This
review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained
therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to
copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions.
Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted
Permission
Title:
Blood Debt
Series: Victor the Assassin
#11
Author: Tom Wood
Rating: 4 of 5
Stars
Genre: Action/Adventure
Pages:
328
Words: 98K
Publish: 2023
Victor
is a consummate professional and I absolutely love that about these
books. That aspect is brought into sharp focus near the end of the
book when Victor is facing off against an assassin who fought him to
a draw earlier in the book. The other assassin is just as good as
Victor but when he gets the upper hand, he begins bragging about how
he’s always wanted to test himself against Victor to prove that he
was the better assassin. Victor uses this tiny distraction to kill
the guy, because he’s not allowing his emotions to control him
during this time.
Very. Slow. Clap.
I read the previous book, Traitor, almost a year and a half ago. I was wondering if there was going to be any friction with sliding back into this world but I needn’t have worried. Wood does an admirable job of bringing the reader up to date without spending more than a couple of paragraphs on the subject. In epic fantasy series, I appreciate a whole prologue bringing me up to date, as it may have been up to 5 years between books. But for a series like this where Wood has been banging out the books steadily since 2010, that is simply unnecessary. We get a quick reminder of why Victor is working for the Russian Mob Boss and then we move on. Quick, efficient and economical. Much like Victor himself in fact.
I gave this book the “Favorite” tag. I didn’t do that because I thought that this book was particularly stronger than any of the previous ones (although A Quiet Man was pretty pansified) but because at book 11, I am still loving this series, very much. Just like when I began bumping up my ratings for the Nero Wolfe books, it is time to acknowledge that I look forward to these books and thoroughly enjoy them. That’s what my ‘Favorite’ tag is all about, books that I enjoy the most. At some point I will be going through and re-reading the series and I hope it will live up to the test. Victor the Assassin has withstood many attacks over the years, so I have high hopes that he’ll survive Bookstooge too.
★★★★☆
From Bookstooge
Victor is working off his debt to a Russian mob boss. At the books start, he has just finished a job that gives him his freedom. On his way back to report everything, he interrupts an assassin who has killed the Russian. All the circumstances point to Victor being the assassin and the rest of the Mob Bosses give him three days to prove his innocence.
Victor tracks everything down. He survives multiple assassination attempts by various mob bosses, gets involved with MI6 (again) and has to clean that situation up. He figures out the assassination was contracted by the Mob Boss’s top henchwoman and gives the info to the Boatman, the Russian assassin tasked with keeping relative peace amongst the mob. The Boatman executes the guilty parties and Victor is once again on his own, flying free in the wind.
No comments:
Post a Comment