In a world where you're only as good as your last job, John Decker is tired. He may be top of the tree, but it's groaning with the weight of younger blood climbing the branches below. Banker? Market-maker? No: Decker is a contract killer, the best in the business. But when the laurels go to the guy who holds on longest, losing your job means losing your life. So when a contender offs his handler, Decker's out on his own. Forced into an alliance with a younger hitman, he finds himself pushing for position as well as fighting for his life. And when a fine young woman enters the frame, Decker has to choose between the life of a loner and the things he left behind, further back than he can recall... Sharply written and brilliantly conceived, The Hired Gun grippingly explores the ambiguous and unpredictable world of the contract killer, where Decker, complex and apparently ruthless, has to ask questions of himself few of us would dare, and then face an utterly shocking climax.