Cool, deadpan, a rollercoaster ride to hell

If Jim Thompson had gotten an MBA, he might have written Cold Caller, a ravingly readable story of a downwardly mobile yuppie who'll just kill to get ahead. Once a rising VP at a topflight ad agency, Bill Moss now works as a "cold caller" at a telemarketing firm in the Times Square area. He's got a bad case of the urban blues, and when a pink slip rather than promotion comes through, Bill snaps... Now he's got a dead supervisor on his hands and problems no career counsellor can help him with.

Jason Starr has retooled the James M. Cain novel of cynical suspense and murder for the fiber-optic age.