What do you think?
Rate this book
Cold Shot
Wildly eccentric, electrifying, unforgettable, and completely original.
Divorce is hard. Murder is easy.
Dwayne is a retired hockey player. Celeste is an Instagram star. For their five-year anniversary, they both want the same thing – to have the other murdered.
There’s just one problem: They each hire the same hitman.
What ensues is a riveting, delightfully dark tale of pitch-perfect criminal mayhem. Throw in a repo-man, psychic, gun-toting toddler, and a mercenary biker, and you have a sensational novel unlike anything you’ve ever read.
There’s only one way this ends…
And it won’t be amicable.
It’s only a matter of time until Carey Lewis is mentioned alongside the Crime Fiction greats. Razor-sharp dialogue, delicious characters, and refreshingly irresistable stories place him at the top of the genre.
Divorce is hard. Murder is easy.
Dwayne is a retired hockey player. Celeste is an Instagram star. For their five-year anniversary, they both want the same thing – to have the other murdered.
There’s just one problem: They each hire the same hitman.
What ensues is a riveting, delightfully dark tale of pitch-perfect criminal mayhem. Throw in a repo-man, psychic, gun-toting toddler, and a mercenary biker, and you have a sensational novel unlike anything you’ve ever read.
There’s only one way this ends…
And it won’t be amicable.
It’s only a matter of time until Carey Lewis is mentioned alongside the Crime Fiction greats. Razor-sharp dialogue, delicious characters, and refreshingly irresistable stories place him at the top of the genre.
252 pages, ebook
Published December 25, 2018
19 people are currently reading
48 people want to read
About the author
Carey Lewis
28 books14 followersCarey Lewis traded a mundane job in Toronto, Canada, in favor of a backpacker life of nomadic travel. He can be spotted somewhere in Southeast Asia, drinking coffee and scribbling furiously into a notepad while cursing his credit card debt and writing about bad guys that are cooler than he'll ever be.
Sign up for my mailing list at http://careylewis.com for news, updates, and freebies including a free pdf copy of A Life Untold!
Sign up for my mailing list at http://careylewis.com for news, updates, and freebies including a free pdf copy of A Life Untold!
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
June 22, 2019
This story is told in a very roundabout way, so that you are never quite sure just where it is going to go next, which I found, made it fun, but a bit frustrating at times. It is the epitome of a rollercoaster ride of a plot.
The characters are quirky, original and very well developed, and what a cast they make, the central characters are Dwayne, a retired Ice Hockey player, who is convinced he's more entitled to respect for his achievements than he is, Celeste, his wife who is an instagram star and is convinced that beauty and fame are the only real way to get rich and famous, they are both fed up with each other. Then there is a gang hit man who is sent to kill them both so that his boss can get his hands on Dwayne's restaurant. There are also several supporting players who are also well written, interesting and often eccentric and colourful.
The main issue I had with the book is that is written in the vernacular, which is a bit of a bugbear of mine, as for me, it disrupts the reading flow, I found myself having to re-read lots of passages to work out just what the characters meant in the dialogue. I know that this is a personal preference, and some readers won't mind, but for me it just took the gloss off an otherwise very well written and entertaining mystery.
I requested a free review copy of this book through StoryOrigin and am voluntarily leaving a review.
The characters are quirky, original and very well developed, and what a cast they make, the central characters are Dwayne, a retired Ice Hockey player, who is convinced he's more entitled to respect for his achievements than he is, Celeste, his wife who is an instagram star and is convinced that beauty and fame are the only real way to get rich and famous, they are both fed up with each other. Then there is a gang hit man who is sent to kill them both so that his boss can get his hands on Dwayne's restaurant. There are also several supporting players who are also well written, interesting and often eccentric and colourful.
The main issue I had with the book is that is written in the vernacular, which is a bit of a bugbear of mine, as for me, it disrupts the reading flow, I found myself having to re-read lots of passages to work out just what the characters meant in the dialogue. I know that this is a personal preference, and some readers won't mind, but for me it just took the gloss off an otherwise very well written and entertaining mystery.
I requested a free review copy of this book through StoryOrigin and am voluntarily leaving a review.
July 19, 2019
This is an excellent read -- a crime thriller with wacky characters doing horrible things to each other. If you like Elmore Leonard, you will like Carey's work. The writing is fast-paced, the settings unique, and the details are believable. The characters are all cleverly developed and change throughout the story as they reach their inevitable conclusion.
The story deals with a Toronto couple -- a sadsack former hockey player and his Instagram influencer wife and they both hire the same hitman to kill each other. What follows are misunderstandings, more killing, a wisecracking detective, and fortune-telling.
One quibble was that I was looking for more local flavor and atmosphere for Toronto that I got in Mister Miracle.
This is a great novel worth it to add to your collection. Highly recommended. I requested a free review copy of Cold Shot through StoryOrigin and am voluntarily leaving a review. I bought and read Carey's Mister Miracle so I was looking forward to reading Cold Shot.
The story deals with a Toronto couple -- a sadsack former hockey player and his Instagram influencer wife and they both hire the same hitman to kill each other. What follows are misunderstandings, more killing, a wisecracking detective, and fortune-telling.
One quibble was that I was looking for more local flavor and atmosphere for Toronto that I got in Mister Miracle.
This is a great novel worth it to add to your collection. Highly recommended. I requested a free review copy of Cold Shot through StoryOrigin and am voluntarily leaving a review. I bought and read Carey's Mister Miracle so I was looking forward to reading Cold Shot.
