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Severance Package: A Novel Paperback – Illustrated, May 27, 2008

by Duane Swierczynski (Author)
4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 111 ratings
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Some days, you could just kill your boss. Guess what? The feeling is mutual in the next thriller by the acclaimed author of The Wheelman and The Blonde.

Jamie DeBroux's boss has called a special meeting for all "key personnel" at 9:00 a.m. on a hot Saturday in August.

When Jamie arrives, the conference room is stocked with cookies and champagne. His boss smiles and tells his employees, "We're a cover for a branch of the intelligence community. And we're being shut down." Jamie's boss then tells everyone to drink some champagne, and in a few seconds they'll fall asleep---for good. If they refuse, they'll be shot in the head.

Escape is not an option. Jamie's boss has shut down the elevators and rigged the fire towers with chemical bombs. Panic sets in, chaos erupts, and no one is sure whom to trust. Jamie quickly realizes that there's only one way he's ever going to see his family again: the hard way.

Severance Package shows author Duane Swierczynski at his thrilling best.

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Previous page
  1. Print length
    263 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publication date
    May 27, 2008
  4. Dimensions
    5.5 x 0.64 x 8.5 inches
  5. ISBN-10
    0312343809
  6. ISBN-13
    978-0312343804
  7. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

At the start of this violent and intense noir and espionage hybrid from Swierczynski (The Blonde), David Murphy, the CEO of a Philadelphia financial company, summons his seven staffers for an important Saturday meeting, where he informs them that the business is being shut down, and that unfortunately he has to kill them all. Every escape route from the 36th-floor office has been sealed off or rigged with lethal sarin gas. Suddenly, mousy Molly Lewis pulls out a gun and puts a slug in Murphy's head. The resulting chaos sets off a panicked scramble, as the reader gradually learns that the business is a front for a covert intelligence group called CI-6. Thousands of miles away in Scotland, two men monitor Molly Lewis, who's actually a highly trained Polish operative named Ania Kuczun, as she performs her own private audition, which involves the systematic elimination of her co-workers using a truly imaginative array of methods. This action fest moves swiftly to its darkly satisfying conclusion. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

“[A] kinetic story, which never stops moving...turbocharged entertainment.” ―Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times

“Swierczynski writes a brand of thriller whose pacing forces us to reexamine our casual use of the word breakneck...This is essentially one long action scene that begs for the next Tarantino to direct. But if that sounds like faint praise, it isn't: there are both enough cliche killers and comedy to make us raise two thumbs up. If you want your thrillers to be, well, thrilling, pop a big bowl of corn--you won't leave your seat until the end.” ―Booklist

“The best word to describe Swierczynski's latest thriller is frenetic, and even that is likely an understatement.” ―Library Journal

“Fans of crime fiction will find Swierczynski's latest offering to be a guilty pleasure of unparalleled magnitude. With pedal-to-the-metal pacing, characters who appear to be meek cubicle dwellers a la 'Office Space' but are really cold-blooded, black-ops killers, and enough gut-churning violence to make a Quentin Tarantino movie look like a Disney musical replete with singing candlesticks and teapots, the dark, twisted energy in this novel is palpable.” ―The Chicago Tribune

“A hot shot of adrenaline straight to the neural plexus.” ―Joe Schreiber, author of Chasing the Dead and Eat the Dark

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Minotaur Books; First Edition (May 27, 2008)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 263 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0312343809
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0312343804
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 9.6 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.64 x 8.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 111 ratings

About the author

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Duane Swierczynski

Duane Swierczynski

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Duane Swierczynski is the New York Times bestselling and two-time Edgar-nominated author of fifteen novels including Expiration Date, Canary and the forthcoming California Bear, as well as the graphic novels Breakneck and Redhead. Along with James Patterson, Duane co-created the Audible Original The Guilty, starring John Lithgow and Bryce Dallas Howard, and co-wrote the private eye thriller Lion & Lamb. He’s also written over 250 comic books including Cable, Deadpool, The Immortal Iron Fist, Punisher, Birds of Prey, Bloodshot, Star Wars: Rogue One and The Black Hood. His first short story collection, Lush & Other Tales of Boozy Mayhem, was recently published by Cimarron Street Books. A native Philadelphian, Duane now lives in Southern California with his family.

Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5 stars
4.1 out of 5
111 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Gary Griffiths
5.0 out of 5 stars Love Hurts
Reviewed in the United States on June 4, 2008
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By now you've read all the adjectives describing Swiercynski's latest creative spin on mayhem: graphically brutal, uber-violent, twisted, and over-the-top. And yeah, it reads like a comic book - or at least like Frank Miller's remarkably distorted gore fest in film: "Sin City". But I couldn't help feeling that in Swierczynski's beautifully warped mind "Severance Package" is his idea of a love story - a totally off-the-rails dissection of love gone bad in ways that we mere mortals could never conjure, but can certainly enjoy. Intersecting stories of unrequited love, fake love, undying love and perverted love running jagged and bloodied through an adrenaline-charged broken field rush through the seemingly benign corridors of drab cubes, conference rooms and corner offices - a high rise nightmare of terror that simultaneously conjures images of 9/11 and "Die Hard."

So you've probably got the plot by now - a crew of seemingly work-a-day Philadelphia office drones are dragged into the office on a typically and oppressively hot and humid Philadelphia Saturday morning, generally bitching or specifically fighting off hangovers, for a secret and critically important meeting called by boss David Murphy. But much to their collective, um, chagrin, Murphy offers a couple of non compelling choices: take poison or a .22 slug to the head - either way you've got to die (attention "spoiler police": this is already disclosed on the book jacket). From this bizarre premise of the ultimate in wacko bosses and bad days is the office, Swierczynski pens a raucous and wonderfully convoluted tale of clandestine operations, extreme office politics, survival and black humor in a voice that is uniquely his own, and is fast becoming the high bar in pop pulp fiction.

