After reading Ward Larsen's second novel, Stealing Trinity (also reviewed on Myshelf.com), I expected his debut novel, The Perfect Assassin, would paint a very grim, cold-blooded portrait of a Kidon, an Israeli Mossad assassin. Instead, Larsen has offered readers a spy hero who has character and a big heart, and who soon finds himself pitted against the agency he works for, his country, and England where he has fled to find answers.

The story begins when the ship David Slaton is assigned to is sunk in the upper Atlantic. He is rescued by a beautiful American doctor, Christine Palmer, who is attempting to sail her late father's beloved sailboat from France back to the States. Though Christine saves David's life, she becomes his prisoner until he scuttles her boat off the coast of England and rows himself ashore. There, he is determined to find out what happened to the ship he was on and its cargo of nuclear weapons. As David begins to suspect a rogue group inside Mossad is responsible, his path crosses with Christine's again and they crisscross England following leads, avoiding the local police, and dodging a lot of bullets by Mossad agents—both good and bad.

Larsen is a gifted storyteller. His characters are realistic and well-drawn, offering readers a glimpse into the training and behaviors of Mossad agents, some of the most skilled in the world. Larsen also has created an intense page-turner that would be the envy of any of Ian Fleming's James Bond novels, with even a romantic interlude or two thrown in. While David Slaton lacks the high-tech gadgets that Bond is known for, David's mission is more old school, reminiscent of the great thriller writers such as John Buchan, who wrote The Thirty-Nine Steps, a novel that became an Alfred Hitchcock classic film. It is no wonder then that The Perfect Assassin has won so many awards (Royal Palm Literary Awards 2007, GOLD MEDALIST from the Military Writers Society of America Book Awards, SILVER MEDALIST from ForeWord Book of the Year Award 2006, and winner of the Mystery/Suspense Category from National Best Books 2006).

Ward Larsen is currently working on a new book, Fly-By-Wire.

Reviews of other titles by this author

The Perfect Assassin
Fly by Night
Stealing Trinity
The Perfect Assassin / Assassin’s Game