Review: Designed to Kill

Greg McKenzie retired as an agent with the OSI, the Air Force Office of Special Investigations. Greg lives with his wife, Jill, in Nashville. Greg and Jill also own a condo in Perdido Key, Florida and as the book begins Jill is urging her husband to go to Florida for a vacation. Greg is restless since his retirement and worked as an investigator for the DA’s office in Nashville for a period of time and is thinking of becoming a private investigator. Jill is undergoing therapy to recover from surgery brought about by a bad tear of the rotator cuff and is anxious to get away for a while.

Tim Gannon is currently staying in the condo in Florida. Tim is the son of Greg & Jill’s good friends Colonel Samuel Gannon and his wife Will. Tim, an architect/engineer, has gone to Florida to supervise the construction of a 15 floor beachfront condominium called The Sand Castle. Greg and Jill offered Tim the use of their Florida hideaway during his stay there and they decided to get hold of him and let him know that they would be coming down to stay for a while but before they could make the call they received a call from Sam to let them know that Tim was dead. The local authorities were convinced that his death was a suicide. The night before during a party at the new penthouse to show off the place a balcony had collapsed killing two people and injuring others. Authorities were convinced that Tim had felt guilt over his faulty plans and specifications and had taken the easy way out by committing suicide.

Tim’s mother and father as well as his wife were not buying into this explanation and begged Greg to go down and investigate the matter. Greg quickly became convinced that Tim’s death was no accident as more and more information came to light. Original plans were missing, the key to Greg and Jill’s condo was missing, and a laptop left there by Tim had the files regarding the building deleted. Walt Sturdivant who worked with Tim in New Horizons, Tim’s company, also believed there was no way possible that there were flaws in the design and he was adamant Tim would not have committed suicide.

Greg and Jill along with Walt head for Florida but are faced with much opposition in their investigation which leads them down many avenues and includes some attacks on Greg by people he later finds out have Mafia connections. The general contractor, the head of the company that owns the property and the building inspector are all under suspicion by Greg but not by the police who felt this was an open and shut case.

Greg finally gets to the bottom of things and learns the truth behind the collapse and Tim’s death but not without much help from his wife and a few of his old contacts. This is an entertaining book and keeps you interested.

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Pat Reid - RAM

Book Review: Designed to Kill