The Failed Assassin by Richard Pierce
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Okay, first of all, there’s a lot of sex in this book. I mean, I don’t want to be a prude, but honestly, pick a page at random and I’m pretty sure our main characters are doing something that borders on criminal to each other. It’s almost inhuman. 50 Shades of WHAT?!
In between all that is a slowly unfolding story that almost makes you want to skip over the sexy stuff … well, maybe. The two main characters are quite flawed, but gradually fleshed out as the author slowly takes the story from what feels like a romantic European travel guide (okay, Larry Flint’s European travel guide anyway) towards a mystery/thriller with international implications … oh, and sex.
The caveat here is, once this book really starts to pull you in — and it will at some point — it’s a sprint to the finish. I can’t say that I was overly sympathetic towards either main character, but by the time I reached the final quarter of the book, I was fully invested in them and just wanted to see where they ended up in their progression. (Small issue with this: I ended up finishing that last quarter of the book at the office … did I mention there was a lot of sex?)
Basically, I really wasn’t sure if I wanted a happy ending or a sad ending for those two crazy kids; I just wanted to know HOW they ended. (FYI– In reflection, Mr. Pierce gave us really the only appropriate ending that these characters could have had.)
Go ahead. You’ll feel a little dirty afterwards, but it’s well worth it.
