Review: Child's Play by Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir

Destroyer 23 Child’s Play by Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir

One of the problems with creating two preternaturally capable assassins is that it is difficult to find challenges for them. With that in mind, Murphy and Sapir have added an interesting concept to the idea of Sinanju. Chiun and Remo cannot harm children. Now, this is a good thing from the reader’s perspective. We do not want our heroes assassinating children and we are thrilled when Chiun takes vengeance on a child killer early in the novel. But when the children are trying to kill Remo and Chiun, it adds an interesting and much appreciated complication to our heroes’ lives.

 

And that’s basically the plot of this novel plus a little satire of educational theories during the 1970s. The bad guys are using kids as their weapons and Remo and Chiun need to figure out how to survive this unusual weapon.