Title: Die Next
Author: Jonathan Stone
Genre: Suspense, Thriller
Format: Kindle ARC
No. of Pages: 353
Date of Publication: April 14, 2020
Description: In a crowded coffee shop, Zack Yellin swaps identical-looking cell phones with the businessman next to him. It's an honest mistake - and a deadly one. Because the "businessman" is actually a professional - and highly volatile - hit man named Joey Richter, and his phone is filled with bombshell evidence.
If Zack takes Joey's phone to the police, will they believe his swapped cell phone story? Would they even be able to protect him? Because the hit man now has Zack's phone with the phone numbers and addresses of Zack's new girlfriend Emily, his best friend Steve, and all the texts and information from Zack's life.
Whether he keeps the phone or ditches it, Joey will kill him for what he now knows. In cat-and-mouse twists, turns, and continually mounting terror, one thing is clear: Zack is next on the hit man's list.
My Thoughts: Zack and Joey were both enjoying a coffee at a Greengirl Coffee Shop. Zack was waiting for his childhood best friend and Joey was on his phone. Joey looked like a business man. Zack was sitting next to Joey and happened to notice that him and Joey had the exact same phones. He also happened to observe Joey enter his password into his phone. Once Joey leaves the coffee shop, Zack realizes that Joey had taken his phone by mistake and the he now had Joey's phone. Zack wanted to do the appropriate thing and return Joey his phone and get his phone back. So Zack entered the password that he saw Joey enter and gave Joey a call to let him know about the innocent mix-up. What should have been an easy, simple exchange of phones, turns out to be a race against a murder for hire assassin. Can Zack outsmart Joey and if so will he live to tell the tale?
The story line for this book is so simple, two strangers in a coffee shop with identical phones sitting next to each other. One accidentally picks-up the wrong phone and the other individual wants to get his phone back. However, the story quickly becomes unbelievable and so far fetched when Zack realizes that he has a "die phone" because he accidentally switched phones with that of a murder for hire.
I quite enjoyed the characters that Jonathan Stone had created for this story. I especially liked, Joey the murder for hire assassin who has also been diagnosed as being on the spectrum or as having Asperger's. Joey's diagnosis is not one that you often find in a role like this one. I liked it because it goes to show that no matter what, you can be whoever you want to be, even if that is an assassin.
The story is filled with fear, anxiety, love, attempted murder, etc. It is also filled out heart break and unlikely friendships being formed. It is fast paced and keeps you on the edge of your seat wanting more, especially since you never know what is going to happen next.
Rating: 5 out of 5 because it was fast paced, fly by the seat of your pants suspense. It kept me guessing and I love a book like that. I highly recommend this and it is a must read.
About the Author: Jonathan Stone has published eight novels. His Julian Palmer mystery series (The Cold Truth, The Heat of Lies, Breakthrough) was hailed as "stunning" and "risk-taking" in starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, and as "bone-chilling" in The New York Times. His bestseller Moving Day, and his novels Days of Night and Parting Shot, have been optioned for film. He has short stories in the Mystery Writers of America collections The Mystery Box (2013), Ice Cold (2014), as well as Best American Mystery Stories 2016, and New Haven Noir. Jon is married, has a son and daughter, and lives in Connecticut.
Thank you Netgalley and Grand Central Publishing for this advanced readers copy. This is my honest opinion.
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