Who You Work For

A print copy of Who You Work For by Anthony David Mitchell was given to me for review.

Who You Work For is not an easy read. Not because of difficult language or concepts. It is the story of a young man raised to be a weapon. Call it brainwashing, indoctrination or whatever sinister motive you like, our main character Thomas Moore, is no doubt the creation of a twisted mind.

Moore is an assassin, and a pretty successful one, that is until he is given a job that falls outside his usual parameters.

Who You Work For is a very dark read. Without getting into details that would spoil the story, we do sympathize with Moore as he loses control of his well ordered world. Although he has a warped sense of justice, we know he is doing the best with what he has been given.

Personal insight here: Moore is actually a weak minded individual who is manipulated by many of the people he comes in contact with. He believes he is strong willed, and in some small aspects of his life he is, but for the most part he is led around by the nose. Presented as a man who would be more comfortable in a earlier time period in the U.S., Moore is so inept in social situations as to be a poor fit in any society. Again these are personal views, Mr. Mitchell may well claim I missed his point altogether.

For the main character, Who You Work For is a tragic story of misguided intentions, unrequited love, and general confusion.

Author Anthony David Mitchell does do a good job of setting this dark, depressing, world-going-to-hell-in-a-hand-basket tone. He is very adept at showing the sick and twisted underbelly of "civil" society, while taking the reader on a twisting, turning ride that will tie their sense of fair play in knots.

The difficulty in reviewing  Who You Work For is that it is well written by my standards (whatever that means) and engaging, but it was for me, a very depressing story. It got my hopes up, but ended, in my mind, tragically.

For me, this re-enforces why I stay away from "psychological" novels in general. As a former psycho-therapist, these type of stories are difficult for me. I tend to read too much into them. For some reason I am unable to sit back and accept the story for what it is on its surface. In defense of Mr. Mitchell, Who You Work For was not presented to me as a psychological novel, and may well not be intended as such at all. I know there is an audience who likes this type of story, and I don't mean to imply that I think they shouldn't. I apologize that this paragraph was more about me that about the book, but I don't want to appear to be unfairly critical without explaining why.

If you are a reader who likes delving into the dark psychological aspects of a twisted story of flawed people in a flawed society (and I know many of you do),  I think Who You Work For  by Anthony David Mitchell will be a very satisfying read for you. Enjoy!

Mike