Review - Birth of an Assassin by Rik Stone

(Disclaimer - I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review)

I was apprehensive when I got the book but have to say I was pleasantly surprised. I don't read a lot of thrillers but found Birth of an Assassin fast-paced and well-plotted. The best part, to me, was the deft handling of the character development of the protagonist, Jez Kornfeld. As the teaser says below the story follows his development. I would modify that to the story IS his development. Stone does a very good job. Strongly recommended.

Book Description:

Set against the backdrop of Soviet, post-war Russia, Birth of an Assassin follows the transformation of Jez Kornfeld from wide-eyed recruit to avenging outlaw. Amidst a murky underworld of flesh-trafficking, prostitution and institutionalized corruption, the elite Jewish soldier is thrown into a world where nothing is what it seems, nobody can be trusted, and everything can be violently torn from him.

Given the order to disperse and arrest a crowd of Jewish demonstrators in Red Square, Jez breaks up the rally but discovers his sisters in their ranks. Rushed for a solution, he sneaks the girls from under the noses of secret police and hides them in downtown Moscow. But he knows they will no longer be safe in Russia. He has to find them a safe route out.

The journey begins, but he is unaware that his every move is being observed and that he has set in motion a chain of events that will plunge his life into a headlong battle to stay alive.

Author Bio:

Do children born into poverty become impoverished adults? It happens; pitfalls and roadblocks to advancement are everywhere. Rik Stone grew up poor amidst the slum-lands of fifties North East England, and left school at 15 without any academic qualifications.

He worked in the shipyards on a local river and later went into the merchant navy. Further down the line, he worked quarries in Essex in South East England.

But life was without horizons until, contrary to what his teachers had told him, he found he was capable of studying and completed a BSc degree in mathematics and computing.

Life got lucky for him when he took company pension at 50 and began writing. And now, here he is offering up his debut novel Birth of an Assassin, the first in a series.

Links :

Amazon UK. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Birth-of-an-Assassin-ebook/dp/B00DIFVC3S/

B&N. http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/birth-of-an-assassin-rik-stone/1115953870?ean=9781783010998

Kobo. http://store.kobobooks.com/en-gb/books/birth-of-an-assassin/-ykZ9LomEEqWVVtGlJrG-A

Waterstones. http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/products/rik+stone/birth+of+an+assassin+28ebook29/9960214/

Amazon US. http://www.amazon.com/Birth-Assassin-Rik-Stone-ebook/dp/B00DIFVC3S/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1389210245&sr=8-1

Website: http://rik-stone.simdif.com

Twitter: @stone_rik