Killing is my Business (LA Trilogy)
Author: Adam Christopher
Publisher: Titan Books
Pages: 281
ISBN: 9781783296910
Reviewed by: Sandra Scholes
If you remember the previous novel, Made to Kill, the relationship between Ray Electromatic and Ada is purely platonic, and sometimes they don't see eye to eye on certain topics. And instead of this being part of a series in the normal sense, Killing is my Business acts as a stand-alone novel with Ray out on another assignment.
This time Vaughn Delaney is the target. Ray has been trailing him for a while, finding out where he lives, where he works, his weekly routine and decides to kill him on a Wednesday. His reason for this is that he goes out for a ride on that day and Ray can kill him and no one would be any wiser, except Ray sees him do a nose-dive outside his office window where he works, landing on top of his cool car, shocking those around him most of all Ray.
While Ray ponders on Vaughn, Ada has another assignment for him, Emerson Ellis, a wealthy man with everything going for him as a real-estate magnate. Ray tracks him down, but finds he is missing. If Made to Kill was the start of a rip-roaring good series with Ray as a PI and secret hit-man, then this shows him at his best, yet still with the worst run of luck in finding certain targets. One he does find is a big-time gangster and one he has to keep alive.
Reading Killing is my Business is like going through the diary of the last working robot on Earth. Ray tells us what is on his mind, but not without some bit of emotion; he loves classic cars and books, though the book he is reading at the moment he can't remember. Is Ray losing his memories or is he just an old model?
The only other book I've read by Adam Christopher is The Machine Awakes from the Spider Wars series, but I have to admit I like his LA Trilogy series better with Ray, the sort of gumshoe who strives to get his job done. It's other people who are hard to track. He doesn't understand humans, not when they act like his new targets, but reading his daily life is enough to fry any robot's circuits. From helpful butlers to overenthusiastic daughters, Ray encounters all of humanity and its weirdest people and has to piece together the clues to be able to do his job.
I'm not surprised this series is as eagerly awaited as his award-winning editing. There will be those readers chomping at the bit for the final book in the series.
