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Amsterdam Assassin #1
Reprobate: A Katla Novel
Alt Cover ASIN: B0094VD7JW
Assassin Katla breaks her own rules when confronted with an unusual witness...
Blessed with an almost non-existent conscience, freelance assassin and corporate troubleshooter Katla Sieltjes, expert in disguising homicide, regards murder for profit as an intricate and rewarding occupation. Her solitary existence seems more than satisfactory until a blind musician wanders in on her crime scene.
Katla only kills for profit or to protect her anonymity, and Bram Merleyn seems harmless and unable to identify her. By sparing his life, she breaks one of her most important rules—never leave a living witness. A decision Katla might not survive to regret...
Reprobate is the first novel in the Amsterdam Assassin Series.
With authentic details and brisk action against the backdrop of the notorious Dutch capital, featuring a devious heroine and a supporting cast of singular characters, Reprobate gives a rare glimpse into local Dutch culture, the narcotics trade, computer hacking, motorcycle gangs, mehndi bridal tattoos, martial arts, the psychology of social engineering, and the brutal efficacy of disciplined violence.
This e-book features a glossary.
Assassin Katla breaks her own rules when confronted with an unusual witness...
Blessed with an almost non-existent conscience, freelance assassin and corporate troubleshooter Katla Sieltjes, expert in disguising homicide, regards murder for profit as an intricate and rewarding occupation. Her solitary existence seems more than satisfactory until a blind musician wanders in on her crime scene.
Katla only kills for profit or to protect her anonymity, and Bram Merleyn seems harmless and unable to identify her. By sparing his life, she breaks one of her most important rules—never leave a living witness. A decision Katla might not survive to regret...
Reprobate is the first novel in the Amsterdam Assassin Series.
With authentic details and brisk action against the backdrop of the notorious Dutch capital, featuring a devious heroine and a supporting cast of singular characters, Reprobate gives a rare glimpse into local Dutch culture, the narcotics trade, computer hacking, motorcycle gangs, mehndi bridal tattoos, martial arts, the psychology of social engineering, and the brutal efficacy of disciplined violence.
This e-book features a glossary.
424 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 1, 2012
12 people are currently reading
282 people want to read
About the author
Martyn V. Halm
9 books63 followers
Martyn enjoys reading reviews of his work, but doesn't 'respond' to them, so if you want to get a response, please provide direct feedback by sending an email to katlasieltjes@yahoo.com
Friend requests are welcome, but preferably from people with a compatible taste in books.
A Brief Bio:
Martyn V. Halm lives in Amsterdam, with his two children, one cat, two rats, and countless imaginary characters vying for attention.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 55 reviews
March 8, 2014
My appetite for Halm’s Assassin series was whetted by reading his novellas.
Halm skillfully merges several story lines together in this entertaining novel. Unlike his short works,, here he has added several interesting characters: Deborah Stern, a DEA agent coming off a shooting who has been transferred to Amsterdam especially because she speaks fluent Dutch; Bram Merelyn is a blind man whom Katla is watching as he happened upon her in the gallery of a man Katla had just killed. They develop a relationship and there is a great scene where he, the blind man, takes her to a movie.
Katla is hired by some drug dealers to kill an undercover DEA agent who has wormed his way into their midst. They happen to have a source within the police agency so they dare not kill him themselves and must have the killing look like it was done by a member from a competing gang.
Books about assassins rarely work well if the character is just a superhuman killing automaton. Even Stark's Parker has a human side in his relationship with his girlfriend and Keller evolves into a father and regular citizen as Block's series evolves. So Halm has begun to develop Katla, a professional in a bizarre profession. She nevertheless makes mistakes and has an emotional side. She has her own moral compass. Halm’s world is populated by very grey moral compasses. As he says, “In this world there is always room for smart immoral people.”
I will certainly read the rest of the series, and I’m hoping that the author focuses more on Katla, perhaps developing the relationship with Bram, both interesting characters. A minor gripe is that there were a couple of tidbits I thought to be extraneous. For example the mugging of Deborah Stern, her disabling of the criminal, and then the comments regarding the Dutch legal system ‘s apparent “coddling” of criminals. If the story was intended to be a critique of their system, it was completely defanged by the subsequent prank played on Stern by her colleagues. I’d love to hear a comment from the author regarding my observation on this.
It’s always fun to read novels set in foreign cities. For those interested in more Amsterdam stories, besides Halm’s, I can recommend Baantjer’s Dekok series. Dekok is a sort of Dutch Maigret.
Halm skillfully merges several story lines together in this entertaining novel. Unlike his short works,, here he has added several interesting characters: Deborah Stern, a DEA agent coming off a shooting who has been transferred to Amsterdam especially because she speaks fluent Dutch; Bram Merelyn is a blind man whom Katla is watching as he happened upon her in the gallery of a man Katla had just killed. They develop a relationship and there is a great scene where he, the blind man, takes her to a movie.
Katla is hired by some drug dealers to kill an undercover DEA agent who has wormed his way into their midst. They happen to have a source within the police agency so they dare not kill him themselves and must have the killing look like it was done by a member from a competing gang.
Books about assassins rarely work well if the character is just a superhuman killing automaton. Even Stark's Parker has a human side in his relationship with his girlfriend and Keller evolves into a father and regular citizen as Block's series evolves. So Halm has begun to develop Katla, a professional in a bizarre profession. She nevertheless makes mistakes and has an emotional side. She has her own moral compass. Halm’s world is populated by very grey moral compasses. As he says, “In this world there is always room for smart immoral people.”
I will certainly read the rest of the series, and I’m hoping that the author focuses more on Katla, perhaps developing the relationship with Bram, both interesting characters. A minor gripe is that there were a couple of tidbits I thought to be extraneous. For example the mugging of Deborah Stern, her disabling of the criminal, and then the comments regarding the Dutch legal system ‘s apparent “coddling” of criminals. If the story was intended to be a critique of their system, it was completely defanged by the subsequent prank played on Stern by her colleagues. I’d love to hear a comment from the author regarding my observation on this.
It’s always fun to read novels set in foreign cities. For those interested in more Amsterdam stories, besides Halm’s, I can recommend Baantjer’s Dekok series. Dekok is a sort of Dutch Maigret.
May 8, 2013
The concept is very interesting and compelling but I had a few issues.
Bram and Katla's relationships was my favorite thing of the book. It was done naturally (though Bram's acceptance of her profession is quick). And it was sweet, how she becomes attached to him and how he loves her despite her work. I fell in love with Bram from the begging, he was thoughtful and affectionate. Katla surprised me. I thought she would be colder and more calculating; but I found her open and friendly.
Katla's pet was hilarious; a skating bird is a definitely original idea.
There are a lot of POVs,too many in my opinion. I was a little lost with the Dutch and Japanese words and the details about guns all of which I still don't understand.
I don't really see the importance of Deborah's POV because there's not much character development and by the summary at the start I thought she was going to be co-protagonist with Katla. That why I was disappointed as I had great expectations.
Well, as a whole, I liked the book and I'm thinking about buying the following book.
Bram and Katla's relationships was my favorite thing of the book. It was done naturally (though Bram's acceptance of her profession is quick). And it was sweet, how she becomes attached to him and how he loves her despite her work. I fell in love with Bram from the begging, he was thoughtful and affectionate. Katla surprised me. I thought she would be colder and more calculating; but I found her open and friendly.
Katla's pet was hilarious; a skating bird is a definitely original idea.
There are a lot of POVs,too many in my opinion. I was a little lost with the Dutch and Japanese words and the details about guns all of which I still don't understand.
I don't really see the importance of Deborah's POV because there's not much character development and by the summary at the start I thought she was going to be co-protagonist with Katla. That why I was disappointed as I had great expectations.
Well, as a whole, I liked the book and I'm thinking about buying the following book.
February 17, 2014
The first thing that must be said about Reprobate: A Katla Novel is that the attention to detail is incredible. Every moment of the book serves to show the author’s unique knowledge of his subject material, from the weapons used by Katla to the street-by-street routes taken through Amsterdam. While there are many unfamiliar words describing Japanese blades and culture, motorcycle parts, and locations in Amsterdam, I felt all of these were fitting inclusions that helped set the tone and credibility of the story.
Katla Sieltjes is an assassin operating out of Amsterdam who is skilled in so many disciplines that she can carry out virtually any assignment (under any assumed cover) with enough planning. She can stage deaths to look like cartel hits, complete accidents, or make a person disappear entirely. With her unique skillset and dynamic personality, I equated her to a kind of James Bond spy character, except she works on the other side of the law. The multiple assassinations plot is interesting and easy enough to follow, though there are a lot of pages to get through to reach closure.
The story was honestly a long read, and it would be nigh impossible to work through in a single sitting. As mentioned before, there is a lot of detail in the book, and at some points it becomes a little overwhelming. When the minutiae was deployed in full force and the action lagged, I had to force myself to keep reading lest I put the book down and not return for hours or days. I wouldn’t mind having a fast-forward button at certain points, such as when driving sequences are described turn for turn; it did little to advance the plot, except to show off Amsterdam and portray Katla’s inherent aversion to being tailed by somebody back to her house. There are no info dumps, thankfully, but the entire book works as one dense collection of details that must be waded through to grasp the core story of murder and intrigue.
