Assassination Day: A Peter Ashton Novel [Hardcover]

Clive Egleton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2004

SIS officer Will Landon assumes he is facing a routine task when he is asked to investigate and vet the sensational novelized memoirs of Ross Frazer. By all records, Frazer was an ex-Intelligence officer, quite possibly involved in some long ago political assassinations, and is currently very much deceased. But events quickly take a deadly, unexpected turn. First the London literary agent in charge of the manuscript is found gruesomely murdered and his copy stolen by two people claiming to be with law enforcement. Then the body of the New York bookshop owner who was the original source of the manuscript is found brutally tortured and murdered.

This once simple situation quickly lands on the desk of Peter Ashton, now an assistant director of the SIS. In this confusing situation, Ashton clearly sees the footprints of a now disgraced former SIS director - but when he tries to locate her, he finds she's gone missing as well. With precious little to go on then, Ashton along with his protégé Will Landon must start making connections-and fast-in order to uncover who, and what is really behind this increasingly deadly situation.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

If anyone can keep the old-fashioned spy novel alive, it's British veteran Egleton (Cry Havoc; etc.). As usual, he starts things off with a bang: a leading London literary agent receives a tell-all memoir written by an intelligence officer who died in 1989 under highly suspicious circumstances. Before you can say "hot property," the London agent is murdered by two fake cops; the New York bookshop owner who came upon the manuscript is also violently offed; and Peter Ashton—a top SIS officer regarded by his enemies as a loose cannon and by his admirers as a brilliant field agent perhaps unsuited to a desk job—is put in charge. Ashton's wife not only has to help him protect the beautiful young American literary agent who was first offered the memoir but also has to cope with increasing suspicions that Jill Sheridan, Ashton's old flame who was well on her way to becoming head of SIS until she was forced to resign, is somehow behind all the book-related bloodshed. Egleton uses his obvious insider knowledge of intelligence antics to keep his story moving along briskly.
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Review

"Egleton uses his obvious insider knowledge of intelligence antics to keep his story moving along briskly."--Publishers Weekly

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Minotaur Books; 1st edition (August 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312326378
• ISBN-13: 978-0312326371
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,229,089 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A distinctly un-thrilling thriller, September 8, 2004

By 

Jerry Saperstein (Evanston, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Assassination Day: A Peter Ashton Novel (Hardcover)

376 pages of convolution, an endless parade of characters, plot twists galore - and not very satisfying.

An obnoxious young American woman comes to London to peddle the alleged memoirs of a former British spy. The publisher she is to meet with is murdered by a pair of nasties. Soon enough we are involved with the inner workings of several British police and intelligence agencies, a bunch of terrorists, a turncoat Brit nursing a grudge and the CIA. There is the grizzled old pro, Peter Ashton; the beleaguered director; the wannabes and perky analyst working her way up the ladder.

Not an awful read, but definitely pedestrian. The characters despite the earnest efforts of the author never take on any depth. The plot twists and turns, but not in a way that excites. No sitting on the edge of your seat here. The final scenes are hideously contrived and unbelievable.

In all, an un-thrilling thriller.

Jerry

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Falls Short, August 31, 2004

By 

Thomas "atm" (Columbus Ohio) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Assassination Day: A Peter Ashton Novel (Hardcover)

As is en vogue these days this book is built around a fictional terrorist attack. Mr. Egleton while adroit at building layers of characters and keeping the reader alert was not as accomplished at coming up with a believable story line.

While everyone understands that terrorism is deplorable Mr. Egleton says nothing about motive or rationale for the act of terrorism that the story is built around. He seems to leave it to the reader to understand that terrorist are insane and lack the ability to come up with rational interesting enough for us to want to investigate. And while this may be true it left the villains faceless. In a book like the one Mr. Egleton set out to write the description between the good team and the bad team needs to be balanced so that affinity can be developed for the heroes and hatred or dread can be developed for the enemy. Without this balance the story lacks momentum. We all hate terrorism and terrorists in general but Mr. Egleton gives us no basis for hating these specific terrorist aside from superficial references to their nationality.

One objective, if indeed it was his objective, that Mr. Egleton succeeds at is bringing in a truck load of characters and there by illustrating to the reader that it takes a legion of committed individuals to combat terrorism in the modern world. While this is something positive I will take away from the book the onslaught of characters added to the plodding of the plot and in the end detracted from the reading experience.