Book ~ "Darwin's Nightmare" (2008) Mike Knowles

From Goodreads ~ Wilson spent his entire life under the radar. Few people knew who he was and even less knew how to find him. Only two people even knew what he really did. He worked jobs for one very bad man. Illegal jobs no one could ever know about. Wilson was invisible until the day he crossed the line and risked everything to save the last connection to humanity he had. One day changed everything. Wilson saved his friends and earned the hatred of a vengeful mob boss, a man who claimed he was Charles Darwin’s worst nightmare. 

Wilson survived his transgression and went even deeper into the underworld of Hamilton becoming a ghost in the city - an unknown to almost everyone until he was paid back for his one good deed. It started with a simple job. Steal a bag from the airport and hand it off. No one said what was in the bag, and no one mentioned who the real owners were or what they would do to get it back. One bag sets into motion a violent chain of events from which no one will escape untouched. 

Wilson learns that no one forgets, no one gets away clean and no good deed goes unpunished.

Wilson is a loner and works for Paolo, an Italian mobster in Hamilton, ON, doing jobs that Paolo doesn't want to do and doesn't want any connection to.  Paolo asks Wilson to intercept a bag at the airport and give it to Julian, Paolo's right hand man.  Sounds like an easy job, right?  The next thing Wilson knows he's caught in the middle of a battle between the Italian mob and the Russian mob, and both want him dead.  He has to use all his experience and cunning to make sure he survives.

This is the first (of six) in the Wilson series ... I had read the second one a couple weeks ago and liked it enough to start at the beginning and read the series.  It was fun to read a book set in Hamilton, which isn't too far from Toronto.

I liked the writing style.  It's written in first person perspective from Wilson's point of view.  It was blunt and to the point.  As a head's up, there is swearing and violence.  Despite his occupation and the characters he encounters, I found Wilson likable.  In this book, we find out about his childhood and how/why he is the way he is today.

I look forward to reading more books by this author.