Let’s talk for a moment about the characters. I love Kourou, Zeph, Katla, and Bram, in that order. They feel like real people (and a macaw) that I might meet on the street and invite out for lunch.
Katla has an interesting background: she chooses to be a killer not because of a twisted childhood, but simply because she is good at it. She manages to lead a fairly normal life when she is not on the job, and the lucrative nature of her work means we don’t have to follow her working in an office to earn a living while keeping her secret identity.
Bram is a blind jazz enthusiast who also leads his own mostly-independent life, and out of the several points of view given in the book, his might be my favorite. Ironic, I know, given the blindness, but his “view” is rich, deep, and believable, giving a tactile sense to things we’d ordinarily see and dismiss.
But do I love the idea of these two main characters being together? I’m not convinced. Some of the scenes seem contrived simply to show one aspect or another of each character, with little connection to the actual story; when they occurred, I immediately felt they were out of place. The relationship between Bram and Katla happens a little too quickly, too, and the circumstances of their first few meetings still make me wonder. There are also some illicit sex scenes that would be off-limits for some readers, and again, I felt the sexual side of their relationship happened very abruptly in comparison with the slow emotional and intellectual build-up.
As I said earlier, there are multiple points of view in this story. One such POV is the joint task force assembled to break up a local drug ring, which inevitably puts them on Katla’s trail when an operation goes awry. We see this perspective through the eyes of Deborah Stern, a DEA agent from America. Ordinarily, I would love hearing both sides of the investigation and watching with growing anticipation as the agents of the law move in on the killer, but that doesn’t happen here. Deborah is given a little backstory that isn’t relevant to the plot, and the group as a whole gets few descriptors besides one-line adjectives. At times, I could hear two characters speaking with the same voice and forgot a third one entirely. In fact, I can’t understand why any of these characters mattered in this book, except for the build-up into a series that requires their introduction at some point. I felt that their presence and dialogue was redundant throughout the story, serving mostly to explain once again the details of scenes we’ve already seen through Katla’s perspective. A lot of this perspective’s scenes and characters fell flat, severely lacking the depth given to those on Katla’s side of the story.
In terms of punctuation, grammar, and formatting, this book is nearly perfect. If there are errors, they are so small and negligible that they don’t interrupt the flow of the story.
Overall, I enjoyed the plot. The murders are interesting, the details are pristine, and I can imagine everything going on in this world as the characters experience it. I disliked the entire “lawful” side of the book, feeling it was unnecessary for understanding 99% of what was going on, and some characters lacked the verisimilitude achieved in other parts of the book. I would be interested in checking out the sequel, but because of the density of its detail and almost plodding pace at times, I would be hard-pressed to find the determination to read through this first installment again.
3.5/5 stars.
Katla Sieltjes is an assassin operating out of Amsterdam who is skilled in so many disciplines that she can carry out virtually any assignment (under any assumed cover) with enough planning. She can stage deaths to look like cartel hits, complete accidents, or make a person disappear entirely. With her unique skillset and dynamic personality, I equated her to a kind of James Bond spy character, except she works on the other side of the law. The multiple assassinations plot is interesting and easy enough to follow, though there are a lot of pages to get through to reach closure.
The story was honestly a long read, and it would be nigh impossible to work through in a single sitting. As mentioned before, there is a lot of detail in the book, and at some points it becomes a little overwhelming. When the minutiae was deployed in full force and the action lagged, I had to force myself to keep reading lest I put the book down and not return for hours or days. I wouldn’t mind having a fast-forward button at certain points, such as when driving sequences are described turn for turn; it did little to advance the plot, except to show off Amsterdam and portray Katla’s inherent aversion to being tailed by somebody back to her house. There are no info dumps, thankfully, but the entire book works as one dense collection of details that must be waded through to grasp the core story of murder and intrigue.
Let’s talk for a moment about the characters. I love Kourou, Zeph, Katla, and Bram, in that order. They feel like real people (and a macaw) that I might meet on the street and invite out for lunch.
Katla has an interesting background: she chooses to be a killer not because of a twisted childhood, but simply because she is good at it. She manages to lead a fairly normal life when she is not on the job, and the lucrative nature of her work means we don’t have to follow her working in an office to earn a living while keeping her secret identity.
Bram is a blind jazz enthusiast who also leads his own mostly-independent life, and out of the several points of view given in the book, his might be my favorite. Ironic, I know, given the blindness, but his “view” is rich, deep, and believable, giving a tactile sense to things we’d ordinarily see and dismiss.
But do I love the idea of these two main characters being together? I’m not convinced. Some of the scenes seem contrived simply to show one aspect or another of each character, with little connection to the actual story; when they occurred, I immediately felt they were out of place. The relationship between Bram and Katla happens a little too quickly, too, and the circumstances of their first few meetings still make me wonder. There are also some illicit sex scenes that would be off-limits for some readers, and again, I felt the sexual side of their relationship happened very abruptly in comparison with the slow emotional and intellectual build-up.
As I said earlier, there are multiple points of view in this story. One such POV is the joint task force assembled to break up a local drug ring, which inevitably puts them on Katla’s trail when an operation goes awry. We see this perspective through the eyes of Deborah Stern, a DEA agent from America. Ordinarily, I would love hearing both sides of the investigation and watching with growing anticipation as the agents of the law move in on the killer, but that doesn’t happen here. Deborah is given a little backstory that isn’t relevant to the plot, and the group as a whole gets few descriptors besides one-line adjectives. At times, I could hear two characters speaking with the same voice and forgot a third one entirely. In fact, I can’t understand why any of these characters mattered in this book, except for the build-up into a series that requires their introduction at some point. I felt that their presence and dialogue was redundant throughout the story, serving mostly to explain once again the details of scenes we’ve already seen through Katla’s perspective. A lot of this perspective’s scenes and characters fell flat, severely lacking the depth given to those on Katla’s side of the story.
In terms of punctuation, grammar, and formatting, this book is nearly perfect. If there are errors, they are so small and negligible that they don’t interrupt the flow of the story.
Overall, I enjoyed the plot. The murders are interesting, the details are pristine, and I can imagine everything going on in this world as the characters experience it. I disliked the entire “lawful” side of the book, feeling it was unnecessary for understanding 99% of what was going on, and some characters lacked the verisimilitude achieved in other parts of the book. I would be interested in checking out the sequel, but because of the density of its detail and almost plodding pace at times, I would be hard-pressed to find the determination to read through this first installment again.
3.5/5 stars.
January 28, 2013
The term Reprobate is used synonymously with scoundrel or villain, but it is defined as 'an unprincipled person'. Katla Sieltjes might be unscrupulous by general standards, but according to her own moral compass she couldn't be more principled. She doesn't maim, she doesn't torture, she kills whomever she is paid for killing and she only kills bystanders if they could identify her, to name just a few. That's why she lets Bram Merleyn live when the blind man inadvertently invades her job site, a gallery whose owner she's just killed with one of his own swords.
What makes Katla so intriguing is that she is thoroughly human. She's a consummate professional assassin or 'corporate problem solver', but sometimes she makes mistakes, too. The story line is believable and whatever Katla does is as surprising and inventive as it is realistic. In counterpoint to the fast-paced action stands her slow, almost sensual pursuit of the blind man. She is drawn to him by his looks and demeanor and she methodically stalks him, getting closer and closer until he turns the tables on her and reveals that he recognizes her from the gallery. What results is the slowly evolving romance of two people who are without prejudice about each other.
While the main story line around the contract killings was a little predictable and I guessed the villain early-on in the story, what pulled me along most was my desire to get to the next chapter in the evolution of Katla and Bram. Several times I had to restrain myself from jumping ahead to get straight to their next interaction. Details about both of them are revealed slowly, sometimes expected, more often surprising, but never clishéd. In between the story unfolds with interesting secondary characters and you can't help rooting for Katla when she is double-crossed. And while some readers might feel righteous elation and schadenfreude at Katla's successful pursuit of the double-crosser, Katla herself sees nothing but clinical necessity to protect herself.
By the end of the story I was thoroughly enthralled and I can't wait to get my hands on the second novel Peccadillo to find out who and how Katla will be killing next and how her relationship with Bram will continue to evolve.
What makes Katla so intriguing is that she is thoroughly human. She's a consummate professional assassin or 'corporate problem solver', but sometimes she makes mistakes, too. The story line is believable and whatever Katla does is as surprising and inventive as it is realistic. In counterpoint to the fast-paced action stands her slow, almost sensual pursuit of the blind man. She is drawn to him by his looks and demeanor and she methodically stalks him, getting closer and closer until he turns the tables on her and reveals that he recognizes her from the gallery. What results is the slowly evolving romance of two people who are without prejudice about each other.
While the main story line around the contract killings was a little predictable and I guessed the villain early-on in the story, what pulled me along most was my desire to get to the next chapter in the evolution of Katla and Bram. Several times I had to restrain myself from jumping ahead to get straight to their next interaction. Details about both of them are revealed slowly, sometimes expected, more often surprising, but never clishéd. In between the story unfolds with interesting secondary characters and you can't help rooting for Katla when she is double-crossed. And while some readers might feel righteous elation and schadenfreude at Katla's successful pursuit of the double-crosser, Katla herself sees nothing but clinical necessity to protect herself.