June 22, 2019
This is a very entertaining read with a fascinating plot. Murder instead of divorce has happened but when both sides of the marriage hire an assassin to kill the other, it really gets interesting. Great characters and non-stop action make this an exciting page-turner.
I requested a free review copy of this book through StoryOrigin and am voluntarily leaving a review.
I requested a free review copy of this book through StoryOrigin and am voluntarily leaving a review.
November 1, 2019
Cold Shot: Divorce is hard. Murder is easy, my first read from author Carey Lewis. A well-written mystery. I'll be reading more from this author. "I received a free review copy of this book and am voluntarily leaving a review." (RIP Marley January 20, 2014 - July 24, 2018).
July 27, 2020
This was a very well written book. I enjoyed it alot. I would read more by the author.
September 14, 2021
The premise sounded interesting, but I just couldn't get into this book. DNF
December 2, 2024
A good story about a repo man, a murder plan, anda retired hockey player
February 17, 2025
Fun action-packed read.
July 13, 2024
Carey Lewis continues to write absorbing, tense, action-packed stories that are not in my usual preferred genre, but I find myself unable to resist reading them. From one moment to the next during this one, I found myself incapable of predicting what would happen next. After a while, I didn't even bother to try.
None of the characters are particularly likeable, or even sympathetic, but they are gritty and human and utterly compelling. There is no rhyme or reason to who dies and who lives, and if you think you can identify the hero, think again. Peripheral characters have some redeeming qualities, but the primary characters are a cancer on society. There is no happy ending, but maybe that's a commentary on life. Sometimes people do all the right things for the wrong reasons or all the wrong things for the right ones, and ultimately, their fate is completely out of their hands. The lives of the characters in this book are exercises in futility, where they are all victims of one sort or another.
The plot itself is depressing, but the telling is amazing. Banter between characters is irresistible, clever, and realistic. Everyone has a wise-ass comment to make, and even the author seems to poke fun at himself. At one point, he describes the garage of one of the main characters like this: "It was like Dwayne tried to copy what a garage should look like." Reading this made me realize that the author was actually doing that very thing, and perhaps in the midst of his description, he realized what he was doing and decided to lampoon himself.
Dwayne and Celeste are unequivocally stupid, although both have surprising insights during the course of the book. Celeste is described thusly: "It was always the stupid ones that were most arrogant. Throw beauty into the mix and you didn't have someone that didn't have a clue, you had someone that didn't have to have a clue." Later, she said to Dwayne: "If you were any dumber I'd have to water you twice a week." Yet, Celeste is street smart and adaptable, and an expert at manipulating people. And when Dwayne takes the time to self-reflect, and maybe even gain partial sobriety, he has some surprising insights.
And now the grammar nerd in me rears her ugly head. The only criticism I have for this book is the verb tenses, which were simply past tense, and failed to switch to past perfect tense when appropriate. This type of thing always confuses me when I'm reading because I have to pause to figure out if something just happened or it happened earlier in the story. But honestly, if that's the only complaint I have about a story, it's hardly worth discussion because I imagine most readers won't notice it anyway. This is really the sort of thing a good editor should fix.
The characters who experienced the most growth were no longer relevant by the end of the story, which was disappointing and made me feel cheated, but nobody said the good guys need to win every time. Sadly, many times they don't. Ultimately, though cynical, this story may suffer from too much realism. Regardless, I recommend it.
None of the characters are particularly likeable, or even sympathetic, but they are gritty and human and utterly compelling. There is no rhyme or reason to who dies and who lives, and if you think you can identify the hero, think again. Peripheral characters have some redeeming qualities, but the primary characters are a cancer on society. There is no happy ending, but maybe that's a commentary on life. Sometimes people do all the right things for the wrong reasons or all the wrong things for the right ones, and ultimately, their fate is completely out of their hands. The lives of the characters in this book are exercises in futility, where they are all victims of one sort or another.
The plot itself is depressing, but the telling is amazing. Banter between characters is irresistible, clever, and realistic. Everyone has a wise-ass comment to make, and even the author seems to poke fun at himself. At one point, he describes the garage of one of the main characters like this: "It was like Dwayne tried to copy what a garage should look like." Reading this made me realize that the author was actually doing that very thing, and perhaps in the midst of his description, he realized what he was doing and decided to lampoon himself.
Dwayne and Celeste are unequivocally stupid, although both have surprising insights during the course of the book. Celeste is described thusly: "It was always the stupid ones that were most arrogant. Throw beauty into the mix and you didn't have someone that didn't have a clue, you had someone that didn't have to have a clue." Later, she said to Dwayne: "If you were any dumber I'd have to water you twice a week." Yet, Celeste is street smart and adaptable, and an expert at manipulating people. And when Dwayne takes the time to self-reflect, and maybe even gain partial sobriety, he has some surprising insights.
And now the grammar nerd in me rears her ugly head. The only criticism I have for this book is the verb tenses, which were simply past tense, and failed to switch to past perfect tense when appropriate. This type of thing always confuses me when I'm reading because I have to pause to figure out if something just happened or it happened earlier in the story. But honestly, if that's the only complaint I have about a story, it's hardly worth discussion because I imagine most readers won't notice it anyway. This is really the sort of thing a good editor should fix.
The characters who experienced the most growth were no longer relevant by the end of the story, which was disappointing and made me feel cheated, but nobody said the good guys need to win every time. Sadly, many times they don't. Ultimately, though cynical, this story may suffer from too much realism. Regardless, I recommend it.
May 6, 2022
I couldn't get through this book. It was too strange for me...
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews