Who knew the IRS could be this interesting!
When I first picked up this book, I didn't think anything about an up and coming guy in the IRS could be as interesting as this book wound up being. After a quick glossary of I.R.S. terms to get you used to the jargon in the book, Parris wastes no time pulling readers into the action as a typical commute home quickly turns into an ominous car following the narrator down a darkened, empty street. This scene leaves off on a cliff hanger, and then we're reeled back to the beginning of the narrator's career with the I.R.S and left wondering how a job as boring as this one, can turn into a scene as chaotic as being run down by a car. This book does have scenes where Danny Shapiro, our narrator, helps people with their taxes, tries to navigate his way through work place politics, and climbs the ladder up to bigger and better jobs, but this book also has so much more. Parris balances the mundane, with the downright crazy. Office politics and romances quickly turn into conspiracies and mid work trysts as Danny Shapiro's life spins almost out of control.
Throughout the book I found myself rooting for Shapiro and hoping that somehow he would come out on top. Parris does a great job of making his main character seem human. Shapiro makes mistakes, he does things I don't agree with, he wants to think that he's a good person even when he's messed up, but all this made me feel for Shapiro even more. You want to see him get his promotion, make his girlfriend proud, you want to see him win. All of this kept me reading and kept me guessing what was going to happen next. Parris easily lulls the reader into a sense that Shapiro is safe within the world of the I.R.S. but then abruptly jerks you out of this as Shapiro faces bomb threats, armed gunmen in the office, and even an attempt on his life. The reader quickly learns that even in a job as seemingly boring as the I.R.S. the troubles that lurk beneath the surface are much more dangerous than Danny Shapiro can imagine.
