Review by kalgaonkarsnehal -- The Last Assassination
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kalgaonkarsnehal
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Review by kalgaonkarsnehal -- The Last Assassination
[Following is a volunteer review of "The Last Assassination" by James E Doucette.]
The Last Assassination by James E. Doucette is a thriller around political dynamics mainly between Middle-East and the USA.
The story starts in Syria, where a Doctors-without-Borders hospital gets bombed by an American drone hacked by an unknown entity. Press around the world picks up this incident and condemns the attack, landing the White House under an uncomfortable spotlight. Someone needs to pay for this. What better scapegoat than the young Lieutenant in charge of the operation? Luckily for him, his father is a Mossad trained ex-operative with the wit, will, training and connections to get to the bottom of this puzzle.
There are many intriguing characters like two assassin brothers, a Mossad agent, the defence secretary, a technology businessman, interwoven into the story. Who hacked the drone, and why? Who should be held responsible for this deplorable action? How will the US manage a delicate situation with a complex region? The story revolves around this main plot, peppered with many sub-plots around the personal and professional lives, aspirations of the main characters. All the story-points are brought together rather well in the end. There is also a big finish, which was just not expected, and yet made sense in the story.
I thoroughly enjoyed the book, and all the twists and surprises kept me at the edge of my seat. I liked the author's approach to story-telling. Interestingly there is no single protagonist, and all the main characters enjoy a somewhat equal footing in this book. I found it most impressive that while the plot is around the highly complex dynamics between Iran, Israel, Russia, Syria, Saudi Arabia, China, and the US, the author has explained these dynamics in very clear yet subtle referencing, without distracting the reader away from the story.
Readers who have enjoyed David Baldacci's books or Lee Child's Jack Reacher series will most assuredly like this book. Political thriller newbies will also like this book. I don't necessarily enjoy reading graphic details of torture and violence. Hence I was relieved to notice that while the plot itself has a lot of scope of going into details of interrogation scenes and other graphic violence, the author has stayed away from describing such scenes in-detail, leaving it up to the reader's imagination and propensity. The book also does not have explicit language and erotic scenes. However, because of the subject matter of war, politics, and non-descript violence, it is not a recommended read for children.
There is nothing that I particularly disliked in the story. I would have loved for this to be a series of books. In a book where so many characters enjoy equal attention, it becomes difficult for each of them to have a certain complexity to themselves. A series of books helps build those layers. But alas, this is the only book until now. The book may appear to be sympathetic to Israel to some readers, with Arabs cast in a greyish shadow. Since this is work of fiction, it didn't bother me. However, if it does bother some readers who are more involved or aware of some real-life details, they may not like the plot.
I could not find any distracting grammatical errors or typos in the book, and it seems to have been edited professionally. The book kept my enthusiasm alive till the end, and I would love to recommend it to people interested in the genre. For this reason, I rate this book four out of four stars.
******
The Last Assassination
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
The Last Assassination by James E. Doucette is a thriller around political dynamics mainly between Middle-East and the USA.
The story starts in Syria, where a Doctors-without-Borders hospital gets bombed by an American drone hacked by an unknown entity. Press around the world picks up this incident and condemns the attack, landing the White House under an uncomfortable spotlight. Someone needs to pay for this. What better scapegoat than the young Lieutenant in charge of the operation? Luckily for him, his father is a Mossad trained ex-operative with the wit, will, training and connections to get to the bottom of this puzzle.
There are many intriguing characters like two assassin brothers, a Mossad agent, the defence secretary, a technology businessman, interwoven into the story. Who hacked the drone, and why? Who should be held responsible for this deplorable action? How will the US manage a delicate situation with a complex region? The story revolves around this main plot, peppered with many sub-plots around the personal and professional lives, aspirations of the main characters. All the story-points are brought together rather well in the end. There is also a big finish, which was just not expected, and yet made sense in the story.
I thoroughly enjoyed the book, and all the twists and surprises kept me at the edge of my seat. I liked the author's approach to story-telling. Interestingly there is no single protagonist, and all the main characters enjoy a somewhat equal footing in this book. I found it most impressive that while the plot is around the highly complex dynamics between Iran, Israel, Russia, Syria, Saudi Arabia, China, and the US, the author has explained these dynamics in very clear yet subtle referencing, without distracting the reader away from the story.
Readers who have enjoyed David Baldacci's books or Lee Child's Jack Reacher series will most assuredly like this book. Political thriller newbies will also like this book. I don't necessarily enjoy reading graphic details of torture and violence. Hence I was relieved to notice that while the plot itself has a lot of scope of going into details of interrogation scenes and other graphic violence, the author has stayed away from describing such scenes in-detail, leaving it up to the reader's imagination and propensity. The book also does not have explicit language and erotic scenes. However, because of the subject matter of war, politics, and non-descript violence, it is not a recommended read for children.
There is nothing that I particularly disliked in the story. I would have loved for this to be a series of books. In a book where so many characters enjoy equal attention, it becomes difficult for each of them to have a certain complexity to themselves. A series of books helps build those layers. But alas, this is the only book until now. The book may appear to be sympathetic to Israel to some readers, with Arabs cast in a greyish shadow. Since this is work of fiction, it didn't bother me. However, if it does bother some readers who are more involved or aware of some real-life details, they may not like the plot.
I could not find any distracting grammatical errors or typos in the book, and it seems to have been edited professionally. The book kept my enthusiasm alive till the end, and I would love to recommend it to people interested in the genre. For this reason, I rate this book four out of four stars.
******
The Last Assassination
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
“Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won't come in.” ― Isaac Asimov 
Latest Review: Effective R.U.L.E. by satish shitut