By the end of the story I was thoroughly enthralled and I can't wait to get my hands on the second novel Peccadillo to find out who and how Katla will be killing next and how her relationship with Bram will continue to evolve.
July 11, 2013
Books & Sweet Epiphany
www.booksandsweetepiphany.blogspot.com
If you like a kick-ass heroine, multi-talented and a non-judgmental main character, Reprobate is the book for you.
Reprobate has a great start, it'll hook and drag you into the story whether you want it or not.
Katla is an assassin and she is a damn awesome one at that. In fact, she's like the Assassin Creed guy + The HitMan guy all in one.
I love how Martyn introduces the character in the story. Not only that, each and every character has a certain quality about them that I can't get enough.
It is represented through different points of views at different times and it all merges in the end with the crossing of paths with one another.
It is also something like the 'Vantage Point'.
This is also my first time in reading a novel of such storyline. Reprobate is unique and each character compliments one another.
I just want to gush at Katla's abilities. She's just so awesome!
The whole storyline has that quality of a TV Series but if you think that's boring...well, it's your loss. :D
I love all the parts where there's action, shooting and killing in it. I love how each and every detail of the kill is being described. It made me feel like I'm actually learning something valuable in the book, not that I WANT to kill someone. It's just knowledge to me.
I believe this book is awesome enough to be in my favourite books list.
Sincerely,
Selina.
www.booksandsweetepiphany.blogspot.com
If you like a kick-ass heroine, multi-talented and a non-judgmental main character, Reprobate is the book for you.
Reprobate has a great start, it'll hook and drag you into the story whether you want it or not.
Katla is an assassin and she is a damn awesome one at that. In fact, she's like the Assassin Creed guy + The HitMan guy all in one.
I love how Martyn introduces the character in the story. Not only that, each and every character has a certain quality about them that I can't get enough.
It is represented through different points of views at different times and it all merges in the end with the crossing of paths with one another.
It is also something like the 'Vantage Point'.
This is also my first time in reading a novel of such storyline. Reprobate is unique and each character compliments one another.
I just want to gush at Katla's abilities. She's just so awesome!
The whole storyline has that quality of a TV Series but if you think that's boring...well, it's your loss. :D
I love all the parts where there's action, shooting and killing in it. I love how each and every detail of the kill is being described. It made me feel like I'm actually learning something valuable in the book, not that I WANT to kill someone. It's just knowledge to me.
I believe this book is awesome enough to be in my favourite books list.
Sincerely,
Selina.
May 10, 2013
Move over James Patterson. This is an awesome book. I love the femme fatale character Katla. The author did a good job of developing the character as well as the underlying love interest. This book has definately piqued my interest in Katla and I look forward to reading more of her adventures. This is an action packed story that kept me interested. The author brought the various story lines together and tied it all up with a neat bow at the end. Great job Martyn, keep them coming.
December 22, 2014
From https://ocotilloarts.com/blog 12 Dec 2014
Reprobate is a thriller, one of a series (Amsterdam Assassins) concerning Katla Sieltjes, a female murderer for hire working under the name Loki. In this incarnation, Katla is hired by some one unknown of a cloud of people and groups in the Dutch drug trade, including the suppliers and their enforcers, and agents of several different European and American police forces. Heroin has been discovered on a NATO base, and the quality of it points to the Dutch as middlemen. (If you think it implausible that Loki would not know who hired her, read the book. Loki’s tradecraft is impeccable, and puts in the shade the ludicrous precautions taken by so many other fictional people who work undercover.)
The set-up takes about a quarter of the book, as there are a great many people and loyalties for Halm to create. This is handled systematically in a series of lucid chapters. The second quarter of the book concerns the hit itself. This is not entirely successful, a mixed outcome which provides the source for the suspense of the second half, for strangely we find ourselves rooting for Katla. Our partisanship is complicated by the presence of a love interest, a blind man, Bram Merleyn. Bram is an entirely admirable character. He is urbane, centered and at ease with his blindness, athletic, and knowledgeable about a great many things including jazz and Japanese. The friendship between these two very opposite people is quite believable in Halm’s hands and offers a number of outcomes, enhancing the story’s suspense. More of the plot I will not reveal.
The author has a detailed knowledge of Amsterdam, as he should since he lives there. He also knows a lot about motorcycles (he owns at least one), scooters, cars, and bicycles. Other matters — guns and knives, Japanese language and food, jazz, cops, autopsies, drug cartels, blindness, saxophones, expensive hotels, regulations, and so forth — can be acquired by research, and Halm has been assiduous and meticulous. Rather too much so, in some cases, with brand and model names and geographic details. It’s a tic, but in many cases it is hard to see what changes might be made without harm to the authenticity of the narrative. Indeed, the liking for these details brings many characters and actions to life. When Katla (in her Loki persona) gets shot in the leg (I will say only so much) the description of the physical consequences is immediately believable.
Reprobate is one of those suspense stories in which the reader finds himself on the side of a character he wouldn’t ordinarily. Ordinarily, we would not like to increase the world’s stock of assassins. This is Bram’s problem. An ordinary thriller seeks only to engage us in the chase. A more ambitious tale must engage our loyalties and morally re-interpret the actions of its characters. Many such stories are built on the detective formula. The hero of a suspense story must, for her own protection, sort out the facts and discover the nature of the threat. The search for truth is always admirable, and gives a story like Reprobate a built-in advantage if the author is intelligent enough to use it. Halm is that, but he also has the brass (and self-confidence) not to let matters rest there. The threat to Katla comes not entirely from out-and-out baddies but from some police agents who we have also come to like, particularly two women. So as the thriller proceeds, the reader finds himself in a quandary. This is also Bram’s quandary, and Bram is the moral ground on which the reader will interrogate his own morality.
Being (in part) a search for truth, Reprobate is at first a detective story, not a thriller. We are presented with a crime (albeit remotely, the reported heroin fatality) and a number of applicants for the position of crimesolver. This situation is rapidly overborne. Loki is hired by someone who wants to cover up matters and protect the drug trade. But when the hit goes bad the original drug crime becomes irrelevant. Loki’s problem is to identify the villain, as any detective would — that is, the person behind her own attempted assassination — but she is also working against competing detectives who want to know as well her own identity. Part of the suspense of this clever story is how the author will resolve it without either disappointing our loyalties or damaging our respect for the truth.
In the classic period of Holmes and Poirot, the knowledge needed to solve the crime was acquired by observation and reasoning. As the story-line shifted toward the hard-boiled the method shifted to interrogation and confession. At the same time the impetus for the story evolved away from the detective who works in defense of society, to one who works to protect a few people from a corrupt society, to one who works to protect himself. The hero of a thriller works against a society which is set against him not for passing convenience, as in the hardboiled novel, but on principle. The hero of a thriller is a threat to a whole social order. And so the stage is set for a story in which detection is in service to quashing both the criminals and what they stand for and an action hero can be a cold-blooded killer.
The case here is stark. Katla may be working for the wrong people, but she is targeting some people who are worse. She is good at her job, and we tend to root for such people as we do for superheroes. Finally, she has shown us a soft side in her relationship with Bram and in a number of small kindnesses to people she comes across. So the first half of the book resembles a quest story with a twist. It is not until the second half, after Katla is injured, disabled, and under a threat from which her formidable combat skills cannot save her, that the book becomes an out-and-out thriller. By this time we have come to like Katla and are in the habit of rooting for her.
This, of course, can be carried only so far. This is not a hermetic, intellectual literary novel. It’s a thriller, we came aboard to be thrilled, and so we are.
Loki, for those who don’t know, is a Norse god of considerable importance in the Edda. In Wagner’s Das Rheingold he is the trickster who helps Wotan to get the Ring from Alberich, something of a comedown from his many powers and shape-shifting talents in the older mythology. Our Loki belongs to the Edda lineage.
Reprobate is a thriller, one of a series (Amsterdam Assassins) concerning Katla Sieltjes, a female murderer for hire working under the name Loki. In this incarnation, Katla is hired by some one unknown of a cloud of people and groups in the Dutch drug trade, including the suppliers and their enforcers, and agents of several different European and American police forces. Heroin has been discovered on a NATO base, and the quality of it points to the Dutch as middlemen. (If you think it implausible that Loki would not know who hired her, read the book. Loki’s tradecraft is impeccable, and puts in the shade the ludicrous precautions taken by so many other fictional people who work undercover.)
The set-up takes about a quarter of the book, as there are a great many people and loyalties for Halm to create. This is handled systematically in a series of lucid chapters. The second quarter of the book concerns the hit itself. This is not entirely successful, a mixed outcome which provides the source for the suspense of the second half, for strangely we find ourselves rooting for Katla. Our partisanship is complicated by the presence of a love interest, a blind man, Bram Merleyn. Bram is an entirely admirable character. He is urbane, centered and at ease with his blindness, athletic, and knowledgeable about a great many things including jazz and Japanese. The friendship between these two very opposite people is quite believable in Halm’s hands and offers a number of outcomes, enhancing the story’s suspense. More of the plot I will not reveal.
