Book Review: Birth of an Assassin

Set against the backdrop of Soviet, post-war Russia, Birth of an Assassin follows the transformation of Jez Kornfeld from wide-eyed recruit to avenging outlaw. Amidst a murky underworld of flesh-trafficking, prostitution and institutionalized corruption, the elite Jewish soldier is thrown into a world where nothing is what it seems, nobody can be trusted, and everything can be violently torn from him.

Given the order to disperse and arrest a crowd of Jewish demonstrators, Jez breaks up the rally but finds his sisters in their ranks. Rushed for a solution, he sneaks the girls from under the noses of secret police and hides them in downtown Moscow. But he knows they will no longer be safe in Russia and that his own security has been compromised. His plan to cross into the Ukraine to a port on the Black Sea where he can bribe passage from Soviet soil for his sisters seems sound, but he is unaware that his every move is being observed and that he is setting in motion a chain of events that will plunge his life into a headlong battle just to stay alive.

Review

This may sound strange, but while reading Birth of an Assassin I was reminded of the tv show Scandal.  There is one episode in particular, where we learn about Huck and why/how he became a professional killer.  A short autobiography if you will, and perhaps on a longer scale, Birth of an Assassin reminded me of that.  Although I was also reminded of Kerry Washington’s character, Olivia Pope, a fixer and wearer of many hats.  That is basically what Jez does for his Sisters, he covers up their wrongs, and like Bill Clinton trys to keep “I had sexual relations” under-wraps.  I admit that that would be a little nasty as they are his sisters, but the general idea is there — keep my sisters hidden.

Birth of an Assassin was a page turner, I became tense while reading, it gripped me in and would not let go.  Besides an interesting plot, the characters were well developed too and could picture his sister’s reactions to their new found reality and the strenuousness of the situation for Jez in a sense heartbreaking as he is torn between alliances.  He loses either way, and just made me sad.  Time spent reading Rik Stone’s was not a loss of time but rather a loss into my imagination and unwilling to emerge.

About the Author

Do children born into poverty become impoverished adults? It happens; pitfalls and roadblocks to advancement are everywhere. Rik Stone grew up poor amidst the slum-lands of fifties North East England, and left school at 15 without any academic qualifications.

He worked in the shipyards on a local river and later went into the merchant navy. Further down the line, he worked quarries in Essex in South East England.

But life was without horizons until, contrary to what his teachers had told him, he found he was capable of studying and completed a BSc degree in mathematics and computing.

Life got lucky for him when he took company pension at 50 and began writing. And now, here he is offering up his debut novel Birth of an Assassin, the first in a series.

Tour Stops:

April 27th Words, Words, Words
April 29th She is Too Fond of Books
April 30th Glad For My 3
May 1st Reading Shy with Aly

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