Book Review: Last Hope For Hire
Last Hope for Hire. Matthew Wilcox, The Wild Rose Press, Adams Basin, NY, 2021, Paperback, 338 pages.
Reviewed byJose Nateras.
Last Hope For Hire, Matthew Wilcox’s debut novel, is an exciting, high-tech adventure exploit with futuristic mercenary Allen Moran as its protagonist. This book takes the trope of a super-soldier, the likes of Jason Bourne, and imagines what it might be like if said super-solider was a middle-aged father forced to put his experience to use as a mercenary to get treatment for his ailing son.
Wilcox effectively paints the picture of a loving father willing to do anything within his power to save his child while also building a world full of futuristic technology, robot soldiers, and a rag-tag team of adventuring associates—a testament to the author’s ability to embrace a variety of influences.
Despite the high-stakes corporate espionage and sci-fi, action-hero antics of Last Hope For Hire, Wilcox never loses sight of the real world stakes at play for his hero—a real world where medical debt and access to health care are just the sort of struggles being faced by so many others. Similarly, by making his central protagonist a middle-aged father, Wilcox creates a character who is extremely relatable for his potential readers. A more typical Jason Borne-type protagonist, or even one similar to Liam Neeson’s character in the Taken films, while thrilling to watch, doesn’t encapsulate the experience of an aging soldier-turned-mercenary in the way that Wilcox’s Allen Moran does.
Despite this being his first novel, Wilcox creates a world and cast of characters that feel so thoroughly established that it almost feels like Last Hope For Hire might be the latest book in a larger series. For example, the book starts off with an exciting jungle escapade where Moran and the daughter of a former associate, Haley, battle off a robotic horde controlled by an out-of-control dictator. The sequence paints the picture of a man with a long history of former colleagues and field experience while establishing a relationship with a new generation of mercenaries. Right off the bat, Wilcox is building a world with decades of backstory and intergenerational relationships. The sequence also imbues humor to the sci-fi action as Moran’s cheaper, outdated weapons, and tech fail him.
Wilcox’s writing walks the fine line of genre fiction, allowing it to be familiar yet fresh, entertaining but grounded enough in relatable, real-world experiences. It imbues a sense of humor without undercutting the life and death stakes the characters are facing, nor the sci-fi action that makes this type of book so thrilling. Despite the fact that Wilcox’s Allen Moran starts the book off as a retired, returning to the fray to help his sick son, it feels as though Wilcox may be able to spin Last Hope For Hire into an ongoing series. He’s created a world and a rag-tag group of characters that are compelling enough for readers to come back wanting more.