The author has a detailed knowledge of Amsterdam, as he should since he lives there. He also knows a lot about motorcycles (he owns at least one), scooters, cars, and bicycles. Other matters — guns and knives, Japanese language and food, jazz, cops, autopsies, drug cartels, blindness, saxophones, expensive hotels, regulations, and so forth — can be acquired by research, and Halm has been assiduous and meticulous. Rather too much so, in some cases, with brand and model names and geographic details. It’s a tic, but in many cases it is hard to see what changes might be made without harm to the authenticity of the narrative. Indeed, the liking for these details brings many characters and actions to life. When Katla (in her Loki persona) gets shot in the leg (I will say only so much) the description of the physical consequences is immediately believable.
Reprobate is one of those suspense stories in which the reader finds himself on the side of a character he wouldn’t ordinarily. Ordinarily, we would not like to increase the world’s stock of assassins. This is Bram’s problem. An ordinary thriller seeks only to engage us in the chase. A more ambitious tale must engage our loyalties and morally re-interpret the actions of its characters. Many such stories are built on the detective formula. The hero of a suspense story must, for her own protection, sort out the facts and discover the nature of the threat. The search for truth is always admirable, and gives a story like Reprobate a built-in advantage if the author is intelligent enough to use it. Halm is that, but he also has the brass (and self-confidence) not to let matters rest there. The threat to Katla comes not entirely from out-and-out baddies but from some police agents who we have also come to like, particularly two women. So as the thriller proceeds, the reader finds himself in a quandary. This is also Bram’s quandary, and Bram is the moral ground on which the reader will interrogate his own morality.
Being (in part) a search for truth, Reprobate is at first a detective story, not a thriller. We are presented with a crime (albeit remotely, the reported heroin fatality) and a number of applicants for the position of crimesolver. This situation is rapidly overborne. Loki is hired by someone who wants to cover up matters and protect the drug trade. But when the hit goes bad the original drug crime becomes irrelevant. Loki’s problem is to identify the villain, as any detective would — that is, the person behind her own attempted assassination — but she is also working against competing detectives who want to know as well her own identity. Part of the suspense of this clever story is how the author will resolve it without either disappointing our loyalties or damaging our respect for the truth.
In the classic period of Holmes and Poirot, the knowledge needed to solve the crime was acquired by observation and reasoning. As the story-line shifted toward the hard-boiled the method shifted to interrogation and confession. At the same time the impetus for the story evolved away from the detective who works in defense of society, to one who works to protect a few people from a corrupt society, to one who works to protect himself. The hero of a thriller works against a society which is set against him not for passing convenience, as in the hardboiled novel, but on principle. The hero of a thriller is a threat to a whole social order. And so the stage is set for a story in which detection is in service to quashing both the criminals and what they stand for and an action hero can be a cold-blooded killer.
The case here is stark. Katla may be working for the wrong people, but she is targeting some people who are worse. She is good at her job, and we tend to root for such people as we do for superheroes. Finally, she has shown us a soft side in her relationship with Bram and in a number of small kindnesses to people she comes across. So the first half of the book resembles a quest story with a twist. It is not until the second half, after Katla is injured, disabled, and under a threat from which her formidable combat skills cannot save her, that the book becomes an out-and-out thriller. By this time we have come to like Katla and are in the habit of rooting for her.
This, of course, can be carried only so far. This is not a hermetic, intellectual literary novel. It’s a thriller, we came aboard to be thrilled, and so we are.
Loki, for those who don’t know, is a Norse god of considerable importance in the Edda. In Wagner’s Das Rheingold he is the trickster who helps Wotan to get the Ring from Alberich, something of a comedown from his many powers and shape-shifting talents in the older mythology. Our Loki belongs to the Edda lineage.
February 16, 2014
This novel caught my attention as its blurb made me think of Larsson’s Salander, and as I miss Lisbeth, I was looking for her fill-in. Is Katla Lisbeth? No. Is she an intelligent, resourceful, rather sociopathic misfit? Uh huh. Loved her.
Katla is a freelance assassin whose career choice comes from moral ambiguity in her character. She spends no time in tedious self-examination. She has thought through her philosophies and occasionally gives voice to them - and her reasoning - but there is zero angst. Is she an emotionless automaton? Not even a little bit. She’s smart. She’s practical. She makes mistakes. But when she does, they are usually subtle, and the author doesn’t insult you by holding your hand through them. Did you notice her errors? Maybe; maybe not. They’ll be revealed when the time is right - not before, and not after.
Okay, must backtrack a little. I started the novel and promptly ran into a glossary. Now, I’m on the fence about the glossary - lots of words I already knew and it delayed my immediate dive into the book. Could I have looked up everything on Google? Yep. Was I glad I didn’t have to take time out from reading this novel to do so? You betcha.
The point being - don’t get in a twist about it. Read the glossary. Don’t read the glossary. Just . . . don’t let it stop you from reading the book. [Edit: I have just learned that I had an older edition in my possession, and the novel has since been updated; the glossary has been moved to the back in the current version.] [Formal style note: In the narrative, there was some lack of commas where I would normally put / expect to see them, but I’m convinced Mr. Halm omitted them deliberately to keep me from taking the slightest breath!]
So, the story. Tiny setup. Action. Kill. Tension. Katla breaks a professional rule by not killing a witness - the exquisitely written Bram - who is blind. More setup. Action! Kill, kill, kill, kill! Exciting stuff - tension for sure, but lazy tension, because you believe Katla’s going to come out okay. [Much of the tension throughout comes from knowing Katla is capable of anything. Whether she follows through or not, never matters. It’s that “everybody’s going to die” feeling that sweeps you up and carries you along.] Then:
[For those who peek, this might not seem like much of a spoiler, but trust me . . .]
My heart was in my throat. I swear!
All hell breaks loose.
[These are good times.]
The entire sequence is handled so adroitly . . . you can smell it, hear it, feel it.
This is a great novel. With a huge cast of characters introduced deftly and three-dimensionally, the story didn’t drag for a second. I hate being endlessly “explained” to, and here, there is no boring background narrative endlessly rambling on about stuff - especially things that don’t matter! [For instance, Bram’s relationship with his sister Bianca is mostly revealed in dialogue. What do siblings flick-off about with each other? Not necessarily anything extreme - or interesting. So the author leaves all that out. Interagency in-fighting? Also done well through suggestive dialogue, not ridiculous posturing.] Revealed information passed on to other characters is not repeated in the narrative, i.e.: recorded telephone conversations already “heard” by the reader are silently consumed by subsequent characters with occasional comments to remind of significant detail or shed new light.
By the time the scene with Simon and Trix fills in some background and missing information, I’m ready for it. If this had come earlier, it might have appeared as an infodump by talking heads. But it’s not. I’m ready to have those holes filled in, learn that lacking information. What’s more, it’s so cleanly structured, so interesting, I’m not even aware I’m being “told”.
And yet the economy of Mr. Halm’s style did not make the story shallow. There were nice touches of detail - I love knowing what things are called, and Mr. Halm told me all sorts of names of things. And interesting facts: caffeine is toxic to birds. Who knew? I was jazzed to read mention of Toronto Bridge [Torontobrug] since I’ve so often crossed Amsterdam Bridge here in Toronto [these bridges were named in the ’seventies, I believe, when the cities were twinned]. Could I have lived without the autopsy deets? Sure - not because they’re gross [didn’t bother me], but they didn’t directly serve the plot. But Mr. Halm made a good choice leaving those in because the scene fleshed out [so to speak!] some character bits and layered on a significant amount of really interesting info.
There’s lots of gearhead/boy stuff: Ducatis and Triumphs and Nortons, oh my! And the novel is threaded with humour - not cheesy one-liners you’d find in an action movie, just human situations and observations. Some favourite lines [some out of context, of course]:
“That was more accommodating than she’d expected.”
“‘If I’m getting f**ked, I want to be kissed first.’”
“‘Must’ve been a German shepherd.’”
“‘. . . but if everybody was original, that would become ordinary too, right?’”
“‘You expected something blatant?’”
The author keeps the novel from being a mere shoot ’em up actioner. As a storyteller, Mr. Halm knows how to ply his craft. And it’s about trust - the trust he inspires in his reader. “What’d ya mean?” you ask. Well:
Trust is hard for a reader to find. We’re cynical because we see error all the time in books. We look for it, roll our eyes, assume the author’s forgotten details . . . But by the time blind Bram suggests going to see a movie with Katla, Mr. Halm had my trust. Which meant I didn’t even blink over this apparent slip. And when all’s explained half a page later, I breezed by it, nodding; chuckling even. But I didn’t question it in the moment because I already trusted Mr. Halm’s skill. In his writing, nothing is done carelessly. Everything has a purpose. And if Mr. Halm’s eye for detail and excellence in verisimilitude ever wanders into simulacra, I, for one, have neither the competence to say so categorically, nor do I care.
He’s that good.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to buy the sequel!
Katla is a freelance assassin whose career choice comes from moral ambiguity in her character. She spends no time in tedious self-examination. She has thought through her philosophies and occasionally gives voice to them - and her reasoning - but there is zero angst. Is she an emotionless automaton? Not even a little bit. She’s smart. She’s practical. She makes mistakes. But when she does, they are usually subtle, and the author doesn’t insult you by holding your hand through them. Did you notice her errors? Maybe; maybe not. They’ll be revealed when the time is right - not before, and not after.
