The Saint of Bright Doors

The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera, 384 pages

Fetter was born and raised to be an assassin — specifically his scornful mother raised him to kill his father, who is the much-beloved head of a popular religious cult. Understandably, Fetter doesn't particularly want to do this, so when his mom sets him out on his own as a teenager, he wanders, eventually settling in a faraway city full of wanderers and impenetrable bureaucracy. While there, he manages to find a support group of other near-chosen ones from other religions, all of whom have abilities that are just beyond human (Fetter, for example, has no shadow and can float into the sky — really, he must work hard not to). Oh, and there are also the titular bright doors, which can be created out of any door that's closed in the city and draws Fetter to them like a moth to the flame. Through the support group, Fetter gets pulled into a revolutionary plot to disrupt the bureaucracy.

I'd heard so many wonderful things about this book (it won a Nebula Award and was nominated for a whole bunch of others), but I didn't really expect it to be this literary and dense. I liked the idea of it, and I LOVED the way it wrapped up, but I wish it was a little easier to wade through, a sentiment shared by many of those who discussed it in Orcs & Aliens last week.

Kills Well With Others

Kills Well With Others by Deanna Raybourn, 368 pages

In this follow-up to Killers of a Certain Age, semi-retired assassins Billie, Mary Alice, Natalie, and Helen have once again been targeted by someone from their past. This time, they're being tracked by the surviving child of a crime boss they killed 45 years ago, and evading the hit is going to take every bit of their wits (and several disguises) to pull off. Traveling the world by boat, train, airplane, and even an occasional car, the quartet of killers must kill or be killed.

This was a fun sequel, though I don't know that it brought anything particularly new to the story. That said, it does give everyone who was hankering for it (AKA everyone who read Killers of a Certain Age) a second helping of the senior assassins. Read only if you've read the first one, but settle in for a fun caper when you do.

*This book will be published March 4, 2025.

Killers of a Certain Age

Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn (2022) 353 pages

Four women‒Billie, Helen, Natalie, and Mary Alice‒were recruited to become a team of elite assassins forty years ago by an organization called "the Museum." The Museum has a Board that determines which bad actors need to be taken out. Their original mission was to kill Nazis, but over time they have included dictators and others who have escaped justice.

But now the women are sixty and being treated to a Caribbean cruise in honor of their retirement. All goes well until they make the stunning discovery that one of their former colleagues is undercover on board their ship, and they realize they may have been targeted for extermination themselves. All their instincts kick into gear as they try to protect themselves using only their own resources; they can't ask for the usual logistical help from the Museum, because it might be that their own bosses are the culprits.

Hands down, this page-turner is the most exciting book that I've read in a while. [Thanks for the recommendation, Kara!]

The Dead Cat Tail Assassins

The Dead Cat Tail Assassins by P. Djeli Clark, 224 pages

Eveen is an undead assassin who has no memory of her life, but is slowly working off years of tribute to her patron goddess, abiding by the three unbreakable rules of assassins: a contract must be just, you can't kill anyone who isn't contracted, and once you take a contract, you have to carry it out. But when Eveen takes a contract that involves killing someone who evokes impossible memories, she has to reevaluate exactly what "unbreakable" means while simultaneously solving the mystery of who this woman is and keeping them both alive long enough to sort it out.

This was a ridiculously fun book, with excellent worldbuilding and intriguing characters. Of course, that could describe any of Clark's books, so I'm not particularly surprised by this. It's well worth the short time it'll take to read through this one.

*This book will be published Aug. 6, 2024.

Saint Death's Daughter

Saint Death's Daughter by C.S.E. Cooney, 477 pages

Miscellaneous Stones (Lanie) is the youngest member of the Stones family, which has long served Liriat's ruling family as executioners and assassins. Lanie, however, has an allergy to any sort of unnatural physical harm, as sympathy wounds appear on her any time she's near someone getting stabbed, poisoned, beaten senseless with fists, etc. Makes it a bit hard for her to spend any time with her family (which makes Wednesday Adams seem like a cuddly lovable puppy), and to her psychopathic sister Nita, Lanie is an excellent target for bullying. Thankfully, Lanie is also a necromancer, so she's able to spend her time instead with ghosts, revenants (like the Stones family's longtime servant, Goody), and all the skeleton creatures she can animate. But when Nita comes home from schooling abroad with a shapeshifting man in her thrall and a royal assignment to murder the wizards of a rival country, Lanie finds herself spending more time than she'd like with Nita, Nita's now-husband Mak, and her niece Datura, constantly fearful that Nita's work and violent inclinations will bring on Lanie's demise and the destruction of everything their family built.