With this guy, the superlatives just can't capture his originality, hip irreverence, and street smart wit. So maybe it is the literary equivalent of eye candy, maybe it is impossibly violent, and maybe no one will ever confuse it with Tolstoy or Faulkner. But it will also never be confused with the drivel of contemporary crime "thrillers" that tend to make best seller lists these days. Starting with "The Wheelman", Duane Swiercynski has been reeling off contemporary noir hits each more outrageous than the predecessor - "The Blond", the brilliantly offbeat "Secret Dead Men" - while compiling a terrific anthology of crime, "Geezer Noir", in his spare time.

In any event, call it what you will, but do yourself a favor and just read all of these new crime classics - in thirty years folks will be talking about Swierczynski with the same sense of awe and reverence reserved today for Chandler, Thompson, and Hammett. Keep 'em coming, Duane!
11 people found this helpful
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TMStyles
4.0 out of 5 stars A Wildly Improbable "E-Ticket" Ride!!
Reviewed in the United States on July 23, 2008
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Duane Swierczynski has developed an outrageously breakneck pacing of his novels that almost compel the reader to turn pages as quickly as possible to avoid putting the book down. As he did with "The Blond", "Severance Package" starts with a bang and then relentlessly pulls the reader into a nightmarish rollercoaster ride that at times leaves one gripping the book to keep from setting it down.

"Severance Package" begins with 7 employees of a financial institution being called into work unusally on a Saturday to meet with boss, David Murphy. Some are shocked to discover that they are part of a top secret organization that has been ordered to shut down and each of them must die as a part of the closure. The entire 36th floor of the building has been rigged to prevent escape and the employees, some who are not who they seem to be, are told to choose suicide by poison or death by a bullet to the head.

After the initial disbelief, the wild sometimes over-the-top action begins as chaos and panic set in and everyone begins fighting for his/her life. The novel indeed reads like a screen play with distinct action scenes occurring on a regular basis and the whole thing reading like a movie running in the reader's head.

Yes, there is considerable reason to suspend disbelief at times but that is OK because this is the type of book that requires the reader to enjoy the ride more than the scenery. Sure, there are some outrageous scenes which defy logic and physicality from a small female but so what if the ride is as compelling and satisfying as it was for this reader.

I was more disappointed in the characerizations developed in this novel--or lack thereof. Few characters were fleshed out, and even Jamie, Swierczynski's Everyman in this story, is not an overly sympathetic character who we should care deeply about.

No, this book is about the motivation and the wild relentless ride that forces each of us to imagine what we might do to escape a similar circumstance--trapped at the top of a highrise with killer(s)determined to destroy every living being and with elevators and stairways closed off. It is a "Die Hard" meets a seemingly indestructible killer scenario laced with competing covert agencies, double crosses, moles, incredible violence, and even a cockeyed love story thrown in the mix.

There are flaws in this book that I chose to submerge for the fun of the ride--of seeing how each new action or potential death scene might evolve. How will these desperate characters, some who are trained killers, interact to escape certain death? Will anyone survive, and if so, who will it be? The ultimate flaw is the ending which, while darkly comical, is incomprehensible and illogical. Still, I rate the book 4 stars simply for Swierczynski's ability to hold my interest and keep me guessing until the end.
2 people found this helpful
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M. K. Galloway
5.0 out of 5 stars Good way to spend an afternoon
Reviewed in the United States on January 18, 2009
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Honestly, I usually don't read or like stories that rely on gore because the writers seem to think nastiness is a good substitute for horror or tension. However, while this book had a lot of gore (and I imagine that's because a lot of people do dig it) the author creates real tension in other ways. He writes engagingly and you're just along for the ride and don't want to get off until the end...

This also isn't the sort of book you read for strong characters -- none of the characters have any real depth and each personality seems to hinge on a major characteristic or two and a handful of plot strings. It works, though, because the story couldn't hold together with a bunch of character development and soul searching. It's pure survival.
One person found this helpful
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JR
3.0 out of 5 stars Not for Kindle? Not buying
Reviewed in the United States on December 15, 2010
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I like Duane's other books. Unfortunately this one isn't available on Kindle, so I won't buy it until it is. It doesn't make sense since the others are available on Kindle. But then, business sense in the publishing world is an oxymoron.
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mad auntie
5.0 out of 5 stars Suggested it for book club
Reviewed in the United States on November 16, 2022
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This is my second copy. not sure what happened to my other copy but I've moved a lot and occasionally lend things out and forget. I think this book is a great read which is why I suggested it for my book club. very fun action packed book.
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Charlie Stella
4.0 out of 5 stars Fun stuff ...
Reviewed in the United States on July 19, 2008
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A fun read loaded with clever cynicism, wit and sarcasm ... and (if I'm correct) a subtle reference an Al Guthrie character (a 3 legged dog one guy spots in Edinburgh)(?) ... fun stuff. The author has a wonderful way of interweaving popular culture (past and present) and even the jabs at the political right, aside from being deserved, are entertaining (this coming from a certified hawk).

I liked this one slightly less than The Blonde (thus the 4 stars instead of 5) but The Blonde may well be a classic.

I know one son of mine will enjoy this one very much as well.
3 people found this helpful
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