Ward Larsen: Assassin's Silence

Another very good contemporary espionage thriller
David Slaton was a Kidon (Assassin) with Mossad. At the end of the previous book, Assassin's Game, he no longer exists. His wife Christine told him "If you kill this man in Geneva .... don't ever come back to me" - and he didn't. She now believes he is dead and is bringing up his son in DC as a single parent.

Slaton is well and truly alive and working (and hiding) in Malta as a stone mason. Unexpectedly an assault team attacks him but Slaton is able to kill one of them and escape. In the process he identifies the leader as someone he worked with in Mossad.

On the run, Slaton manages to get to Italy and Switzerland where he has a contact who will give him the financial independence to hunt down the assault team. The team gets to Zurich shortly after he sees his contact and Slaton again narrowly escapes with his life, but only after killing more of the team. As his funds become compromised it becomes increasingly apparent to him that the team is trying to implicate him in a serious plot. Because he is concerned that they may also be targeting Christine, he arranges for an old Mossad colleague to give her protection.

Halfway around the world at a remote airfield in the Amazon, another drama is unfolding where an unknown air cargo company purchases an almost derelict jet cargo plane. A team of mechanics is flown in to make it airworthy but on the first flight the plane dives out of control toward the ocean and wreckage, an oil slick and a body of one of the passengers are found.

Ward Larson's other major fictional character, investigator Jammer Davis, believes that the plane hasn't crashed. The worst scenario soon becomes apparent when it becomes clear that the plane is still flying and has the capability of being used for an act of pure terror.

While this book started a bit slowly for me it quickly developed into an action-packed contemporary espionage thriller, with two or three different plots coming together. The action spans the world and finishes up with a nail-biting finale.

 Anyone who read The Perfect Assassin will really appreciate the epilogue.

Ward Larsen: Assassin's Games

The Reluctant Assassin
David Slaton, Kidon (Assassin) with Mossad no longer exists, At the end of THE PERFECT ASSASSIN, with the assistance of his former Director, David quietly exited his job to recover from multiple gunshots. After his recovery he is now living a happy peaceful life in Virginia under another identity with his wife Dr. Christine Palmer who had helped his pursuit of Mossad double-agents involved in hijacking a couple of nuclear weapons.

Despite his dreams of a normal life, a Kidon can never expect to retire completely. Recently Mossad has unsuccessfully tried several times to assassinate Iranian nuclear scientist, Dr. Ibrahim Hamedi who is key to Iran's development of a nuclear weapon. All attempts have been thwarted by an unknown spy in Mossad's ranks. The new Director believes only way to be successful is to use someone who doesn't exist - and Hamedi will be vulnerable when he goes to Geneva for a UN conference on Iran's nuclear plans.

David has vowed to never kill again, but when his wife is attending a medical conference in Stockholm is attacked and forced to flee or her life, he immediately springs back into action. He is faced with a dilemma - go to Geneva and kill Hamedi or lose his new life forever. Christine's words echo in his brain "If you kill this man in Geneva .... don't ever come back to me".

This is a tightly-plotted adrenaline-pumping contemporary espionage thriller with a special emotional edge. Well done Ward Larsen - you have written a sequel that is as good as the original (I went back and read it again and was just as impressed). This was one of the first books I read in 2015 and it is already on my short-list of top reads for the year.

Ward Larsen: The Perfect Assassin

"Perfect" Mossad espionage adventure
I revisited THE PERFECT ASSASSIN, which I had read and enjoyed several years ago. At that time it wasn't clear that Larsen had planned a sequel (he has taken 6 years to do so) but I can now see that a sequel (ASSASSIN'S GAMES) was at the back of his mind.

Christine Palmer, a recently graduated doctor, is sailing solo across the Atlantic taking her late father's yacht back to America when she retrieves an almost lifeless body from the ocean clinging to some wreckage. David Slaton is the sole survivor of a ship that exploded and sank without warning.The dark side is that Slaton is a member of Mossad's Kidon (their special assassination team) who was on board a ship transporting a couple of nuclear weapons from South Africa to Israel.

Despite his condition Slaton soon takes control of Palmer's yacht and persuades her to sail to England where he slips ashore leaving her to report her situation to the local police in a small Cornish fishing village. While the police are working out what to do with her report she is about to be abducted by two men masquerading as police when David rescues her.

David and Christine then form a strange partnership trying to avoid Mossad double-agents who want to kill both of them. David uses all of his tradecraft skills to avoid them and thwart their plans. The police up the ante as the body count rises and Scotland Yard gets involved.

This is a very complex plot - but it works and is skillfully written. At the same time you learn a lot about how David became an assassin and the increasingly personal relationship with Christine as they come together to avoid capture. While I had read the book before I enjoyed it just as much on my second visit, I look forward to reading the sequel, ASSASSIN'S GAMES, which was published recently.

Ward Larsen: Fly By Wire: A Jammer Davis Thriller

Click to see in Amazon

Another winner by Ward
This was an easy reading and fast moving terrorist/air crash thriller that kept me absorbed to the end. Once again Ward Larsen has written a thriller with a completely different plot from his previous books - "The Perfect Assassin" and "Stealing Trinity" - which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Larsen introduces us to Jammer Davis, an ex military pilot now working with the National Transportation Safety Board, who joins a multinational investigation team into the unexplained crash of an innovative cargo plane. Jammer is not a good team player and doesn't tolerate bureaucracy so he barges ahead on his own and quickly uncovers more about the crash than his team members.

While Jammer is larger than life he is not the super hero of many thrillers of this genre.  His wife died in a recent accident and he suffers the stress of being a single father of a teenage girl. He is not totally alone in the investigation when an undercover CIA operative on the investigative team (of course an attractive female) seeks to recruit his assistance.

While the crash investigation proceeds, simultaneous terrorist suicide attacks destroy medium sized petroleum refineries throughout the world. How could this be linked to the crash of a cargo plane?

I find it difficult to give a book 5 stars and had got to 4.5 stars when Jammer said something  unforgettable that pushed it up to 5 stars. In a crucial phone call after Jammer finds the reason for the crash he says, "I am talking to a goddam paper pusher who needs to go piss up a rope! Now go and do something about it and call me back in 10 minutes." You will need to read the book to find out who he was talking to and what he needs him to do.

Larsen's experience as a fighter pilot in Desert Storm  and a trained aircraft accident investigator comes through strongly in the flying and technical content of this book. He is one of my favourite thriller writers to watch and I look forward to reading the next Jammer Davis book, Fly by Night.