The first in The Courier series.
Simon Leonidovich delivers. No matter how big or small or dangerous, he’s the man who can put it on your doorstep. He’s a high-tech, international courier of “packages” that range from priceless works of art, to human organs and nuclear materials. Perhaps that’s why the “easy job” catches him so off guard, turning his life into a nightmare run for survival.
The assignment sounded simple enough: to transfer a packet of computer disks between a research laboratory in Sweden and a pharmaceutical company in LaJolla, California. What Simon doesn’t know is that 33 million lives hang in the balance. The disks contain evidence of a biological catastrophe, the slow and irreversible degradation of liver tissue by Mira-loss, a popular weight-loss drug.
The company, suddenly aware of its exposure, hires Eth Jäger, The Hunter, to recover the disks. The story pits these two men, Eth Jäger and Simon Leonidovich, two modern-day technocrats, in an international game of cat and mouse.
AWARDS
Took FIRST PLACE honors at the prestigious
Focus on Writers annual competition sponsored by Friends of the Sacramento Library.
Finalist for a BARRY AWARD as the:
Best Paperback Original
in 2003.
Finalist for an ANTHONY AWARD as the:
Best Paperback Original Mystery
in 2003.
REVIEWS
From Deadly Pleasures
America's premier fan-oriented mystery magazine
Reviewed by George Easter
I liked everything about this book and can’t find a thing to criticize. This has my early vote for Best Paperback Original of 2003.
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From bookreporter.com
Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
"The title is THE COURIER, the author is Jay MacLarty, and the protagonist is . . . a courier. And while the title of this wonderful thriller isn’t terribly imaginative, it’s the only thing about the novel that isn’t."
"Let’s start with the courier, Simon Leonidovich, who runs his own courier service with his sister Lara functioning as secretary, office manager, and all-around coordinator. Their company, Worldwide SD, sounds like a huge operation, but it’s just the two of them. And Simon is physically unimpressive, but he is a can-do guy; if you need something delivered from a Point A to a Point B anywhere in the world, then Simon will globetrot it there for you. It accordingly seems like just another day in the office when Simon gets the call to make a pickup at a small laboratory in Sweden and deliver it to the lab’s U.S. home office in California. And there’s a bit of lagniappe for Simon: Bain-Haverland, the contracting company, manufactures Mira-loss, a weight-loss drug that Simon and millions of other folks are happily taking to drop a few pounds and keep the weight off."
"The problem is that, unbeknownst to Simon, the pickup and delivery he has contracted for contains some lab results that demonstrate that Mira-loss has some very, very nasty long-term side effects. Bain-Haverland wants to make sure that those lab results never see the light of day outside of their offices. There is a duplicate set of records, however, and Simon has them. He doesn’t quite know what he has, but he does know that something is definitely wrong. Simon soon finds himself on the run from Bain-Haverland and the mysterious, very dangerous Retnuh. If it’s Simon’s job to deliver things, then it’s Retnuh’s job to retrieve items that have been lost . . . or stolen. Retnuh is a ruthless and skilled assassin, and one of the most fascinating villains you’ll ever hiss. He is soon chasing Simon literally all over the world, but there is more at stake than the records in Simon’s possession. Simon may have the test results, but Retnuh has Lara."
"THE COURIER is a perfect thriller. There is no putting this book down once it’s opened, and there isn’t a wasted character or moment anywhere. When Webster’s Dictionary issues its revised edition, it will have to put a picture of THE COURIER next to the definition of “page-turner.” And --- YES! --- the final pages of THE COURIER contains an excerpt from BAGMAN, MacLarty’s next book. And yes, it’s coming straight to paperback. Who could have imagined that life can be so good?"
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From Publishers Weekly – April 4, 2003
"This edgy debut from entrepreneur-turned author MacLarty opens with a premise worthy of a first-rate medical thriller: Pär Olin, a Swedish researcher, discovers that the weight-loss drug Mira-loss, which has helped more than thirty million people shed pounds, causes fatal liver damage. The author quickly abandons this premise, however, and turns his tale into an international chase caper. When the drug’s manufacturer is warned of the impending medical holocaust, the company brass mobilizes to keep news of the deadly flaw from reaching the FDA or the press. But Olin makes an extra set of discs containing the smoking gun information and puts them in the care of professional courier Simon Leonidovich. Simon, a man who’s willing to transport anything anywhere if the price is right, soon finds himself hunted not only by the drug’s manufacturer but also by a vicious killer named Eth Jäger, who wants the discs for personal profit. Leonidovich is a fascinating character, as is his sister and partner, Lara. The two share a feisty but loving chemistry, and their witty dialogue and unusual line of work make them ideal candidates for a series. It is a taut, enjoyable ride."
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From Carsten Stroud,
Bestselling author of Cuba Strait
"Starting with an original premise as startling as it is terrifyingly plausible, Jay MacLarty's THE COURIER whiplashes you around the planet from Oslo to New York to Amsterdam as an ordinary man with an extraordinary job finds himself hunting – and being hunted by – one of this season's most memorable killers: Eth Jäger, a dead-eyed contract 'finder' with Freon in his veins and Jay MacLarty's all-too-mortal hero right at the top of his 'to kill' file. At stake is not just the horrifying secret buried in two encrypted disks in the Courier's high-tech briefcase but the lives of thirty-three million innocent victims who don't even know they're killing themselves one day at a time. A techno-thriller with a plot as snaky as an IV drip full of nitro and a prose style as clean as the edge of a scalpel, MacLarty's THE COURIER will surgically alter your faith in 'the big pharmaceuticals' and leave you looking at the pill bottles on your night table in a whole new way. Read it standing. With your back to a wall."
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