This was an enjoyable read, though my summary above only really hits on a small bit of the plot. A blurb on the back notes "every time I thought I knew what kind of book it was, it changed," and really, I couldn't agree more. Cooney obviously had a lot of really excellent ideas for worldbuilding and characters, but at times, I felt like this could have been expanded into a few books that gave more insight into those characters and places instead of cramming them all into one place. It's particularly perplexing, as this is intended to be a series, so some of those elements certainly could have waited until later on. That said, I loved the idea of a gentle, bookish, vegetarian necromancer, as well as so many of the other characters. Unsure about whether I'll read more though, given Cooney's love of footnotes (which slowed down the reading a LOT).

(P.S. Just learned that this won the 2023 World Fantasy Award for best novel. Clearly, my misgivings are my own.)

The Old Woman with the Knife

 

The Old Woman with the Knife by Pyong-mo Ku 280 pp. translated by Chi-Young Kim

Hornclaw is sixty-five years old and coming to the end of her career as a hired assassin for the company started by her and a former business partner. She is slowing down and facing retirement when she will cash out her share of the business. But she is not ready to leave her lifelong career just yet. For decades she has been a ruthlessly efficient killer, dispatching her targets swiftly and avoiding any personal entanglements with them. Now there is a young assassin working for the company who has it in for Hornclaw and she doesn't know why. He seems determined to drive her out of the business. When Hornclaw makes a mistake and is injured, it brings into contact with a young doctor and his extended family. Soon all of them are in danger. This unusual story is fast moving and I found myself sympathizing with the main character in spite of her profession. We women of a certain age have to stick together I guess.

Killers of a Certain Age

Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn, 353 pages

Billie, Mary Alice, Natalie, and Helen are on board a cruise to celebrate their retirement from the Museum when they realize that a burly crew member is actually an assassin trying to kill them. Because "the Museum" is actually an extra-governmental organization dedicated to finding and eliminating bad people (drug lords, human traffickers, corrupt judges, even a Nazi every now and then), and our four heroines were some of their best assassins before they retired. Now Billie and her friends must figure out who put the hit out on them and kill or be killed in a globe-trotting caper.

Oh, this was so much fun to read! The four main characters are fantastic, and I loved the way their personalities worked together. A fun book, and great for fans of Richard Osman's Thursday Murder Club books. Get in the waiting list for this one, cuz it's worth it.

Bullet Train

 Bullet Train by Kōtarō Isaka, 352 pages.

This book takes place on a bullet train from Tokyo that is absolutely chock full of assassins. Like ridiculously full of assassins. Everyone is there pursuing their own mission, and (as they begin to realize the truly absurd number of other professionals on the train) do their best to not be noticed by the others, as it slowly becomes clear whose agendas are driving the events.

This was a really fun book, and I'm especially fond of the assassin who is essentially a walking case of Murphy's law. It's a pretty tight novel that's listed as a satirical thriller, which sounds at least more or less right, but it's mostly a lot of deeply weird characters in weird situations trying to get everything sorted out.
 

Now We Shall Be Entirely Free

Now We Shall Be Entirely Free / Andrew Miller, 410 p.

In the midst of the Napoleonic wars, a young officer is returned to his English home, unconscious and seemingly near death.  The story of the recovery of his body and mind, and what happened in northern Spain to cause his condition, form the core of the novel. As the officer, John Lacroix, travels north to the farthest Scottish isles to rest, he is pursued by events from the war, and by, in particular, a soldier on a mission to exact retribution.   Excellent historical detail and unusual characters make for an often intriguing read. 

Killing Eve: No tomorrow

Killing Eve: No Tomorrow / Like Jennings, 251 pgs.

Villanelle and Eve continue their odd obsession with each other.  How can either of these characters trust the other?  As time goes on they find fewer people they can trust in their organizations.  Eve isn't trained for field operations but finds herself in two of them.  One goes pretty well but the other brings her feeling the air of the bullet meant for her passing her head as she randomly bends down.  Who is compromised?  Who can be trusted?  Thrilling and at the same time a very human story.

