The Killer (Victor the Assassin #1) ★★★☆☆

 

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Title: The Killer
Series: Victor the Assassin #1
Authors: Tom Wood
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Action/Adventure
Pages: 436
Words: 140K

Synopsis:

From the author's website:

His name is a cover

He has no home

And he kills for a living

Victor is a hitman, a man with no past and no surname. His world is one of paranoia and obsessive attention to detail; his morality lies either dead or dying. No one knows what truly motivates the hunter. No one gets close enough to ask.

When a Paris job goes spectacularly wrong, Victor finds himself running for his life across four continents, pursued by a kill squad and investigated by secret services from more than one country. With meticulous style, Victor plans his escape . . . and takes the fight to his would-be killers.

In this first novel in the explosive Victor series, it's not about right and wrong - only about who lives and who dies.

My Thoughts:

As you can see by this cover, this was originally called The Killer. When I went to the author's website to track down some synopsis info, I found that it had been toned down to the namby pamby hold your hand while you cry about the beautiful daisies title of The Hunter. I read The Killer and thus I'm sticking with that title. Because I'm not a namby pamby who is going to hold your hand while you cry about the unicorn farts destroying the ozone or some such nonsense.

As you can see, this put me in a fine fettle.

Victor is a loner who goes around killing people for money. So he's betrayed on one mission (well duh!) and spends the rest of the book trying to track down who did him wrong. Turns out it was the CIA and by the end of the book he's been hired by the CIA to be their disavowed agent, in return he gets to kill the guy who set him up.

Victor is a blank slate and has as much characterization as Tostito's Salsa Con Queso.

That's not necessarily a bad thing for an amoral contract killer. He's not John Wick though.

Overall, this was decent but it felt a bit overlong and drawn out. The addition of the Broker, who is a woman and ends up getting killed after almost making it through the situation alive, could have been cut or handled in a different manner to slim things down. The story felt like an American who is full of Tostito's Salsa Con Queso, ie, fat and over stuffed.

I'll read the next book or two and hope the author puts his writing on a diet.

★★★☆☆