Okay, must backtrack a little. I started the novel and promptly ran into a glossary. Now, I’m on the fence about the glossary - lots of words I already knew and it delayed my immediate dive into the book. Could I have looked up everything on Google? Yep. Was I glad I didn’t have to take time out from reading this novel to do so? You betcha.
The point being - don’t get in a twist about it. Read the glossary. Don’t read the glossary. Just . . . don’t let it stop you from reading the book. [Edit: I have just learned that I had an older edition in my possession, and the novel has since been updated; the glossary has been moved to the back in the current version.] [Formal style note: In the narrative, there was some lack of commas where I would normally put / expect to see them, but I’m convinced Mr. Halm omitted them deliberately to keep me from taking the slightest breath!]
So, the story. Tiny setup. Action. Kill. Tension. Katla breaks a professional rule by not killing a witness - the exquisitely written Bram - who is blind. More setup. Action! Kill, kill, kill, kill! Exciting stuff - tension for sure, but lazy tension, because you believe Katla’s going to come out okay. [Much of the tension throughout comes from knowing Katla is capable of anything. Whether she follows through or not, never matters. It’s that “everybody’s going to die” feeling that sweeps you up and carries you along.] Then:
[For those who peek, this might not seem like much of a spoiler, but trust me . . .]
My heart was in my throat. I swear!
All hell breaks loose.
[These are good times.]
The entire sequence is handled so adroitly . . . you can smell it, hear it, feel it.
This is a great novel. With a huge cast of characters introduced deftly and three-dimensionally, the story didn’t drag for a second. I hate being endlessly “explained” to, and here, there is no boring background narrative endlessly rambling on about stuff - especially things that don’t matter! [For instance, Bram’s relationship with his sister Bianca is mostly revealed in dialogue. What do siblings flick-off about with each other? Not necessarily anything extreme - or interesting. So the author leaves all that out. Interagency in-fighting? Also done well through suggestive dialogue, not ridiculous posturing.] Revealed information passed on to other characters is not repeated in the narrative, i.e.: recorded telephone conversations already “heard” by the reader are silently consumed by subsequent characters with occasional comments to remind of significant detail or shed new light.
By the time the scene with Simon and Trix fills in some background and missing information, I’m ready for it. If this had come earlier, it might have appeared as an infodump by talking heads. But it’s not. I’m ready to have those holes filled in, learn that lacking information. What’s more, it’s so cleanly structured, so interesting, I’m not even aware I’m being “told”.
And yet the economy of Mr. Halm’s style did not make the story shallow. There were nice touches of detail - I love knowing what things are called, and Mr. Halm told me all sorts of names of things. And interesting facts: caffeine is toxic to birds. Who knew? I was jazzed to read mention of Toronto Bridge [Torontobrug] since I’ve so often crossed Amsterdam Bridge here in Toronto [these bridges were named in the ’seventies, I believe, when the cities were twinned]. Could I have lived without the autopsy deets? Sure - not because they’re gross [didn’t bother me], but they didn’t directly serve the plot. But Mr. Halm made a good choice leaving those in because the scene fleshed out [so to speak!] some character bits and layered on a significant amount of really interesting info.
There’s lots of gearhead/boy stuff: Ducatis and Triumphs and Nortons, oh my! And the novel is threaded with humour - not cheesy one-liners you’d find in an action movie, just human situations and observations. Some favourite lines [some out of context, of course]:
“That was more accommodating than she’d expected.”
“‘If I’m getting f**ked, I want to be kissed first.’”
“‘Must’ve been a German shepherd.’”
“‘. . . but if everybody was original, that would become ordinary too, right?’”
“‘You expected something blatant?’”
The author keeps the novel from being a mere shoot ’em up actioner. As a storyteller, Mr. Halm knows how to ply his craft. And it’s about trust - the trust he inspires in his reader. “What’d ya mean?” you ask. Well:
Trust is hard for a reader to find. We’re cynical because we see error all the time in books. We look for it, roll our eyes, assume the author’s forgotten details . . . But by the time blind Bram suggests going to see a movie with Katla, Mr. Halm had my trust. Which meant I didn’t even blink over this apparent slip. And when all’s explained half a page later, I breezed by it, nodding; chuckling even. But I didn’t question it in the moment because I already trusted Mr. Halm’s skill. In his writing, nothing is done carelessly. Everything has a purpose. And if Mr. Halm’s eye for detail and excellence in verisimilitude ever wanders into simulacra, I, for one, have neither the competence to say so categorically, nor do I care.
He’s that good.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to buy the sequel!
July 12, 2013
I received a copy of the book in return for my honest review from the Goodreads group Shut-Up and Read.
I’m sorry I’m late in posting this review, I’m in a busy busy day and I have this troubling internet so… I’m really sorry due to my lateness of my review. Anyway, I started to read Reprobate on April and I just finished it last night. When I requested this copy from Shut-Up and Read programs, it’s because one word. Assasin, okay maybe two words… Female Assasin. You know, I’m interested in the Assasin story, I watched Nikita, I’m playing Assasin’s Creed so… I thought I’ll give this a shot because I really thought this is gonna be sexy.
The main character is a woman named Katla who’s really an assassin, with all her skill and her determined character. Katla makes a living on her killing activity. She kills this and that and voila she got money from client. She runs this business under the male name, Loki. One day, when she was doing the job from her client, she met the blind man named Bram Merleyn in the crime scene. Katla who’s startled by this meeting –not because there’s a dead body in that place but because of Bram’s blindness. Anyway, Katla get rid of Bram but…not she decided to not kill this man. Anyway, what can a blind man do, right ? She didn’t know that Bram might be more than that. She didn’t know that she will be falling in love with him.
Meanwhile, the DEA is in charge of a huge drug dealing crime in Netherland. It’s not as easy as it seems. Things falling apart and they started to wonder, maybe there’s an inside mole. The DEA and the Dutch IPOL launch a joint undercover operation. But something get in the way… and Katla is in the middle of this.
At first I liked this character but in the middle I started to fear her. She seems really heartless and… well I thought that’s make sense. How could you be a sensitive one when you make job with killing. Anyway, this tough Katla, fell in love with Bram, the blind man. Now, this is interesting to me, because Bram is a man with high sensitivity. Maybe because he’s blind, he started to FEEL not to see things. And… I can’t help shipping them! Maybe thety’re not a perfect couple but… I guess Katle needs him. Anyway, let’s talk about Bram. Bram is not ordinary character and I like how the writer wrote Bram with his blindness, his music talent, his Jazz taste, and his fondness of Japan. Yes, that sounds charming, alright. But you know, it’s the same feeling with Katla, he is scarying me. It’s because when this two met and Bram eventually knows about Katla, he didn’t run. He acted cool. Way more cooler than what I thought it’ll be. And that’s surprising! I thought this is gonna be like Twilight and more running around between scared and love. But no, their love life… Katla and Bram isn’t ordinary like that.
Aside of this love story line, this book has another power that surprises me. I know, I’m not a professional reader, I’m newbie and English isn’t my language so I’m not hard to be surprised. But let me tell you with my own perspective, this book has a very detailed things. The synopsys says, “Reprobate gives a rare glimpse in the local Dutch culture, information on the famous Dutch capital, the narcotics trade, computer hacking, motorcycle gangs, mehndi bridal tattoos, martial arts, and the brutal effectiveness of disciplined violence” . That, people, is true. This book has a Dutch culture, all the scooter, all the jogging people, all the bycicle… I love it. Not to leave all the amazing details of Katla’s killing, Katla’s knowledge of anatomy, about drugs dealing, about the DEA and their strategy… and many more. I can’t mention it one by one, but I really appreciated all this little things. There’s so much I didn’t know in these details.
Although I really appreciate the details, I have some issues too. I found that the conversation actually too long and sometimes there are scenes that’s not really necessary added in this story. Maybe if this thing can be shortened, I’ll enjoy this book very much because I think the narration is not bad. The changing POVs is quite confusing too, there’s so much characters beside Katla and Bram. And sometimes I even don’t know what they’re talking about. For ex. is the DEA POV, when the story is viewed in their POV, I am lot confused. Because I actually didn’t really understand about this drug dealing things, how they dealt with it, the investigation and so on… I really miss Katla and her assassin act when I read things about DEA problems.
Anyway, I really appreciated this book. Thank you for letting me read this book, although I’m late to review this. This book makes me want to go to Dutch…and have a macaw! (Didn’t I mention before that Katla has this macaw bird ?).
I’m sorry I’m late in posting this review, I’m in a busy busy day and I have this troubling internet so… I’m really sorry due to my lateness of my review. Anyway, I started to read Reprobate on April and I just finished it last night. When I requested this copy from Shut-Up and Read programs, it’s because one word. Assasin, okay maybe two words… Female Assasin. You know, I’m interested in the Assasin story, I watched Nikita, I’m playing Assasin’s Creed so… I thought I’ll give this a shot because I really thought this is gonna be sexy.
The main character is a woman named Katla who’s really an assassin, with all her skill and her determined character. Katla makes a living on her killing activity. She kills this and that and voila she got money from client. She runs this business under the male name, Loki. One day, when she was doing the job from her client, she met the blind man named Bram Merleyn in the crime scene. Katla who’s startled by this meeting –not because there’s a dead body in that place but because of Bram’s blindness. Anyway, Katla get rid of Bram but…not she decided to not kill this man. Anyway, what can a blind man do, right ? She didn’t know that Bram might be more than that. She didn’t know that she will be falling in love with him.
