Plot Summary: If Nick Barrow can stay alive for 21 days he'll die happy. Everyone Nick knows wants him dead; Mob bosses, contract killers, and dirty cops. Performing the last act of a desperate man, Nick takes out a million dollar insurance policy on himself, payable to his estranged daughter. The problem? The policy doesn't take effect for 21 days. Nick knows they'll be lucky to be alive for twenty-one hours.

Review: Nick Barrow has an estranged daughter. His underworld dealings have backed him into a corner and everyone is trying to kill him. He wants to leave something for his daughter, so he takes out an insurance policy worth one million dollars. But he has to stay alive for 21 days before the policy is activated.

Term Life takes familiar crime fiction character types and runs them through a slick, ticking clock thriller. Barrow and his daughter are forced together due to lethal circumstances and that pressure cooker forces them to develop a relationship. They will have to work through a lot of their issues all while running from wanting to kill them. Term Life is a story packed with familiar beats so it operates in a kind of short hand mode. So while it may be an exercise in genre conventions, the execution is slick so the whole thing becomes very fun pretty quickly. It’s action packed, funny, and very fast paced. Term Life is entertaining as hell.

Verdict: positive/recommended

Availability: Print|Kindle|Publisher|Hoopla 

Side note: Term Life was adapted into a film. It is poorly reviewed and by looking at the trailer alone it’s easy to see why. It just looks like all the life and style and fun of the book was stripped away.