Tenkill

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A lawyer on the run from her own firm. Can she uncover their secrets in time to save herself?

Greta Vinet Seville, E-Discovery Counsel and Deputy General Counsel at the international law firm of Coarse & Cotton, finds herself on the run from her own firm after absconding with firm data to conduct her investigation, and enlists a diverse cast of friends and experts to help her comb through the mountains of data that confirms a trail of corruption that has shaped generations.

Her off-the-books, rag-tag legal team includes a genius litigation technology professional, a possibly psychopathic (but effective) summer associate, an AP investigative reporter, a classical painting art restorer, Greta’s philosophy professor brother, and Greta’s love interest, a compliance attorney at Tenkill. Romance, action, technology law, corruption are all explored, and married with Greta’s personal backstory about a renegade, vigilante aunt who’s been on the run for decades and fighting her own politically-charged battles.

They create a make-shift war room in a historic Salem, Massachusetts home, and their pursuit of more evidence leads them in action-packed chases around Boston…and a massive hospital—Tenkill—that is at the center of the corruption. But this investigation is like no other Greta has ever conducted, as people who have millions to lose and careers to ruin have and will kill to keep what she seeks to uncover secret.

A surrealist thriller for fans of early John Grisham, with an all-female-led cast, and a secret at the end that will shake you to your core.

Praise

“(An) intriguing legal thriller…fast pacing and plot twists…Greta and crew are capable of sustaining a sequel.”
—Publishers Weekly

“Kirk’s legal expertise is apparent in the investigation’s absorbing high-tech details, and the tense, carefully plotted chases through Boston’s streets have a cinematic quality.”
—Booklist

“[An] explosive new legal thriller…. Kirk, herself an attorney, cleverly explains legal procedures in an informal and entertaining way throughout the novel…. Her characters are also rich with idiosyncratic traits and steely determination, and they work together with brilliant legal maneuvering.

Beyond spinning a tale, though, the author uses her storytelling chops to declare her outrage over real-life human-rights abuses—the book is dedicated to ‘Asylum seekers. The ACLU. [And] All lawyers representing asylum seekers’—and to shine a light on them, making Tenkill as much a call to action as a thriller. Far more than just an energetic page-turner, it’s a commentary on our country’s recent four-year flirtation with anarchy. And in Greta Seville, readers have a fictional embodiment of every American still fighting to keep our democracy alive.”
—Washington Independent Review of Books

“One of the Most Anticipated Thrillers of 2023.”
—She Reads

“Fast-paced. If you like novels with strong female protagonists and feminist takes on the classics, add this one to your list.”
—Reader’s Digest

“Tenkill is dazzling in its voice, its pace, its setting, and its determination to use the law as a force for good. I hope Kirk is already working on a sequel.”
—Joseph Finder, New York Times bestselling author of House on Fire

“I loved it! Heart pounding excitement from beginning to end. With an authentic and immersive Boston setting, and brilliantly original characters, and a completely propulsive story. I could not put this down.”
—Hank Phillippi Ryan

“I’m not sure I can adequately express how much I loved this book. It’s a legal thriller, sure, but also so much more. I loved this cast of characters, the plot moves at a delicious breathtaking pace, and yet everything is so richly drawn and emotional. It’s been compared to The Firm, which I also loved, but I think it’s better. I’d read the hell out of a sequel, or whatever else Shannon writes.”
—Tara Laskowski, author of One Night Gone

“Tenkill is a fever dream of crime and punishment from a real-life legal virtuoso. Surreal and freewheeling at times, funny, harrowing, and terrifyingly realistic at others, she brilliantly captures the maddening absurdity of today’s climate of rampant corruption and unchecked white collar crime and the genius and grit necessary for the warriors of the law to bring them to justice. A Picasso of a legal thriller.”
—Emily Carpenter, Amazon bestselling author of Burying The Honeysuckle Girls and Every Single Secret

“Shannon Kirk takes readers on a thrill ride of 21st-century lawyering that left me breathless all the way until the explosive end. The novel is a thriller, yes, but it’s textured with gothic and lyrical elements that never get in the way of the plot’s propulsive motion but somehow make the story add up to something bigger than you think it will be.”
—Elisabeth Elo, author of Finding Katarina M. and North of Boston

“A wild ride, packed with originality, humanity, and energy. Add in a fast-paced delivery, smart, individualistic, snarky, funny characters, and you have a thriller that won’t let go until you turn the last page.”
—Margaret Murphy, Dagger-winning author of Before He Kills Again

“One of the top 10 thriller and suspense books to read in 2023.”
—Trenzle