Assegai
In Assegai by Wilbur Smith we meet young Leon Courtney who is a young officer in Britain’s King’s Rifles. When his successful life and death struggle to survive a brutal native attack actually ges him arrested he becomes disillusioned with military life. His high-ranking uncle convinces him to stay and participate in a special spying mission to try to learn what Germany is planning on the eve of what will be World War I. Taking a job as a hunting guide is the perfect cover. All goes well until he meets the lover of a German industrial giant and things start to unravel.
“How in God’s name had he spent the night—naked—in the Mount of Olives Cemetery? Hayya alas sala-a-ah! Hayya alal fala-a-ah! A ball of searing pain burst behind his right eyeball. He fell to one knee and released a hand from modesty duty to massage his temple. Of course! His birthday party last night. He had sipped a glass of Recanati Merlot as he discussed his business plans with Galit’s grandmother. He had looked about for Galit and then… a black interplanetary void. He had never drunk to blackout before, not even in his single days, but that would explain the headache. It might also help explain his current predicament. The muezzin call ended. He glanced at his wrist and swore under his breath. His watch—his dear father’s Rolex, the heirloom from his grandfather—was gone. Moshe took it off only to shower. One person alone would dare take his watch. One person alone would abandon him overnight and buck naked in an East Jerusalem graveyard. Moshe would deal with him later. For now, he had to get home.”
The subtitle of this book pretty much describes the substance of this book.
Tim Tigner’s Twist and Turn is the fourth in the Kyle Achilles series. With Katya at his side, Achilles races against time to foil another fiendish plot.
“The streets were completely empty. It was one in the morning on a Wednesday, and most of the city’s drunk or homeless didn’t hang out in this neighborhood. The windows around them were dark. Only she and Bernard traversed the empty street, on their way to meet a dead man.”
“By now, afternoon had become early evening. The interview was taking far longer than a simple research job warranted. Clearly it was not a simple research job. I felt a surge of anticipation. Something exciting was about to happen. He cleared his throat. ‘Since you have not had the sense to run for the hills, you will now have the “other” tour.’ ‘And this is the “other” interview?’ He smiled and stirred his tea.”
“Pocket is my name, by the way. Given to me by the abbess who found me on the nunnery doorstep when I was a tiny babe. True, I am not a large fellow. Some might even say I am diminutive, but I am quick as a cat and nature has compensated me with other gifts. But wicked?”
The Housewife Assassin’s Handbook by Josie Brown was probably written with a different gender reader in mind…I think? In this series (Housewife Assassin Series) we meet Donna Stone who, upon her husband’s death, she is confronted with a grim reality…take up the reigns of his former employment or have her family starve…hence the housewife assassin thing. Stone often finds herself scorned by the other mothers when she is late for school or community functions…it’s a tough life killing bad guys and then having to pick up cupcakes for the prom.
“This was a big-time case, all right. Some nut hacks up the president of the Chamber of Commerce and dumps him in the bay—just what South Florida needed, another grisly murder. Keyes wondered if the dismemberment fad would ever pass. From the governor on down, everybody had wanted this one solved fast. And the cops had come through. “Mr. Keyes!” The sergeant’s voice echoed from a cheap speaker in the ceiling. Keyes signed the log…”
“The timesnapper sped up the atoms inside the sleigh while offsetting the corresponding heat. For the individuals within a timesnap bubble, the world around them remained still. They could travel around the world in a single night. If they wanted. The lights on the palace dimmed for a moment. They would sense the timesnap activation and ignite their own. For a moment, Vixen and the sleigh plunged through suspended snowflakes and frozen sixleggers.”