The Bottom Line: A ripped-from-the-headlines legal thriller that John Grisham fans will love. - bestthrillers.com Lauren Gold and Vance Courage jump at the chance to buy a luxury West Texas guest ranch. They've been looking for ways to launder a few million bucks and this deal seems perfect.After settling in as the new owners, tragedy strikes. A body is found in one of the buildings. The ranch manager - a holdover - pressures them not to immediately report it. Meanwhile, rumors swirl that the Supreme Court Justice who died of natural causes at the ranch before they bought it might actually be an unsolved murder. Suspecting the killer might be among them, they begin to dig for clues.What they unearth is chilling. The resort is ground zero for a secret society of global power brokers with a shocking agenda that stretches from Silicon Valley . . . to Frankfurt . . . all the way to Capitol Hill.Starting out two steps behind, Gold and Courage must play catch-up. Or risk becoming the next victims. The Bottom Line: A ripped-from-the-headlines legal thriller that John Grisham fans will love. - bestthrillers.comConspiracy theories about the untimely death of a Supreme Court justice draw attention to the West Texas dude ranch where he died. When attorney Vance Courage and his business partner Lauren Gold purchase the ranch to launder a large sum of dirty money, they soon discover that the rumors may be warranted. The ranch's previous owner was a highly decorated U.S. Army Captain who, before his death, was locked in a not-so-secret campaign to use the legal system to curb the power of the world's five largest technology companies. And not long after Vance and Lauren's arrival at the ranch, another suspicious death is reported. This time, the victim is the ranch's longtime head of housekeeping, who was certainly the killer's loose end.As the duo launch an investigation, they discover that the property is routinely used by some of the world's most powerful lawmakers and titans of industry. The question isn't so much who had a motive for murder, but who didn't? Strictly speaking, Killer Deal isn't a traditional legal thriller. After all, Vance may be an attorney (and former detective), but he's also a money launderer. Even so, the book's thoroughly satisfying exploration of how corporations attempt to use the courts as a business strategy is meaty enough to warrant admiration from fans of John Grisham and Scott Pratt. In addition, readers may recall that real-life justice Antonin Scalia also died at a West Texas dude ranch, and those following the story will relish the opportunity to help solve this alternate universe version of events.As a whodunnit, author Karen S. Gordon succeeds wildly, delivering a whopper of a surprise in the book's third act that few readers will see coming. Along the way, Vance and Lauren's (mostly platonic) chemistry is enjoyable, although readers may want to check out the first Gold and u0026 Courage series book for the detailed lowdown on how they ended up as partners. With that said, the book works well as a stand-alone. Highly recommended.