Meanwhile, the DEA is in charge of a huge drug dealing crime in Netherland. It’s not as easy as it seems. Things falling apart and they started to wonder, maybe there’s an inside mole. The DEA and the Dutch IPOL launch a joint undercover operation. But something get in the way… and Katla is in the middle of this.
At first I liked this character but in the middle I started to fear her. She seems really heartless and… well I thought that’s make sense. How could you be a sensitive one when you make job with killing. Anyway, this tough Katla, fell in love with Bram, the blind man. Now, this is interesting to me, because Bram is a man with high sensitivity. Maybe because he’s blind, he started to FEEL not to see things. And… I can’t help shipping them! Maybe thety’re not a perfect couple but… I guess Katle needs him. Anyway, let’s talk about Bram. Bram is not ordinary character and I like how the writer wrote Bram with his blindness, his music talent, his Jazz taste, and his fondness of Japan. Yes, that sounds charming, alright. But you know, it’s the same feeling with Katla, he is scarying me. It’s because when this two met and Bram eventually knows about Katla, he didn’t run. He acted cool. Way more cooler than what I thought it’ll be. And that’s surprising! I thought this is gonna be like Twilight and more running around between scared and love. But no, their love life… Katla and Bram isn’t ordinary like that.
Aside of this love story line, this book has another power that surprises me. I know, I’m not a professional reader, I’m newbie and English isn’t my language so I’m not hard to be surprised. But let me tell you with my own perspective, this book has a very detailed things. The synopsys says, “Reprobate gives a rare glimpse in the local Dutch culture, information on the famous Dutch capital, the narcotics trade, computer hacking, motorcycle gangs, mehndi bridal tattoos, martial arts, and the brutal effectiveness of disciplined violence” . That, people, is true. This book has a Dutch culture, all the scooter, all the jogging people, all the bycicle… I love it. Not to leave all the amazing details of Katla’s killing, Katla’s knowledge of anatomy, about drugs dealing, about the DEA and their strategy… and many more. I can’t mention it one by one, but I really appreciated all this little things. There’s so much I didn’t know in these details.
Although I really appreciate the details, I have some issues too. I found that the conversation actually too long and sometimes there are scenes that’s not really necessary added in this story. Maybe if this thing can be shortened, I’ll enjoy this book very much because I think the narration is not bad. The changing POVs is quite confusing too, there’s so much characters beside Katla and Bram. And sometimes I even don’t know what they’re talking about. For ex. is the DEA POV, when the story is viewed in their POV, I am lot confused. Because I actually didn’t really understand about this drug dealing things, how they dealt with it, the investigation and so on… I really miss Katla and her assassin act when I read things about DEA problems.
Anyway, I really appreciated this book. Thank you for letting me read this book, although I’m late to review this. This book makes me want to go to Dutch…and have a macaw! (Didn’t I mention before that Katla has this macaw bird ?).
April 18, 2014
SUMMARY
A secretive assassin, Katla, is hired to kill a man in the Netherlands, but in the process is interrupted by a blind man. On a whim, she allows him to live, despite the fact that he is a potential witness. She then proceeds to play a dangerous game of cat and mouse with him throughout the city, brushing ever closer toward the one thing that has always eluded her: an actual human relationship. Meanwhile, Deborah Stern, a DEA agent who is recovering from a harrowing ordeal, is offered a job in the Netherlands. An American soldier overseas has overdosed on heroin, leading the higher-ups to suspect a drug ring targeting the military. Deborah is assigned to apprehend the culprits, but she doesn’t know that a mole is feeding important secrets to the members of the drug trade… who, concerned over the DEA’s new plans, decide to hire a certain assassin to take care of their problems…
THE GOOD…
1) Awesome beginning
We begin with a cold-blooded assassin doing what she does best: kill people. She uses, of all things, a samurai sword. YES. Awesomeness abounds.
2) Strong female characters
Did we mention that this book has two female leads? Both Deborah and Katla were interesting, fully fleshed-out characters, and it was a real treat for us to read a story that held its two female leads in such high esteem. We liked them both so much that at times it was hard to decide who to root for more.
3) The blind man and the killer
This was a wonderful combination. We really enjoyed the interplay between the assassin and the blind witness. It was fun to watch as they grew closer, to be continually surprised how well they interacted on a personal level, and to discover new aspects of them both as they forged their relationship. At several points, we even came to ask ourselves: who between them is crazier? We normally don’t like romances, but this hit in just the right ways, so we give it two thumbs up.
4) Creepiness and suspense
This story has action, but we were more impressed by its ability to hold us in suspense. The tension in many scenes so palpable that we kept on reading far too late into the night, just to see what happened next. The assassin, Katla, has just the right level of creepiness that anyone can tell she is a psychotic. She seriously stalks a blind man after deciding not to kill him; who does that but a crazy person? At one point, the narrator even informs us that “She didn’t want to kill him yet.” Our response while reading: SAY WHAT? Did the room’s temperature just drop five degrees?
THE BAD…
1) Character blitz
There’s a point, around 50 pages in, when there’s a half-dozen characters introduced in around two pages. This is the most obvious example, but there are other cases of the same or similar. Every so often, there will just be too many characters on the page; too many names flying by, too many people to remember, too many cooks in the kitchen. For the most part, however, the story does manage to keep its focus narrow on a small subset of characters.
2) Not a complete story
The story is full of interesting moments, but it is only the first in a series (fortunately, two other books of the series have also been published, so interested readers don’t have to wait). Some people might like that this is a longer story, one that lasts for several books, and that it leaves a good set-up for the next book at the end. However, we prefer when a book contains a story of its own. Of course, that’s just personal taste; your mileage may vary.
THE BIZARRE…
1) Parrots are awesome
One of the characters has a parrot that imitates the sounds of an angry dog whenever someone enters the home. This is awesome.
2) Ninja blind man
There’s a blind man. He’s really good at self defense and calm under pressure, and he also knows a lot of Japanese-related stuff. This is also awesome. (Though, regrettably, he is not an actual ninja.)
…AND THE VERDICT:
This book is GOOD.
It’s an impressive set of writing, plot, and suspense. If you like foreign settings, police procedurals, and insight into the criminal mind, then this is a definite plus. All in all, an entertaining read. The occasional action scene left a real punch, while the suspense kept us on our toes throughout. We give special kudos to this author’s ability to depict people’s relationships. We hope to see this author grow and tackle and even better story next time.
A secretive assassin, Katla, is hired to kill a man in the Netherlands, but in the process is interrupted by a blind man. On a whim, she allows him to live, despite the fact that he is a potential witness. She then proceeds to play a dangerous game of cat and mouse with him throughout the city, brushing ever closer toward the one thing that has always eluded her: an actual human relationship. Meanwhile, Deborah Stern, a DEA agent who is recovering from a harrowing ordeal, is offered a job in the Netherlands. An American soldier overseas has overdosed on heroin, leading the higher-ups to suspect a drug ring targeting the military. Deborah is assigned to apprehend the culprits, but she doesn’t know that a mole is feeding important secrets to the members of the drug trade… who, concerned over the DEA’s new plans, decide to hire a certain assassin to take care of their problems…
THE GOOD…
1) Awesome beginning
We begin with a cold-blooded assassin doing what she does best: kill people. She uses, of all things, a samurai sword. YES. Awesomeness abounds.
2) Strong female characters
Did we mention that this book has two female leads? Both Deborah and Katla were interesting, fully fleshed-out characters, and it was a real treat for us to read a story that held its two female leads in such high esteem. We liked them both so much that at times it was hard to decide who to root for more.
3) The blind man and the killer
This was a wonderful combination. We really enjoyed the interplay between the assassin and the blind witness. It was fun to watch as they grew closer, to be continually surprised how well they interacted on a personal level, and to discover new aspects of them both as they forged their relationship. At several points, we even came to ask ourselves: who between them is crazier? We normally don’t like romances, but this hit in just the right ways, so we give it two thumbs up.
4) Creepiness and suspense
This story has action, but we were more impressed by its ability to hold us in suspense. The tension in many scenes so palpable that we kept on reading far too late into the night, just to see what happened next. The assassin, Katla, has just the right level of creepiness that anyone can tell she is a psychotic. She seriously stalks a blind man after deciding not to kill him; who does that but a crazy person? At one point, the narrator even informs us that “She didn’t want to kill him yet.” Our response while reading: SAY WHAT? Did the room’s temperature just drop five degrees?
THE BAD…
1) Character blitz
There’s a point, around 50 pages in, when there’s a half-dozen characters introduced in around two pages. This is the most obvious example, but there are other cases of the same or similar. Every so often, there will just be too many characters on the page; too many names flying by, too many people to remember, too many cooks in the kitchen. For the most part, however, the story does manage to keep its focus narrow on a small subset of characters.
2) Not a complete story
The story is full of interesting moments, but it is only the first in a series (fortunately, two other books of the series have also been published, so interested readers don’t have to wait). Some people might like that this is a longer story, one that lasts for several books, and that it leaves a good set-up for the next book at the end. However, we prefer when a book contains a story of its own. Of course, that’s just personal taste; your mileage may vary.
