When the Devil Whistles

A few months back, a few friends recommended When the Devil Whistles by Rick Acker, mostly because it was a freebie for Kindle. While I normally don't read thrillers, I figured I'd give this one a go.

Allie Whitman is a professional whistleblower. She goes into companies and ferrets out evidence of fraud against the government and then sues them. She's good at what she does. She and her lawyer, Conner Norman, are making a bundle off of these lawsuits, enough to form their own company, Devil To Pay. Life is good.

But things quickly begin to unravel as Allie goes after a new company. They have secrets, yes, but secrets that they are willing to kill for to keep quiet. And Allie has put herself in their crosshairs.

This was an okay book. I didn't get into it all that much. Maybe it was the genre, but for some reason, the characters didn't grab me. I think part of it stemmed from the fact that Conner, the lawyer, seemed a bit too perfect to me. I mean, I know that lawyers are human too and I wasn't expecting him to be a money-grubbing corrupt jerk. But Conner came across as superhuman and flawless.

The overall plot, while interesting, didn't grab me all that much either. Truth be told, I'm still not sure how it all fit together in the end. Maybe I started skimming toward the end of the book. That would be my fault, I guess.

What really surprised me was the fact that the Christian content was a bit on the light side. Yes, Conner and another character are church-going folk and yes, there's a quote about the devil whistling (hence the title), but beyond that, there wasn't much. That's not a complaint, mind you. Just an observation.

So should you read it? Sure, if you like legal thrillers. I just checked and as of this writing, the book is still free for Kindle.