Retreads is a business novel about an up-and-coming predatory industry in the wake of the Great Recession: career marketing companies.

Author Zane Smith introduces us to a cast of mostly unlikeable characters – unlikeable not because they aren't realistic, but because they are. The amoral attitudes and soulless closing techniques will be chillingly familiar to anyone who's had a brush with a professional scammer.

Set in the offices of fictional Executive Careers International in bustling Atlanta, Retreads takes the reader into the lives of some of the slickest operators and "bunko artists" in the career marketing industry and shows how they take advantage of people down on their luck and desperate enough to fork over what little money they have left to get back on their feet.

Written as an illustration of how these operations are different than legitimate career counseling firms, the vibrant characters and very real conflicts will leave one feeling tense and genuinely interested about what would come next – pretty impressive for business fiction. These "Confessions of a Career Marketing Bunko Artist" culminate in a great read for someone looking for gripping slice-of-life fiction, and required reading for anyone who's been pounding the pavement looking for that elusive position.