Hour of the Assassin, by Matthew Quirk

When I was younger, the Cold War was at its peak and Robert Ludlum was all the rage. I was in love with spy thrillers. I think I read everything Ludlum wrote in the 1980’s, and then happily moved on to Tom Clancy’s ten pound doorstop novels. Red October, anyone? Over time, however, I’ve moved away from this genre, with only a few exceptions (I Am Pilgrim, as one example, or Daniel Silva’s amazing Gabriel Allon series, as another).

But our troubled times had me longing for escapist novels, so I picked Hour of the Assassin as one of my Book of the Month Club selections for March. In this novel, former Secret Service Agent Nick Averose is framed for a horrific murder, and must navigate through many layers of government corruption and intrigue in order to clear his name.

Unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy this novel. I found it choppy and superficial. I wanted to root for the main characters, but I never really felt emotionally engaged in the story. Having said that, I feel like I need to add this caveat: I’m not really familiar with the current state of this genre of novel. So, if you like spy novels/thrillers that are long on action and short on character development, you might really like this one. It just wasn’t for me.