Review Tour for Birth of an Assassin by Rik Stone.

Birth of an Assassin

by Rik Stone

Genre: Thriller

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.

Buy Links :

Amazon UK./ B&N. / Kobo

Waterstones / Amazon US

Contact Links: 

Website: http://rik-stone.simdif.com / Twitter: @stone_rik

5 Star Review

I received the book from the touring host for an honest review.

As a lover of romance books I must say this first; awwww. For twenty plus years the two main characters, Jez and Anne loved each other greatly, with no idea how the other felt. When careers came into play they had to choose and at the end their choices brought them together in an unbelievable way.

Now that, that is out of my system I must admit that I loved this thriller tremendously. The author methodically shaped this story; scene by scene he brought us an interesting story. Every scene was a building block or stepping stone for the next scene, ever building to the final conclusion.

The story begins in 1941 and we are taken all over Russia in the time when the Iron curtain was still up and the communist party ruled the country with an iron fist. But instead of the normal story of people versus the government we are led into the corrupted world of high ranking Spetznaz and KGB officers that manipulated people for their own benefit. Greed was alive and well within the government when the people starved and had to do without the most basic items.

Jez Kornfeld wanted to be a soldier all his life. He dreamed of it, talked about it and at the end walked away from home to become that. Recruited at fifteen, he met Col. Michel Petrichova right in the beginning who made sure he got the perfect training for his own plans.

Here he met Anne Puchinsky, and the two became friends fast. Soon the love blossomed between them and when he had to safe her from the clutches from a corporal; who wanted to force his advances on her; they got separated. But yet the love remained and since we only read about Jez, we never knew if it were mutual; for the most part of the story. That is until Anne had to trail Jez when he tried to safe his sisters. At this point in the story she was the aide for General Petrichova who had tested his prodigy at every turn, I did mention that Jez was Jewish, right. Well that will give you a good idea of just another twist in this well written story that will keep you glued to this book.

While in training he had to learn everything within the military and made friends with Captain Viktor. Stepping through the ranks with ease and becoming a lieutenant at the end where he was stopped by a shady captain that hated Jews. When his family comes into the story, he was already away from home for a very long time and only his eldest sister knew him. The other two were too young to remember him. From here on out the story developed quickly and you are taken into the world of greed, trafficking and prostitution.

Set up for the fall more shady characters came to the fore front, all under the geese of national security; doing what they do best; enriching them without getting caught. But they have underestimated Jez, a very tenacious soldier who was willing to fight back.

Everything was stacked against him, he was threatened, called a traitor, falsely accused, arrested and brutally tortured for crimes he didn’t commit. He had to escape, live from the land, killing innocent people in the process and was on the run, which took us over the country to find the evidence that would proof his innocence. 

The story is filled with human emotions as you become part of the intrigues of each character, their reasoning and even self righteousness in some cases. With enough twists and turns that kept you wondering if Jez would ever find the truth and someone who would believe him at the end.   

It is a thrilling ride with lots of action and adventure and The birth of the Assassin will not disappoint you; it is descriptive, fast paced and well laid out so that there would be no questions left unanswered; bringing you to a finale that will make you smile.

A book I really enjoyed till the end.