The Assassins

The Assassins
Gayle Lynds
St. Martin's Press
New York, New York
ISBN:   978-0-312-38090-8
Hardcover
2015
$ 27.99
402 pages

Assassins are professionals who are paid to murder others. Who are these people? Many of us demonize assassins as evil people who live isolated lives. Is that reality? Would anyone know that someone was an assassin by their appearance, their movements or their address? In the real world these people are just like you and me and surprisingly have their own code of ethics.

Judd Ryder is one of these people. He has a strange encounter. As he is walking towards his home, he sees himself leaving his house. Curiously he follows his doppelganger and actually witnesses his double's death in a hit-and-run accident that was obviously an intended assassination. As an assassin what actions do you take when someone kills you?

Added to that, what do your double is killed? Do you return to your home and just resume your life? He relies on his associates to unravel this mystery.

It is quickly revealed that a group of six assassins share a secret. Many years ago, all of them were employed by Saddam Hussein to kill his six financial wizards. These financial bankers were hired to hide Saddam's wealth in various accounts and banks throughout the world. With no one banker knowing the secrets of the other five, he felt this was secure. Quickly Saddam realized their individual knowledge of his wealth could possibly be purchased, he decided to have each one killed by a selected assassin. This way there would be no common elements to draw attention to these killings.

Now it appears that each of these assassins is being blackmailed and targeted for death. Why? By whom? Saddam Hussein has been dead for years so who would have all their contact information?

The Assassins is a riveting tale involving the world of spies, assassins, and mercenary soldiers. This is a masterful tale by a storyteller with a realistic imagination based on some actual events and happenings throughout the world. From a Russian training camp resembling an American city called Bedford to on e of the spy capitols of the world in Marrakech to life today in Iraq including much of the politics of Iraq and Iran as well as the Sunnis and Shiites, The Assassins is an adventure into a world most of us would only want to experience through the life in a book.

The characters are realistic with the setting based on research and current events regarding Iraq.

The author Gayle Lynds was raised in Council Bluffs, Iowa and is the author of many bestselling novels. Her novel, The Last Spymaster won the award of the “Novel of the Year” by the Military Writers Society of America, the American Authors Associations, and was a People magazine “Page-Turner of the Week”. Publishers Weekly has awarded her novel, Masquerade as one of the top ten spy novels of all time. She also authored three books with Robert Ludlum.

For a great page turning read, The Assassins is a thrilling novel by an author who grew up in Council Bluffs.