When I stopped by Partners and Crime in New York City a while back, the partner on duty was recommending this book to nearly everyone who came by. She described it as very violent and darkly funny. I agree completely.

Severance Package falls into the espionage/thriller category. Seven people are called into  work on a Saturday. When the meeting of "key personnel" begins, they are told that the company they work for  is actually the front for an intelligence agency and they are being closed down. Their boss gives them the  option of drinking a fast acting and painless poison or taking a bullet to the head which is not guaranteed to be painless. The floor they occupy has been rigged to prevent escape - the elevators won't come to the floor, the stairways have been rigged with sarin bombs, and the phones and computers disabled. Of the seven marked for termination, two are civilians who thought they were working for a financial investment company and others are intelligence operatives in one form or the other. They are not willing to go quietly and the fight for survival begins.

It is difficult to say more without giving spoilers but we can leave it that the conflict ramps up as backgrounds and motivations are revealed.

The book is fast-paced, exciting, has well developed characters, an interesting story, and terrific action scenes. It is also on the high end of the violence scale and isn't recommended for the squeamish. I enjoyed the way Swierczynski revealed information about the situation and the characters.

I don't often wish this for books I like but it could make a good movie. It has two elements working for it. First, it takes place in a closed environment - one floor of an office building and a stairwell - so think how well that worked in Die Hard. Second, it has intense female hand to hand combat like Darryl Hannah and Uma Thermon in Kill Bill. Having an innocent civilian trying to keep up with inteligence field agents adds to the excitement.