Review by Browneh -- The last Assassination

[Browneh]

[Following is a volunteer review of "The last Assassination" by James E Doucette.]

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2 out of 4 stars

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The Last Assassin by James E Douchette. Where to begin…

I like this book… and I hate this book. To be completely honest, I finished this book yesterday. I usually write my reviews on the same day I finish the book so it is fresh in my mind. But I can honestly say, I still don’t entirely know, or understand, what happened.

The story begins with an army Lieutenant called Jesse Plotnick, a pilot for the US air force. Under his watch, a drone is compromised and somehow bombs a hospital in Aleppo, Syria. Mark, hotshot Washington DC lawyer (who just so happens to be his father), vows to clear his name. He enlists the help of all his friends in high places – the Secretary of Defense, ‘secret’ assassins… and eventually, even the President.

Sounds pretty confusing from that description, doesn’t it? Well, unfortunately, that’s what it was like all the way through the book.

I can only give this book 2 out of 4 stars . I’m slightly confused as to why other reviewers have managed to give it 4 stars. I often had to go back and check that I had downloaded the correct book. Turns out, it’s the same copy. There are a lot of basic grammar and spelling mistakes throughout the book. This makes the editing comes across as sloppy and uncaring.

For example, simple things like titles (King, President. Etc.) are lacking capitalization. It is pretty basic-level English to understand that titles, particularly when addressing that individual, should be capitalized – “ President George Washington” for example. Another example of this is, on page 114, “there is no way to avoid to avoid telling Sam about his double life.” Small, easily avoidable writing mistakes could have been corrected by more thorough editing.

The writing often comes across as unnecessarily detailed and cluttered. An example of this is on page 80, “the cool morning air slowly gave way to the warmth of the sun as the early-morning fog disappeared and was replaced by a silvery dew that blanketed the manicured garden.” It comes across as ‘wordy’ and it doesn’t really effect the plot – it would’ve made sense if it reflected the mood of the characters, but it was a ‘happy’ scene.

At times, it reads as a cliché attempt at rewriting the Bond novels but with contemporary issues (such as terrorism). Overly dramatic dialogue between the characters removes any sense of realism the story could be grounded in. Also, the ‘villains’ come across as very 2D. A Russian army official (unnamed to avoid spoilers), runs over a puppy… for no reason other than to reinforce that this guy HAS to come across as evil.

In contrast, the protagonists, i.e. the assassins (Philip and Henri), had interesting and intricate backgrounds. They really shone throughout the book, but overlooked other characters that had almost equal narrative.

Speaking of the characters, it’s extremely tough to tell them apart. It seems like even the author got them confused at times. The switching between characters and locations constantly makes it difficult to follow. Although, I did really enjoy the character of Amanda Courtwright, the US Secretary of Defense. She comes across as a strong-willed female in a position of power. It was really refreshing to see that in a novel about middle eastern terrorist plots.

However, I did like the relatively small chapters, they helped to chop the book up into an easier read. Although, many of these chapters don’t seem to propel the story forward, but only act as “fillers” to make the book longer. For example, Chapter 48 contains a scene where the Secretary of Defense visits Mark in his office. She walks into the room, says one sentence where she explains “There’s not much I can say now” and then simply leaves. It contained no additional information that was relevant to the story. The same thing could have been achieved by simply saying ‘Mark and the Secretary agreed that she would do something’ – it would’ve had the same effect.

Despite all this, The Last Assassin didn’t deserve less than 2 stars. I have read much worse books with horrendous editing. Overall, the plot was okay, if difficult to follow at times. I highly recommend a period of reflection after finishing.

This book would be good for someone who would like to read a short, fairly decent plot about an assassin, terrorists, the US government trying to do the right thing (?) and the involvement of various other countries.

Even after writing this review and looking at my notes, I’m still slightly confused. I would not recommend this over other - properly edited - political action books.

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The last Assassination
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[Erin Painter Baker]

Solid review. I am confused a bit as to the plot of the book based on the review, but that is because you as the reviewer were also confused. You used good examples to make your point.

[rumik]

I have no idea what this book is about, and I feel like reading it wouldn't help me either. Thanks for the great review though!

[Browneh]

Solid review. I am confused a bit as to the plot of the book based on the review, but that is because you as the reviewer were also confused. You used good examples to make your point.

Thank you! Yeah I wouldn’t recommend this book unfortunately.