Christine Palmer, a young American doctor sailing solo across the Atlantic, finds a man clinging to a cooler in the freezing ocean. narrowly clinging to his life in the frigid waters. David Slaton was on a sabotaged ship secretly conveying weapons; he is a highly-trained Mossad assassin, and has to unravel the treachery and bring its perpetrators to justice, while evading capture or his termination. Similar to, but not as good as, Daniel Silva's protagonist, Gabriel Allon. ( )

"The Perfect Assassin" wasn't bad. It just wasn't great. It's a book about one or two "lost" nuclear weapons and a corrupt Israeli faction. The foundation of the book had a lot of promise, it just didn't generate a sense of urgency until close to the end. And that's the biggest problem.

Israeli assassin David Slaton is rescued from a shipwreck by American physician Christine Palmer. The ship carried two South African nukes that were being turned over to Israeli care--a gesture Israel wants to keep very secret. Once recovered, Slaton commandeers her boat, then bails out in a remote area of the English seaside leaving Palmer to drift ashore elsewhere. Once she reports what happens, however, Slaton realizes she knows something that can put her in danger (he told her about the nukes for some reason) and kidnaps her again. The rest of the book shows David tromping through England, evading the authorities, and mapping out a plan. We also see how the leaders in Israel lose their positions because of the loss of the weapons, how others rise up to take power.

I really liked the dialogue Larsen uses and I liked how Slaton--evading British authorities--uses his wits and cunning to bring those he believes are responsible for scuttling the ship and steeling the nukes to justice. He's also in pursuit for personal reasons.

Again, the book was well written, the dialogue very believable, and the characters well-rounded. But the lack of urgency was the biggest flaw. ( )

http://dhamel.typepad.com/book_blog/2007/01/larsen_ward_the.html ( )

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