Review by NRoach -- The last Assassination
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NRoach
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Review by NRoach -- The last Assassination
[Following is a volunteer review of "The last Assassination" by James E Doucette.]
2 out of 4 stars
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The Last Assassination is a thriller that centres around the bombing of a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Aleppo, and the layers of intrigue and treachery that caused it. It's a short book, at only 150 pages, and I managed to read the whole thing in an afternoon, even with occasional breaks for snacks.
I get the distinct impression that the author, James E Doucette, bit off rather more than he could chew with his choice of plot, as it didn't take long at all for it to get lost in the weeds, with bizarre tangents and characters and subplots that don't really go anywhere. In wanting to keep up the frenetic pace that thrillers require, and a complex plot involving no less than four separate countries' governments and countless moving pieces, focus is sacrificed. Scenes are very often less than a single page long, and chapters don't hang around much longer. In the 150 pages, we go through more than 60 chapters, ping-ponging across the planet.
It quickly became obvious to me that Doucette struggles with individual scenes. They start with variations on the theme of “[character] arrived at [location] at [time]”, gloss over their taxi ride to their very important meeting, blitz through a conversation that often recaps what we already know, and ends with a pithy remark or one party hanging up the phone. There's very little space to breathe because all the scenes feel fundamentally the same, whether it's ex-Israeli special forces torturing a Russian officer for information or the President of the US discussing the Saudis trying to influence the price of oil.
The overarching plot, though, is fairly well executed. At the end it all makes sense, and all loose threads are tied up, although it would have benefited heavily from foreshadowing. When the ultimate bad-guy is revealed, it comes seemingly from nowhere, and I found it frustrating that there was no real effort to hint at his involvement, purely for the sake of a twist at the very end.
As a Brit, I was incredibly put off by the streak of American patriotism that was nestled very firmly in The Last Assassination's DNA. It never quite got to the level of farce, but having our main character (a Kurd, no less) stand at the Lincoln Memorial and ponder the poignancy of the Gettysburg address took me right out of the story. Coming from a culture where a lot people would honestly confuse him with Washington, that scene came across to me as preachy. A similar scene at the end involved a character asking herself the question: “Am I ordering men and women to their deaths because it’s good for business?” a question that many outside the US would emphatically answer with “Yes!”
She then goes on to weep at the beauty of Eisenhower's farewell address.
I give The Last Assassination a rating of 2 out of 4 stars. Voracious readers of thrillers will likely enjoy the book, but I was personally put off by the pedestrian writing and US-centric world view, for which there is no excuse in a book about a Kurd who lives in Finland, who fought in the Israeli army, and takes assassination jobs from the Russians.
******
The last Assassination
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2 out of 4 stars
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The Last Assassination is a thriller that centres around the bombing of a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Aleppo, and the layers of intrigue and treachery that caused it. It's a short book, at only 150 pages, and I managed to read the whole thing in an afternoon, even with occasional breaks for snacks.
I get the distinct impression that the author, James E Doucette, bit off rather more than he could chew with his choice of plot, as it didn't take long at all for it to get lost in the weeds, with bizarre tangents and characters and subplots that don't really go anywhere. In wanting to keep up the frenetic pace that thrillers require, and a complex plot involving no less than four separate countries' governments and countless moving pieces, focus is sacrificed. Scenes are very often less than a single page long, and chapters don't hang around much longer. In the 150 pages, we go through more than 60 chapters, ping-ponging across the planet.
It quickly became obvious to me that Doucette struggles with individual scenes. They start with variations on the theme of “[character] arrived at [location] at [time]”, gloss over their taxi ride to their very important meeting, blitz through a conversation that often recaps what we already know, and ends with a pithy remark or one party hanging up the phone. There's very little space to breathe because all the scenes feel fundamentally the same, whether it's ex-Israeli special forces torturing a Russian officer for information or the President of the US discussing the Saudis trying to influence the price of oil.
The overarching plot, though, is fairly well executed. At the end it all makes sense, and all loose threads are tied up, although it would have benefited heavily from foreshadowing. When the ultimate bad-guy is revealed, it comes seemingly from nowhere, and I found it frustrating that there was no real effort to hint at his involvement, purely for the sake of a twist at the very end.
As a Brit, I was incredibly put off by the streak of American patriotism that was nestled very firmly in The Last Assassination's DNA. It never quite got to the level of farce, but having our main character (a Kurd, no less) stand at the Lincoln Memorial and ponder the poignancy of the Gettysburg address took me right out of the story. Coming from a culture where a lot people would honestly confuse him with Washington, that scene came across to me as preachy. A similar scene at the end involved a character asking herself the question: “Am I ordering men and women to their deaths because it’s good for business?” a question that many outside the US would emphatically answer with “Yes!”
She then goes on to weep at the beauty of Eisenhower's farewell address.
I give The Last Assassination a rating of 2 out of 4 stars. Voracious readers of thrillers will likely enjoy the book, but I was personally put off by the pedestrian writing and US-centric world view, for which there is no excuse in a book about a Kurd who lives in Finland, who fought in the Israeli army, and takes assassination jobs from the Russians.
******
The last Assassination
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
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