Codename Villanelle

Codename Villanelle / Luke Jennings, 219 pgs

Everyone wants an employee like Villanelle. She is capable, highly trained, focused, and never fails to complete her tasks.   Her bosses are a shadowy organization that she doesn't meet but they pay her well.  She travels all around the world for work. Her supervisor Konstantin gives her support and praise. Of course the task is assassinating people, a job that she loves. She is so successful, others are taking notice of her.  Eve is a MI5 employee who is trying to track her down. This book mostly gives us some character background and a lot of killing.  It is the basis for the hit TV series Killing Eve.  I can see why it got snapped up.

The Plotters

The Plotters by Un-Su Kim, 291 pages

Reseng has been killing people for money for 15 years — a long time in the cutthroat assassination world of Seoul, Korea. But his history in that world goes back to his childhood, when he was adopted by Old Raccoon, the cantankerous old man running "the library," one of several criminal headquarters in Seoul. But after 15 years of carrying out hits for the unknown "plotters" and watching his acquaintances die after making a mistake, Reseng is starting to re-examine his life. While one might expect a book about a hitman to be action packed and bloody — and to be sure, those elements certainly do pepper the plot throughout — the best parts of this novel are the characters and the tense relationships between them. Reseng's ruminations are, in turn, funny, philosophical, and calculated. I very much enjoyed this one.

Deadly Class: 1987, Reagan Youth

Deadly Class [vol. 1]: 1987, Reagan Youth by Rick Remender, art by Wes Craig, 160 pages

Marcus is living on the streets in San Francisco, dodging the police (who are after him for burning down a home for orphaned boys), when he's picked up by an odd assortment of teens. Turns out they've come to recruit him for Kings Dominion, a high school that trains teens to become assassins. As in most schools with strict rules, cliques reign supreme and the rules at Kings Dominion are also broken regularly — of course, the cliques at Kings are more akin to crime families, and the rules include the prohibition of sex, drugs, and killing one another. With this 1980s-set series, Remender and Craig re-create the insanity of that decade's drug scene, as well as the universal awkwardness of teens, and put an edgy twist on it. I enjoyed this first volume, and I'll definitely be reading more.

Shibumi

Shibumi by Trevanian  374 pp.

Nicholai Hel, born in Shanghai and raised in pre-WWII Japan, is the son of a Russian aristocrat and a mysterious German father. He is Japanese in his manner, mysticism, and culture. He is also a genius, a Go master, and an assassin. After post-war imprisonment, where he spends his time study languages and honing his mysterious "proximity sense", Hel becomes a hired assassin. His training in Naked/Kill, a martial art using common objects at hand as deadly weapons make him a lethal weapon in any circumstance. After retiring to the Northern Basque Country on the border of France and Spain, he lives a life of peace with his long time companion, the beautiful Hana, until threatened by the "Mother Company", a sinister organization that controls intelligence activities worldwide by threats and blackmail. This is not a new book having first been published in 1979 but, with the exception of the hijacking of a Concorde, there is nothing to make the story dated. The addition of the characters of Hel's ebullient Basque friend, Beñat Le Cagot and Pierre, the frighteningly bad driver add comic relief to the seriousness of the story. I listened to the audiobook version which was well narrated by Joe Barrett.

Fifty Grand

Fifty Grand by Adrian McKinty, 308 pages.

I got to know this excellent author through his Detective Sean Duffy novels, set in Northern Ireland. They are great books and a joy to listen to, especially with the outstanding narration of Gerard Doyle. In this earlier work, McKinty gives us Havana Detective Mercado. She takes time off from a government sanctioned visit to Mexico City and hires a coyote to smuggle her into the United States, heading for Colorado to quietly investigate the death of her father. Her father had defected in a colorful manner decades back, and was far, far out of favor with Raul Castro and the security apparatus of the state. Mercado must travel carefully, staying under the radar of US immigration, local police, and Cuban Intelligence. Well-paced and tightly written with compelling characters.

The Regional Office is Under Attack!

The Regional Office is Under Attack! by Manuel Gonzales, 416 pages

Years and years ago, two idealists with a lot of money to throw around came up with the idea to create a secret force of superhuman female assassins. This became The Regional Office. However, as the name suggests, someone decided they didn't much like The Regional Office and, well, attacked it. Told through the viewpoints of Sarah O'Hara (a "client" of The Regional Office) and Rose (one of the attackers), and interspersed with plenty of flashbacks to both Sarah and Rose's back stories, this book is the tale of that attack, as well as the formation of The Regional Office.

