Customer Reviews

The Well-Mannered Assassin

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In the beginning in the book, Countess confesses as having started this as a non-fictional account involving Carlos the Jackal. But when she heard that he might still be alive...she had to weave in fiction to protect herself and others. This was a wonderful story, and it is amazing, how a well-mannered young man, is a assasin. This was a fast paced book, nothing was boring.

The Well-Mannered Assassin was a suspenseful book with lots of thills and great detail. Aline Romanones, an American Beauty, goes back to her days at the OSS as a spy. She decides to help out her old spymaster John Derby when she finds out she's been befriended by an international terrorist; Carlos the Jackal. It's a deadly game of cat-and-mouse that will keep you coming back for more.

I loved this book. I had just re-read The Spy Wore Red, The Spy Went Dancing, The Spy Wore Silk from the same Author, and had decided I wanted to buy them. When I entered them I found this one that I had previously known nothing about. I was very excited to find it.
This womans' Spy work is so interesting. The locations these stories cover and the opulant living are great. This Book took the stories further and was a delight.
I love a quick moving book that grabs your imagination right away.

Some might call it luck, others Divine intervention, but no matter, The Countess of Romanones keeps on going despite death threats, assassination attempts, stalkers, and an inquisitive spouse, keeping this agent on her toes. As people drop like flies all round her, Aline keeps her wits and continues gathering important evidence, often endangering her life and that of her spouse. The Spanish countryside and coastline are backdrops for another "can't put it down" read. Who knew working for the CIA could be so dangerous? This woman should be commended for her brave dedication and sincere love of our country and the many sacrifices she made along the way.

As a writer (two non-published novels under my belt), I study the writing of other writers as a matter of course. I really enjoyed the intrigue, surprises, and twists of this book. I was amused and enlightened to read the other reviews. I had forgotten (it's been several years since I read the book) that the author claims to have begun writing the "documentary" account of her work for the OSS during WWII, and then was forced to fictionalize it to protect herself from "evil forces that lurk". What DID disturb me that the Countess never nailed down was her frequent references to Carlos' (The Jackal) "VERY disturbing", and "utterly REvOLTING sexual appetites". I kept running into her observing him courting and being VERY affectionate towards a "young lady"; she observes them on several occasions "kissing like lovers", she sees him "pawing her like a man would who's having sex with her"; and then she writes that she snuck to the door of his hotel room "to try and determine what he was up to", and overheard him "having vigorous and NOISY sexual intercourse" with an obviously willing young female partner; however, since the Countess knew who he was with -- having observed them enter the room earlier-- she was repulsed. No further explanation other than the Countess was "too modest, too much a lady to explain further." I wondered for YEARS what that was all about, until I happened upon a "rare" photo of Carlos at a fancy European dinner party with his 'girlfriend/escort' of the evening. I no longer have the photo, but it explained everything the Countess had alluded to in the novel. Carlos' "girlfriend" in the photograph is a "young lady" who is a mere 12 years, a "grown up" little girl; a child. She is fully developed (full grown physically), but she is TINY, and the fact that she's a mere child is visually OBVIOUS. The "twist" in the story that Aline never explains is that the police DESPISE Carlos the Jackal because he's a child molester, but he's so dangerous a person, all attempts to arrest the man prove totally deadly for the police. THAT part of the "novel" turns out to be true, and certainly explained the author's utter revulsion at observing The Jackal being affectionate and even sexual with a CHILD! At one point early in the novel, the Countess encounters Carlos -- at her husband's office, as I recall. She later recounts that she was concerned with his overly charming manner, that he might be "hitting on her". She was flattered, but not remotely interested; which presents her a dilemma. She was concerned how to rebuff him in a way that he wouldn't fly into a rage and harm her husband (since she knew of his reputation as a DEADLY assassin. However, once she has observed who he is being sexual towards, she realizes she was never in any danger in that way. She was a decade or two TOO OLD to suit his aberrant sexual appetites!
"Well done!" A fascinating read!