Assassins are always compelling characters. They fit within that archetype of the gunslinger and the private eye and the ronin samurai, highly-skilled characters with a strict moral code who take the law into their own hands to deliver justice in an unjust world. But more than that, they’re fantastic vehicles for exploring the moral gray areas of the world. As a concept, it’s pretty straightforward: kill someone and collect a paycheck. But I’m always looking for books that do something new and special with the genre.
Michael Hendricks is a hitman with a very particular skillset—if you can afford him, he’ll kill the person who is trying to kill you.
Holm’s book is riddled with pulse-pounding action and excellent character work, but at the core of it is an incredibly engaging protagonist…who happens to be sparring with a deliciously evil antagonist.
This book is a unique spin on the classic assassin story. It follows four women in their 60s, retired from their careers as killers, who are now targeted and trying to survive.
Raybourn’s book is funny and action-packed, but it does incredible work with the characters. It explores a traditionally macho genre from a female perspective, which offers a whole host of new opportunities and insights.
Older women often feel invisible, but sometimes that's their secret weapon.
Billie, Mary Alice, Helen and Natalie have worked for the Museum, an elite network of assassins, for forty years. But now their talents are considered old-school and no one appreciates their real-world resourcefulness in an age of technology.
When the foursome is sent on an all-expenses-paid trip to mark their retirement, they are targeted by one of their own. Only the Board, the top-level members of the Museum, can order the termination of field agents, and the women realise they've been marked for death.
Angoe didn’t just write a ripping thriller; she offered another unique look at the genre by centering the story around Aninyeh, a woman born in a village in Ghana who was captured and sold into captivity as a teen.
She’s adopted and trained by the Tribe, a business group uniting various African countries into a strong economic force. Assassin stories tend to be US-centric, but these types of characters flourish on an international stage. Moreover, it’s a deeply affecting story about the reclamation of power and identity.
A smash debut novel from rising star Yasmin Angoe, Her Name Is Knight features an elite assassin heroine on a mission to topple a human trafficking ring and avenge her family.
Stolen from her Ghanaian village as a child, Nena Knight has plenty of motives to kill. Now an elite assassin for a powerful business syndicate called the Tribe, she gets plenty of chances.
But while on assignment in Miami, Nena ends up saving a life, not taking one. She emerges from the experience a changed woman, finally hopeful for a life beyond rage and revenge. Tasked with killing a…
This book doesn’t just give us one assassin—it gives us a diverse and deadly cast of killers. It’s a locked-room mystery with a ton of double-crosses and loaded with jet-black humor.
And it all moves just as fast as the train the story is set on. Sure, it was recently a movie starring Brad Pitt, but as is usually the case… the book is better.
Bullet Train is an original and propulsive thriller that fizzes with incredible energy through a series of double-crosses and twists. "Fueled by a seductively explosive premise, it's fast, deadly, and loads of fun." (NPR's Fresh Air)
An international bestseller and the basis for the major motion picture starring Brad Pitt.
Kimura’s young son is in a coma thanks to the Prince, and Kimura has tracked him onto a bullet train heading from Tokyo to Morioka to exact his revenge. But Kimura soon discovers that they are not the only dangerous passengers on board.
Satoshi—the Prince—looks like an innocent schoolboy but…
If you want to understand the assassin genre, then you can’t forget the classics, and this is an all-timer.
The Jackal is the assassin to end all assassins—mysterious, brutally efficient, and terrifying. Forsyth writes with a level of realism that’ll make you believe that if you cross the wrong person, someone like the Jackal could end up knocking on your door…
The Day of the Jackal is the electrifying story of the struggle to catch a killer before it's too late.
It is 1963 and an anonymous Englishman has been hired by the Operations Chief of the O.A.S. to murder General De Gaulle. A failed attempt in the previous year means the target will be nearly impossible to get to. But this latest plot involves a lethal weapon: an assassin of legendary talent.
Known only as The Jackal, this remorseless and deadly killer must be stopped, but how do you track a man who exists in name alone?
Mark was the most dangerous killer-for-hire in the world. But after learning the hard way that his life’s work made him more monster than man, he left all of that behind and joined a twelve-step group for reformed killers.
When Mark is viciously attacked by an unknown assailant, he is forced on the run. From New York to Singapore to London, he chases after clues while dodging attacks and trying to solve the puzzle of who’s after him—all without killing anyone–or getting killed himself. For an assassin, Mark learns that nonviolence is a real hassle.
I’ve adored reading a good snarky first-person story since I first read Bloodlist, so long as the snark doesn’t go too far and become total unlikeable jerk… It can be a fine line!I hope I stay on the right side of it, but having read it enough and written in it for years with my Blood Rights Series, I feel qualified to say I’m a…snark connoisseur. (If you ask my family, this is how my own internal/life narrator speaks! My mother says that my character Dakota is me if I “said everything aloud that I think in my head.” She’s probably right, and I’m okay with that.)
Bad Blood is paranormal suspense in First Person Snark, so if you like sarcastic, strong female characters set in a world where the preternatural is run amok (i.e., legal citizens in the United States), then this book and series are for you.
Follow Sadie Stanton–"poster girl for the preternatural"–as she deals with all sorts of messes and sets up her business while being a vampire in a new day...or night, really.
I’m Sadie Stanton, and I don’t know why everyone makes such a big deal out of me. I’m just like everyone else—I’m trying to start a business, not spending much time on my social life, and dealing with an obnoxious roommate...
Oh, and being a vampire. There’s that. But it’s okay, because we’re all legal now.
But believe me, that doesn’t make life easy. In fact, it might be harder now than ever before, but I did it to myself… And now vampires are attacking people seemingly at random and not even trying to feed. Everyone…