This book is full of action, both superhuman and Die Hard-esque, and the premise for it is great. The writing, the characters, everything was lovely. However — and this may be specific to me — I had a heck of a time staying awake while reading it. That said, if you're a fan of Kelly Link or other slightly-not-normal stories, this one will be right up your alley. It was good, and I wish I wasn't struck with narcolepsy every time I read it.

The Curse of the Pogo Stick

The Curse of the Pogo Stick by Colin Cotterill  256 pp.

Dr. Siri Paiboun, the 73 year old national coroner of Laos once again finds himself dealing with odd situations and people. While on his way back from a national conference with his boss, Judge Haeng, they are ambushed and Siri is taken prisoner by seven Hmong women. Siri, who is the "vessel" for the spirit of the dead shaman Yeh Ming is captured because the Hmong villagers want him to perform an exorcism. The chief's daughter is possessed by a demon and pregnant with the demon's child all because of the curse of the pogo stick kept on a sacred altar. Judge Haeng, who ran away from the ambush spends days wandering in the woods before being found by the villagers, bruised, dehydrated, and confused. Meanwhile, back at the morgue, Siri's assistant, Nurse Dtui and her husband, Police Officer Phosy, along with Siri's fiancee Madam Daeng, owner of the best noodle shop in town, are investigating a booby trapped body. The "Lizard," an elderly Royalist assassin, has targeted Dtui and Phosy for foiling plot to overthrow the communists detailed in the previous book Anarchy and Old Dogs. In the process, government auditors become the unintended victim when poisoned cashew cakes are delivered to the morgue. Morgue assistant Geung gives the cakes to the auditor because "Cashew cakes make me fart!" Of course, all ends well and Dr. Siri and Madam Daeng become husband and wife. While the plots in this series aren't anything special, Cotterill's characters make these stories fun and engaging.

Hostile Takeover

Hostile Takeover  / Shane Kuhn 246 pgs.

John Lago is back!  And this time he is in love and working on a hostile takeover of HR Inc., the assassins for hire company that places interns in corporate settings to get access to and kill corporate big wigs.  John has some anger issues but he and his perfect partner, Alice, a fellow assassin hook up and make wonderful progress together.  At least until the paranoia and lack of trust sets in.  Lots of newly weds have similar problems but few are determined to kill each other like John and Alice are...But is it TRUE? or is it a setup?  Read to find out the crazy details of some great assignments and how the newlyweds deal with their "issues".

This book book is as fun as the first in the series, The Intern's Handbook

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The English Spy

The English Spy by Daniel Silva  484 pp.

What could be better than listening to an audiobook of the latest book by one of your favorite authors, about your favorite Mossad assassin, read by your favorite audiobook narrator? Gabriel Allon returns in the fifteenth book about his exploits as a Mossad operative, now soon to be the head of Israeli intelligence, a position he doesn't really want. After the yacht carrying a very Diana-like British princess is sunk by a terrorist bomb Allon and gun-for-hire ex-patriot Brit, Christopher Keller team up again to find Eamon Quinn, the former IRA bomber responsible for the bombing. This book is a sequel to The English Girl and the Russian Spy/British Prime Minister's mistress reappears as one of the targets of Quinn. While all this is happening, Allon's wife, Chiara, is at home in Israel awaiting the birth of their twins. While there are very brief appearances of the usual characters Ari Shamron, Uzi Navot, Eli Lavon, Dina, Rimona, and Mikhail along with Graham Seymour, head of British Intelligence, this book is really the Allon-Keller show. I'll not give away the ending but I will say it was amusing to see the serious and always focused Allon become a stereotypical nervous dad when the time comes for Chiara to go to the hospital. Now I must wait until next year for a new Allon story.

Personal: A Jack Reacher Novel by Lee Child

Personal: A Jack Reacher Novel by Lee Child, 351 pages.

Formulaic, but satisfying entry in the chronicles of the world's favorite retired Military Policeman. Jack Reacher gains a new nickname in this volume, "Sherlock Homeless." This based on his ability to see through the extraneous details right down to the important piece of information and the peripatetic nature of his post-military life.
In this volume Reacher is not the sniper he was reputed to be in previous volumes--One Shot and Die Trying both had him pegged as an unparalleled marksman-- but he is the man chosen to hunt down a man authorities fear will try to assassinate world leaders at an upcoming economic summit in Paris.

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