got a lucrative job selling condos in the Florida Keys, a great marriage, and a beautiful house...only, it's year six of his five-year-plan for world domination. So he decides it's time to get in tight with the people in power, the players who run the area like their personal kingdom. It all goes to plan, but then, at work, Bill finds a card left on his desk. The card, black on both sides, has one word printed in white: MODIFIED. From that moment, his life gradually begins to change, in increasingly disturbing ways. Bill discovers, terrifyingly, that he's become the subject of a dark and deadly game...and that he has no choice but to fight back.
Bill Moore had a five year plan for world domination, but it's already creeping into year six - so now he's decided to mix it up - just a little. This means getting in tight with the people in power; the players who run the area like their personal kingdom.
Bill Moore is a man with a plan. He's got a lucrative job selling condos in the Florida Keys, a great marriage, and a beautiful house...only, it's year six of his five-year-plan for world domination. So he decides it's time to get in tight with the people in power, the players who run the area like their personal kingdom. It all goes to plan, but then, at work, Bill finds a card left on his desk. The card, black on both sides, has one word printed in white: MODIFIED. From that moment, his life gradually begins to change, in increasingly disturbing ways. Bill discovers, terrifyingly, that he's become the subject of a dark and deadly game...and that he has no choice but to fight back.
Adult.
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Publishers Weekly Review
Marshall, author of the Straw Men trilogy (The Straw Men, The Upright Man, and Blood of Angels), offers a subtle and unnerving story of the little things that can tip the balance of one's life and send it spiraling into chaos. Everything is going well for Bill Moore, a successful, ambitious, happily married realtor in Sarasota, Fla., until the day he finds a card on his desk with a single word on the front: modified printed in white letters and bold type against a black background. In a sort of malicious, Kafkaesque "butterfly effect," a reservation Moore didn't make, a book he didn't order, and an e-mail he didn't send lead to increasing trouble. Meanwhile, a convicted murderer released on parole, John Hunter, sets out on a course of deadly vengeance. Marshall skillfully spins interlocking plot lines as the agents out to ruin Moore and Hunter begin to collide in nightmarish fashion. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
Florida real-estate salesman Bill Moore is obsessed with living the good life. Although he makes good money, has a beautiful home, and is happily married, he's always trying to suss out the next big deal, hoping to be accepted into the elite circle of Sarasota's movers and shakers. That's why he's more than a little annoyed when he finds out someone is hacking into his e-mail account, sending inappropriate jokes to his clients, and ordering pornography under his name. He's even more puzzled when he receives a series of cards with a one-word message. Modified. Meanwhile, John Hunter has long known that someone is seriously messing with his life. When he gets out of prison after serving 16 years for a murder he didn't commit, he has only one thing on his mind, vengeance. As Moore's and Hunter's paths converge, serious mayhem ensues. Marshall ratchets up the stakes of his deftly written suspense novel by injecting telling if somewhat paranoid commentary on how regular people can be manipulated by those with the means and ways.--Wilkinson, Joann. Copyright 2010 Booklist
Kirkus Book Review
A Florida realtor targeted by unknown antagonists is suspected of assorted crimes while a parolee returns to his old stomping grounds to avenge the death of the woman he was convicted of murdering.Bill Moore makes a good living selling units for a condo chain in the Keys off the coast of Sarasota, Fla., and he's happily married to a magazine editor, Stephanie. But he wants to become super-rich. While pursuing the big deal that will enable him to start his own business, he starts receiving mysterious messages and getting packages he didn't order, all tagged with the word "Modified." When his wife walks out on him after discovering convincingly faked photos of him in a tryst with a co-worker, he becomes an odd man out desperate to prove his innocence. Meanwhile, the convict, John Hunter, is carrying out a cold-blooded plan that involves abducting the man whose $8 million house Bill is hoping to make a killing on. When people around him start dying, Bill begins questioning everyone: Is it possible his wife has set him up for a fall? A solid, workmanlike writer, Marshall (The Intruders,2007, etc.) evokes the Florida setting quite well. Atmosphere is his strong suit. But much of novel seems forced and secondhand. Moore is not particularly likable, and Hunter is one of the less memorable killers in recent crime fiction.A mildly enjoyable thriller that sets up a sequel on which only committed fans of the author may want to take a flyer.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
TextSeries: A Charnwood thrillerPublication details: Leicester : Thorpe, 2012.Edition: Large print editionDescription: 448 pages (large print) ; 24 cmContent type: 