A "can't put it down" debut novel!

P.M. Terrell's debut novel, Kickback, has something for everyone. It is a non-stop, action-filled suspense/thriller with just a tad of romance thrown in that adds an addictive quality to the 312-page novel.

Sheila Carpenter, computer genius and recent Vanderbilt graduate is hired by a computer consulting firm in Washington, DC. Monday through Friday mornings she is loaned out to MTS, the nation's largest and most prestigious trucking transportation firm. All she has to do is write a new accounting program that generates a double set of books in one of the biggest and most far-reaching fraud schemes since before the Enron debacle became public knowledge. Friday afternoons she is to help create a database for a local law firm, where she meets Matt, the handsome lawyer who turns into her knight-in-shining-armor.

The head honchos of MTS, in cahoots with her real boss, Douglas Murray and Associates, make no bones that they want Sheila to write a kickback program and hurried her through the initial paperwork to ensure that she keeps her lips locked. Then, when she wants to turns to the FBI, the less-than-honorable CEO's and managers threaten her Aunt Jo, her only remaining relative unless she agrees to do so.

But Sheila has guts and good-old American honesty. She can't live with herself if she doesn't tell someone. Once she starts to talk, the dark blue Caddys start to trail her, armed men break into her townhouse, and the fur starts to fly. Given the climate of today's financial institutions and their shady accounting practices, Terrell couldn't have written a more timely novel and got it to press without having a heavyweight name.

I couldn't put this book down---much to the chagrin of a five-year-old nephew who wanted my attention---I finished it in one afternoon. You don't have to be a computer geek to understand what the bad guys want, and you may even learn a thing or two about computer programming. Kickback is so good that I'm kicking Elizabeth Berg off the number one spot as my favorite author!

Better snatch this heart-stopping, thrill ride before its optioned for a movie---'cause we all know the book is so much, much better. Think early Grisham novels, especially The Pelican Brief, and you know you're in for a treat! Yeah, I can see Julia Roberts as Sheila; Lauren Bacall as Aunt Jo, Ben Affleck as Matt, and Jaime Lee Curtis as Sheila's immediate boss, Pam.

-- Review by Julie Failla Earhart