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I received an email from Jack Erickson, asking me if I would like to read and review his latest thriller. After finishing it, I am even more glad that I read it…and that ending…
MY REVIEW
The Lonely Assassin by Jack Erickson was a frightening look at Putin, Russia, Assassins, and those who end up being the target. The Prologue was a recap of past assassinations ordered by Russian leaders. I was familiar with most of them and believe it is not beyond possibility today.
Komarov had been away from work at the bank for some time. When he returned, he found some discrepancies in the work load that his friend, Dimitri, had been covering while he was out for surgery.
Dimitri had been working at their Bern branch, where he was laundering money for the Russian oligarchs. What happens when you steal from them?
So much of The Lonely Assassin rings true, showing Jack Erickson’s research and drawing from his real life experiences. The details of both cultures, Russia and Italy, clash. Russia: cold, brutal. Italy: calm, relaxing.
At times, I felt empathetic with Egorov, but then his true personality would win out and I wished for his failure. He had been to Italy before. He had immersed himself into everything Italy to prepare for the assignment. He would take his time and enjoy not being in some place like Russia, or Syria, where he had been before. He felt free, at least for a little while. He would make the most of his time, eating, drinking, seeing the sights, while hunting Dimitri.
Simona and Dario work for DIGOS and are assigned with keeping Dimitri and his family safe. It will not do for them to be assassinated in their country.
I wonder…how will it end? Well, I will tell you this…the ending certainly wasn’t what I anticipated and I loved it. It’s hard for an author to surprise me but Jack Erickson did a fantastic job of it. My emotions covered the gamut. I twisted and turned with the characters.
I cannot think of one thing Jack Erickson missed, when writing The Lonely Assassin. I found it surprising that I have never read any of his many novels before this one.
I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of The Lonely Assassin by Jack Erickson.
AMAZON SYNOPSIS
A Russian banker embezzles millions laundering money in Switzerland for Russian oligarchs. He flees with his Italian wife to a remote location on Lake Como near Milan, where their daughter lives.
Putin wants him dead and sends a GRU assassin to Milan to find and poison the banker.
But Milan’s antiterrorism police, DIGOS, cannot locate the assassin, Vasily Egorov, who is traveling with phony documents, carrying a vial of poison, and speaking Italian. Unexpectedly, Egorov meets an intriguing Italian woman who probes into his emotional life. On a dangerous assignment, Egorov realizes he’s an assassin in a deep personal crisis.
ABOUT JACK ERICKSON
My interest in fiction, especially mysteries, started when I was about ten years old and read my first Hardy Boys books, “Secret of the Old Clock,” I think the title was. I saved up from mowing lawns and running errands to buy every title I could. They were only $1.00 each, but when you’re only making 25 cents an hour, it takes time to save those nickels and dimes.
And then I discovered shelves of exciting books at my hometown Andrew Carnegie Memorial library just two blocks away from our middle class home in the Midwest. By that time I was reading “The Saturday Evening Post,” “Collier’s,” “Life,” “Look,” “Time,” “Argosy,” “True,” “Photoplay,” that my parents subscribed to and others I can’t remember. Needless to say, I skimmed through them all, and devoured short stories by John O’Hara, John Steinbeck, Ernest Hemingway, Herman Wouk, and Earl Stanley Gardner.
I believe my early interest in reading was a major factor in liking school. Writing term papers was no big deal, and we all know how important that is at university. I enjoyed the many choices available with a liberal arts education and sampled liberally from science, history, languages, art history, literature, and political science.
Those wide ranging interests are probably a factor in the careers I chose, including Russian specialist in U.S. government, legislative aide and speechwriter in U.S. Senate, free-lance writer, former publisher (Red Brick Press) and author of several craft brewing books in the early days of the industry. My most recent career was in financial services from which I recently retired to travel and write.
I’ve been writing fiction, mostly mysteries and romantic suspense, and have several projects that will be published in the next few months.
I’m always fascinated how people become readers and writers. I’d love to hear your stories how writing chose you.
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