Review by Readerjorge -- The Last Assassination

[Jorge Leon Salazar]

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

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4 out of 4 stars

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The Last Assassination by James Doucette is a crime, action, and espionage thriller. The story focuses on two Kurdish brothers, Philip and Henri. Driven by the desire for revenge, they become murderers with a thirst for justice in the face of crimes against their Kurdish people and especially their families. Afterward, the murders become a lucrative business for them. On the other hand, a hacked drone disobeys its operator and ends up dropping a bomb at a hospital in Aleppo, Syria. That fact triggers a series of events that point out the United States government as responsible. The White House has a scapegoat, Lieutenant Jesse Plotnick, the drone's driver. His father Mark Plotnick sets out to support him prove his innocence. Mark is a former Mossad agent who maintains influential contacts in the United States government. Plus, he is a friend of Philip with whom he worked in a special operation years ago.

Other significant events occur, an Iranian nuclear scientist is killed while attending a conference in Paris. Next, an Iranian centrifuge is destroyed. Those events appear to be related to the faulty drone. Shorty Coryell is the owner of Coryell Electronics, the company that fabricated the drones like the one that destroyed the hospital in Aleppo. Coryell, along with Mark and Amanda Courtright, The Secretary of Defense, set out to investigate and solve these mysteries. The negative image that fell on the United States government has to be clean up. The investigations extend to other countries where some foreign governments might be involved. Who will be implicated in the hacking of the drone? Will Russians, Chinese, Saudi Arabians, or Israelis have to do with it?

The story is adequately narrated from the third-person perspective. In each chapter, the story jumps between characters and settings as it progresses. Quite a few characters are properly described, for the majority their appearances within the plot are justified and fit well into it. It struck me that the author introduced characters that are in other of his books, for example, Shorty Coryell appears in the book Russia's Biggest Hack.

The narrative tries to grip the reader's attention by mixing descriptions with action and leaving the mysteries unsolved. In some passages, the author uses rather ornate redaction, for example: "The gate resisted his efforts to open, and a slight push of his bulky shoulder freed it. A metallic groan rewarded his effort."

What I liked the most is that Doucette created a climate of suspense around who was behind the hacking of the drone and the murder of the Iranian scientist. This was kept to the end, making the reader curious permanently. The author demonstrated extensive knowledge in the military field, espionage, and international politics. He presents us with a crude perspective, probably real, in which assassinations appear to be used as a means of managing international conflicts. In several passages, the plot is raw and violent and somehow it is disturbing that murders can be accepted as normal in certain political and military circumstances.

For the rest, this novel mixes crime, politics, mystery, and espionage in a brilliant and entertaining way. That is why I recommend it without hesitation to lovers of these genres. The Last Assassination is well edited. I scarcely noticed a couple of minor typos. For all of the above, I am pleased to award this book 4 out of 4 stars.

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The Last Assassination

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The Last Assassination
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[Manali_DC]

I recently read and reviewed this book and thought it was a 4 star read too. I liked how none of the characters in the book could be classified as good guys or bad guys. And the twist in the end was clever. Great review!

[Aan Granados]

I'm excited to read this. With the cover I assumed that this was historical fiction. Thanks for your review.

[kalgaonkarsnehal]

Excellent review! I too absolutely LOVED this book and have written a review about it, which I enjoyed just as much as reading the book. Frankly speaking, I liked that he has not written graphic violent scenes, which he could have easily included considering the plot. He just left it for the reader to imagine.