THE BIZARRE…
1) Parrots are awesome
One of the characters has a parrot that imitates the sounds of an angry dog whenever someone enters the home. This is awesome.
2) Ninja blind man
There’s a blind man. He’s really good at self defense and calm under pressure, and he also knows a lot of Japanese-related stuff. This is also awesome. (Though, regrettably, he is not an actual ninja.)
…AND THE VERDICT:
This book is GOOD.
It’s an impressive set of writing, plot, and suspense. If you like foreign settings, police procedurals, and insight into the criminal mind, then this is a definite plus. All in all, an entertaining read. The occasional action scene left a real punch, while the suspense kept us on our toes throughout. We give special kudos to this author’s ability to depict people’s relationships. We hope to see this author grow and tackle and even better story next time.
May 7, 2013
I was provided a copy of REPROBATE through Goodreads’ Read It & Reap program in exchange for my fair and honest review.
I really wanted not to like Katla/Loki. I really wanted to think that a story about an assassin, entirely amoral—yes, a reprobate in the truest sense of the word—would be so disquieting that it would leave me wanting no more. Instead, I found that Katla was likeable—not lovable—but, likeable and that though she lived by no code that would be readily recognized by most, she was able to—and indeed did—have her own vulnerabilities and feelings for others that helped to make her “human.” As I made my way through, I realized that not only was I enjoying Katla’s story, but that I would be interested in following Katla further.
The characters were well drawn and believable. Katla/Loki acted with precision. If great research had not been done into making her actions believable, it certainly appeared that it had been! Bram was a believable blind man and had the true heart of a musician. The Rastafarian was a simple hearted assistant; Coen a good hearted friend, Focke, a chain-smoking surprise. The FBI, DEA and other government agents pursued their quarry while we saw glimpses into the politics behind the goings-on of international law enforcement. All that said, perhaps my favorite character was Katla’s macaw, Kourou. The pet added realism to the story. Able to bark like a dog, be angry when left for long periods, greet people with the simple query “happy?” and skate his way though Katla’s apartment, Kourou was a unique, fun and well developed character in his own right
Perhaps the most difficult part of REPROBATE was that the story was located in Amsterdam, where street names and the like are difficult for an American English-speaker to identify. Even so, they added to the foreign feeling of the story and took nothing away from the enjoyment of it.
KATLA was the kind of story I would expect a traditional publishing company to jump at. Perhaps such will be in Halm’s future.
I really wanted not to like Katla/Loki. I really wanted to think that a story about an assassin, entirely amoral—yes, a reprobate in the truest sense of the word—would be so disquieting that it would leave me wanting no more. Instead, I found that Katla was likeable—not lovable—but, likeable and that though she lived by no code that would be readily recognized by most, she was able to—and indeed did—have her own vulnerabilities and feelings for others that helped to make her “human.” As I made my way through, I realized that not only was I enjoying Katla’s story, but that I would be interested in following Katla further.
The characters were well drawn and believable. Katla/Loki acted with precision. If great research had not been done into making her actions believable, it certainly appeared that it had been! Bram was a believable blind man and had the true heart of a musician. The Rastafarian was a simple hearted assistant; Coen a good hearted friend, Focke, a chain-smoking surprise. The FBI, DEA and other government agents pursued their quarry while we saw glimpses into the politics behind the goings-on of international law enforcement. All that said, perhaps my favorite character was Katla’s macaw, Kourou. The pet added realism to the story. Able to bark like a dog, be angry when left for long periods, greet people with the simple query “happy?” and skate his way though Katla’s apartment, Kourou was a unique, fun and well developed character in his own right
Perhaps the most difficult part of REPROBATE was that the story was located in Amsterdam, where street names and the like are difficult for an American English-speaker to identify. Even so, they added to the foreign feeling of the story and took nothing away from the enjoyment of it.
KATLA was the kind of story I would expect a traditional publishing company to jump at. Perhaps such will be in Halm’s future.
October 23, 2014
What this author does well, he does very well. The formatting of this novel is professional in every way; it is impossible to differentiate this from a traditionally-published book. Reprobate is not an amateur attempt of an untrained writer, but a professional end product of a competent author.
That said, I did have a few issues with this novel.
Reprobate is the story of Katla Sieltjes, freelance assassin. The concept of a cold-blooded killer intrigued me, as I’ve read few novels with such an unusual female protagonist. Anti-heros can be difficult to relate to, and Katla was no exception. The author’s description states that this woman has almost no conscience, and I am in complete agreement. Katla is cold and—more often than not—emotionless. I can’t say I ever really disliked her, but I missed the connection I rely on to draw me into the story and keep me turning the pages.
I continued reading for three reasons. First, Katla does have a fascinating—though unrelatable—occupation. Her crimes are told in detail, and I found them equally captivating and unsettling. Second, the larger, unfolding plot is interesting. Told from multiple points of view, the tension builds steadily to a conclusion. Third, the humane Bram (Katla’s lover) was much more relatable and enjoyable to read than Katla herself, despite his sometimes unfathomable actions.
The great amount of detail within this novel lends authenticity to the story, though it occasionally slows the pace—as do the foreign names sprinkled (seemingly) everywhere. Deciding how I might pronounce them pulled me from the story until, finally, I just started ignoring them.
Overall, I’m glad I took the time to read this. While not perfect, Reprobate is an engrossing tale with a professional feel and no shortage of plot. I’d recommend this to readers of suspense, thrillers, and mysteries.
Actual Rating: 3.5 Stars
That said, I did have a few issues with this novel.
Reprobate is the story of Katla Sieltjes, freelance assassin. The concept of a cold-blooded killer intrigued me, as I’ve read few novels with such an unusual female protagonist. Anti-heros can be difficult to relate to, and Katla was no exception. The author’s description states that this woman has almost no conscience, and I am in complete agreement. Katla is cold and—more often than not—emotionless. I can’t say I ever really disliked her, but I missed the connection I rely on to draw me into the story and keep me turning the pages.
I continued reading for three reasons. First, Katla does have a fascinating—though unrelatable—occupation. Her crimes are told in detail, and I found them equally captivating and unsettling. Second, the larger, unfolding plot is interesting. Told from multiple points of view, the tension builds steadily to a conclusion. Third, the humane Bram (Katla’s lover) was much more relatable and enjoyable to read than Katla herself, despite his sometimes unfathomable actions.
The great amount of detail within this novel lends authenticity to the story, though it occasionally slows the pace—as do the foreign names sprinkled (seemingly) everywhere. Deciding how I might pronounce them pulled me from the story until, finally, I just started ignoring them.
Overall, I’m glad I took the time to read this. While not perfect, Reprobate is an engrossing tale with a professional feel and no shortage of plot. I’d recommend this to readers of suspense, thrillers, and mysteries.
Actual Rating: 3.5 Stars
September 9, 2013
This is a hauntingly real worrk, so much that stepping out of my hot steamy bathroom last night having finished a chapter I almost expected a knife to come flying out of the darkness and skewer me between the eyes. Katla, the protagonist, is ruthlessly disciplined, utterly determined, sensuously powerful and potently sexual and, along with the fine level of detail on everything - Amsterdam, Japanese cooking, blades and anatomy - this is a work you won't want to miss.
Of interest to me on a more personal level was the depiction of a blind man, and as this is so often done badly in fiction, take heed: Halm's blind character is intelligent, capable and surprisingly cleverly written, for the scenes from Bram's point of view are heavy on sound and scent and everything else you might expect, in a level of detail and with degrees of acumen a lifelong blind person might struggle to convey. Even when a second blind character appears briefly and admits freely that he "still don’t trust my other senses" to the same level as Bram, and even though Halm makes the point that this man "appeared helpless and fragile compared to Bram", that's not necessarily put down to his blindness. indeed, this character performs a most delicate and careful bit of work earlier in the story.
It is evident that this is a series to keep reading. The locale is unique and interesting, the characters diverse and intriguing and the idea behind Katla's occupation and her methods are fascinating to contemplate.
DISCLOSURE: I read a free copy of this work provided by the author, on condition of a review. It was a good plan because books 2 and 3 are going on my wish list today and may well be ordered (or pre-ordered if possible) before the end of the month.
Of interest to me on a more personal level was the depiction of a blind man, and as this is so often done badly in fiction, take heed: Halm's blind character is intelligent, capable and surprisingly cleverly written, for the scenes from Bram's point of view are heavy on sound and scent and everything else you might expect, in a level of detail and with degrees of acumen a lifelong blind person might struggle to convey. Even when a second blind character appears briefly and admits freely that he "still don’t trust my other senses" to the same level as Bram, and even though Halm makes the point that this man "appeared helpless and fragile compared to Bram", that's not necessarily put down to his blindness. indeed, this character performs a most delicate and careful bit of work earlier in the story.
It is evident that this is a series to keep reading. The locale is unique and interesting, the characters diverse and intriguing and the idea behind Katla's occupation and her methods are fascinating to contemplate.
DISCLOSURE: I read a free copy of this work provided by the author, on condition of a review. It was a good plan because books 2 and 3 are going on my wish list today and may well be ordered (or pre-ordered if possible) before the end of the month.
