The Debt Collector Review

Author: Steven Max Russo

Publisher: Steven Max Russo Books

Release Date: March 20, 2024

Review:

THE DEBT COLLECTOR by Author Steven Max Russo is an intriguing, character driven thriller with a protagonist readers won’t forget. Abigail Barnes is driving down the street in Hackensack, New Jersey, when a man (Hector) wearing nothing but boxers runs out of a store into the street waving a gun and carjacks her. Her reaction is anything but typical and sets the tone for the rest of this highly entertaining crime thriller.

Abigal aka Abby is a pretty, petite, angelic little blonde whose good looks are deceiving, often giving her the upper hand in her occupation of choice. Abby is a debt collector - not for legitimate companies, but rather for bookies and loan sharks looking to collect past due debts. Being a pretty, demure blonde, Abby often has to prove her worth by giving a demonstration of her skills. She easily handles gangsters triple her size, reducing them to a humiliated, whimpering pile of bloody limbs on the floor. Such a demo earns her a job collecting for Bennie, a lowlife bookie, with her new carjacker friend, Hector, by her side. Things are going great until a man she just collected from is found murdered, and she's the prime suspect. Things become even more complicated when the bookie she was working for also turns up dead. Abby can't go to the police because it seems she left her last gig under highly suspicious circumstances so what's a girl to do? Solve the crime, of course. Armed with her weapons of choice, a special set of brass knuckles, a gun, and a don't mess with me attitude, Abby begins her own investigation while avoiding the local thugs, mobsters, and the cops. Things are about to get western!

Author Steven Max Russo has crafted a complex crime thriller with unique, fun characters battling life and death situations. Abby is a refreshingly different, highly skilled protagonist with a lot of attitude and sass . . . and a heart of gold. Hector provides comic relief, lending a lighter air to some otherwise heavy scenes. The action moves along at an increasing pace through twists and turns as events escalate, only slowing down later in the story when the same scenes are delivered through three different points of view. After a few times, I found this repetitiveness to be slightly distracting; however, it didn't lessen my overall enjoyment of this story. The ending of THE DEBT COLLECTOR felt like the perfect setup for more episodes with Collector Abigail Barnes. Highly recommended to fans of crime fiction and suspense thrillers with a unique twist.

Synopsis:

Abigail Barnes is young, pretty and petite, but her looks and size can be deceiving. She's a tough as nails drifter who makes her living collecting outstanding debts for low-end bookies and loan sharks, Abigail arrives in Hackensack, NJ, from Baltimore, MD, and gets a job collecting for a small-time bookie, who winds up dead.

With a large Wall Street firm moving into town bringing jobs, prestige, and money, the press is soon up in arms about the killing. So the cops decide to put the squeeze on Ronnie “Slacks” Falcone, a mobster who heads organized crime in the Jersey City area, to help find the killer.

Soon Abigail finds herself being sought by a gang of hoodlums, the mob, and the police. She knows she can’t run and she won’t turn herself in because she has a past that could send her to jail. She has little choice but to try and find out who killed the bookie – without getting killed in the process.