Unlucky for Some (Victor the Assassin #13) 3.5Stars

 

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Title: Unlucky for Some
Series: Victor the Assassin #13
Author: Tom Wood
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Action/Adventure
Pages: 402
Words: 110K
Publish: 2025

It has been a year and a half since I last read a Victor the Assassin book (Firefight) and I went into this one with some high hopes. They weren’t dashed and it was a good story, but there was something missing AND Victor gets really sloppy.

The biggest instance is him leaving his blood and dna all over his hotel hide out room. Yes, he’s wounded and in danger of dying, but even after he’s better there’s no mention of him trying to go back and clean things up. So now his dna, blood type and face are known even more widely than before. Like I mentioned in Firefight Victor’s exit strategies are rapidly dwindling.

The missing bits were the vim and vigor that I expect from the author in his writing. It just wasn’t here. Part of that is the inclusion of the Boatman, a russian hitman who is even more Victor than Victor can ever be. The Boatman reminded me of the Terminator in the first movie, he’s an unstoppable killing machine. The problem is the Boatman is a human and nobody should be that good.

I did figure out who the supposed Mastermind was before it was revealed by the simple expedience of asking who benefited the most from everything. Once you asked that, there was only one answer. After my shrugging off Zahn’s plot machinations in The Icarus Job, it felt nice to get tossed an easy to answer “mystery” :-D

Overall, it feels like Victor’s time is coming to an end. I do hope that the author makes a definitive end to the series just for closure’s sake. Now, if he can keep things going, I’m all for that. I have enjoyed this series a lot and would like to see it continue. I just don’t want to see it slow to a molasses release crawl and become tired and boring. Nobody needs that.

★★★✬☆

From the Internet

Unlucky for Some shifts the standard dynamic of the Victor the Assassin series by stripping the hyper-competent protagonist of his armor, forcing him into a raw, human struggle for survival.

Here is the detailed narrative breakdown of the novel:

1. The Setup: Infiltration in Malmö

The story opens in the icy environment of Malmö, Sweden. Victor is hired for a job that appears standard by his benchmarks: infiltrate the inner sanctum of the local underworld and eliminate the heir to a powerful organized crime syndicate headed by the dying boss, Jorund Hakansson. Victor approaches the hit with his usual strict calculus—planning escape routes, studying timelines, and mapping out the city’s industrial sectors.

2. The Inciting Incident: The Mission Fails

The routine execution falls apart completely. For the first time in a long time, Victor's calculations fail. An unexpected defensive response or ambush leaves Victor shot, severely wounded, and physically compromised. Stripped of his physical dominance and slowed by internal trauma, he manages to escape the immediate kill box but is trapped deep within a hostile, freezing foreign city.

3. The Underworld Conspiracy

As Victor retreats underground, the true scope of the plot unravels. The hit wasn't just a simple contract—it was tied to a massive global black-market conspiracy:

• The Osmium Smuggling Ring: The plot layers into the highly lucrative illegal trade of rare-earth metals and counterfeit industrial machinery, disguised under the corporate cover of a progressive "green agenda".

• The Seven-Figure Bounty: Once the syndicates realize the legendary assassin is injured and cornered in Malmö, a massive multi-million dollar bounty is placed on his head. This turns the entire city into a hunting zone, attracting rival factions, corrupt local police officials, and elite international bounty hunters.

4. The Hunt: The Rogues' Gallery

Deprived of his usual strength, Victor has to rely purely on his environment and predictive tactical thinking to stay ahead. He is pursued across disused Scandinavian chemical plants and freezing docklands by a lethal convergence of hunters:

• The Mercenary Unit: Led by Ezra Greer, a renegade former US Ranger.

• The Specialist: Celeste Perrot, a cold and lethal sniper.

• The Inside Handlers: As Victor tries to establish secure comms, he must navigate the unstable landscape of his own intelligence network, dealing with his handler Lambert and an associate named Scragg, never sure who has sold him out.

• The Apex Rival: A master imposter and hitman operating under the alias The Boatman—the most dangerous counter-assassin Victor has ever faced.

5. Climax and Resolution

The final acts of the book turn into a game of attrition. Unable to outrun or outmuscle his pursuers, Victor uses Malmö's desolate industrial ruins to separate the hunters. He relies on psychological warfare, improvised traps, and his lack of ego—focusing strictly on survival rather than winning grand standoffs.

In a brutal series of action set-pieces, Victor dismantles the smuggling network's enforcers, outmaneuvers the Boatman, and exposes the corruption connecting the syndicate to legitimate political entities, ultimately securing his escape from Sweden by the skin of his teeth. In the end, it turns out everything was orchestrated by the chief of police of Malmo so she could take over the criminal organization run by Jorund Hakansson.