May 25, 2015
Martyn V. Halm is a good writer and a fastidious editor. Though Reprobate is a self-published work it reads like a professional offering from one of the big publishing houses. As an indie author myself I appreciate the effort that goes into researching, writing and editing a story such as this and Halm does a stellar job. This is no amateur novel.
The characters of Katla and Bram are interesting and you'll find yourself wanting to know more about them. The killing methods Katla uses are unique and unusual, bringing something new to the spy/assassin genre. Bram's blindness and subsequent capabilities are believable and conveyed well. One criticism I have with this book is the sheer number of characters. Too many criminals, too many police, DEA and IPOL members to keep in my head and remember who is whom. Deborah's character never really seems to get the 'screen time' she deserves but perhaps she appears in a subsequent book?
My only other criticism (and this may be a matter of my taste and not any writing flaw) is the frequent use of location names. I imagine these are interesting to those who know Amsterdam but to someone like myself the odd and difficult to pronounce names seem to interrupt the flow of the storytelling. For myself I'd just prefer to know a street is along a canal without actually knowing the name of both street and canal. Others may find this adds more flavor to the story but I found it frequently distracting.
Those nitpicks aside, Reprobate is a fun read with plot twists, grisly killings and a peculiar blossoming romance you can't help but wonder if it will continue or implode in spectacular fashion. Halm knows his subject matter and it shows. If European espionage is your thing this one is delightfully outside the box.
The characters of Katla and Bram are interesting and you'll find yourself wanting to know more about them. The killing methods Katla uses are unique and unusual, bringing something new to the spy/assassin genre. Bram's blindness and subsequent capabilities are believable and conveyed well. One criticism I have with this book is the sheer number of characters. Too many criminals, too many police, DEA and IPOL members to keep in my head and remember who is whom. Deborah's character never really seems to get the 'screen time' she deserves but perhaps she appears in a subsequent book?
My only other criticism (and this may be a matter of my taste and not any writing flaw) is the frequent use of location names. I imagine these are interesting to those who know Amsterdam but to someone like myself the odd and difficult to pronounce names seem to interrupt the flow of the storytelling. For myself I'd just prefer to know a street is along a canal without actually knowing the name of both street and canal. Others may find this adds more flavor to the story but I found it frequently distracting.
Those nitpicks aside, Reprobate is a fun read with plot twists, grisly killings and a peculiar blossoming romance you can't help but wonder if it will continue or implode in spectacular fashion. Halm knows his subject matter and it shows. If European espionage is your thing this one is delightfully outside the box.
May 17, 2013
I'm not usually a fan of book genres that involve intricate law proceedings, investigations and issues. Yet, the meticulous descriptions and introductions of the different scenarios and parties involved were one of the things I like with these kinds of books.
With regard to the book itself, although it was the usual style of the different chapters switching to from the different happenings in the story, I was still caught up with continuously reading. From the brief teaser that was provided, I was expecting a bigger conflict as Bram, being knowledgeable of Katla's profession, tries to turn her over or make her pay for her crimes. Yet, as the story progressed, I was surprised that instead of being hostile and horrified of her, he was instead understanding and even loved her for what she was despite all that. It was also kind of a great balance in a relationship, Katla being the heartless killer and Bram being the supportive yet logical conscience that Katla never had. Also, despite their flaws and disabilities, they were able to put that aside and compromise for what it's worth.
I also admire the way the author made Katla's killings really specific and I was really grossed out and at the same time fascinated. Her killing style was unique, with more preference over a knife and crossbow over a gun. Her strength, intellect and strategy added up to her impression of being a really skilled and professional killer. Despite her heartlessness, I still liked her for being skilled and experienced considering that most of these kinds of book always goes with the male character being the killer.
With regard to the book itself, although it was the usual style of the different chapters switching to from the different happenings in the story, I was still caught up with continuously reading. From the brief teaser that was provided, I was expecting a bigger conflict as Bram, being knowledgeable of Katla's profession, tries to turn her over or make her pay for her crimes. Yet, as the story progressed, I was surprised that instead of being hostile and horrified of her, he was instead understanding and even loved her for what she was despite all that. It was also kind of a great balance in a relationship, Katla being the heartless killer and Bram being the supportive yet logical conscience that Katla never had. Also, despite their flaws and disabilities, they were able to put that aside and compromise for what it's worth.
I also admire the way the author made Katla's killings really specific and I was really grossed out and at the same time fascinated. Her killing style was unique, with more preference over a knife and crossbow over a gun. Her strength, intellect and strategy added up to her impression of being a really skilled and professional killer. Despite her heartlessness, I still liked her for being skilled and experienced considering that most of these kinds of book always goes with the male character being the killer.
September 2, 2016
Reprobate by Martyn V Halm is a great read with interesting fresh characters. As an American who has unfortunately limited experience with Europe (I only managed to get as far as England and Paris a few times), I found the Amsterdam locale refreshing. The author's descriptions and attention to detail quickly made me a fan.
The story is out of the ordinary, combining a mild thriller with a motley crew of well fleshed out characters : A femme fatale assassin, a blind jazz musician, some intriguing DEA agents who are forced to spend as much time battling politics as drug dealers, and a colorful array of bit players make the novel richly satisfying. I could easily see this as a basis for a great film as it isn't too complicated and doesn't try to be too much- it's just right.
The novel reads very well and doesn't drag at any point, it was only marred by strange twists of grammar attributable to the author's unfamiliarity with the English language I suspect. Overlooking those minor points I enjoyed the details and respected the amount of research the author put into it.
Despite my dislike of 'book series', since this story was closed ended and the characters attractive enough to want to know more, I will certainly check out Martyn's other works.
The story is out of the ordinary, combining a mild thriller with a motley crew of well fleshed out characters : A femme fatale assassin, a blind jazz musician, some intriguing DEA agents who are forced to spend as much time battling politics as drug dealers, and a colorful array of bit players make the novel richly satisfying. I could easily see this as a basis for a great film as it isn't too complicated and doesn't try to be too much- it's just right.
The novel reads very well and doesn't drag at any point, it was only marred by strange twists of grammar attributable to the author's unfamiliarity with the English language I suspect. Overlooking those minor points I enjoyed the details and respected the amount of research the author put into it.
Despite my dislike of 'book series', since this story was closed ended and the characters attractive enough to want to know more, I will certainly check out Martyn's other works.
May 13, 2013
I genuinely liked this book, it's fractured premises, detailing two parallel stories which intertangled about one-third way into the story. Its atsmospheric, depicting a number of items I frequently look in my books for: sensual aspects of life (check), swift story line (check), believable pacing (check).
The book proved to be quite new experience for me. While the Amsterdam background was rather generic, the people inhabiting it proved to be quite original heroes.
I am very grateful for this book being provided to me, had it not participated in this program I am very likely not to ever have encountered it. And I don't care one bit that one can use cliches to put the story in a nutshell - the book reads originally, end of story.
I was provided a copy of REPROBATE through Goodreads’ Read It & Reap program in exchange for my fair and honest review.
PS.
Favourite quote: 'Luck is for amateurs.... Chance favours the prepared mind.'
The book proved to be quite new experience for me. While the Amsterdam background was rather generic, the people inhabiting it proved to be quite original heroes.
I am very grateful for this book being provided to me, had it not participated in this program I am very likely not to ever have encountered it. And I don't care one bit that one can use cliches to put the story in a nutshell - the book reads originally, end of story.
I was provided a copy of REPROBATE through Goodreads’ Read It & Reap program in exchange for my fair and honest review.
PS.
Favourite quote: 'Luck is for amateurs.... Chance favours the prepared mind.'
December 7, 2013
This book was a fun read for me. I enjoy action stories, especially ones with very strong, kick-ass female characters, and the main character of this series, Katla, is a definite kick-ass girl.
I also really enjoyed Katla's romantic interest in this book, a blind man named Bram. Most blind characters are shown as being inadequate, handicapped, but Bram surprised even Katla in his abilities, skills, and observations. Never underestimate the blind person. They may "see" a lot more than you realize.
I look forward to reading more books in this series as I enjoy both of these main characters and would enjoy reading more of their action adventures.
I also really enjoyed Katla's romantic interest in this book, a blind man named Bram. Most blind characters are shown as being inadequate, handicapped, but Bram surprised even Katla in his abilities, skills, and observations. Never underestimate the blind person. They may "see" a lot more than you realize.
I look forward to reading more books in this series as I enjoy both of these main characters and would enjoy reading more of their action adventures.
July 29, 2014
I really enjoyed meeting the kind of woman you rarely come across in this genre. Katla is strong, smart and flawed. Some very special abilities that set her apart from just about everyone, but human enough to identify with when it counts. People who enjoyed the Millenium series will find this an interesting read. I look forward to diving into Katla's next adventures in assassin-land.
Read
November 14, 2013I cannot review or rate my own work, so I'll use this space for something readers might be interested in... Reprints of blog interviews.
Interview on writing about disability and disabled characters:
Katla Sieltjes is a professional assassin for hire, specializing in hits that can’t be traced. When the novel begins, she is taking out the owner of a shop selling antique Japanese swords, with his own merchandise, when she is interrupted by a blind man, Bram Merleyn, who has come to pick up his order. Katla has a firm policy of not allowing witnesses to her hits to live, but Bram is blind, and totally sexy. She lets him go, but can’t seem to stay away from him. So begins an unlikely but fascinating partnership. How will a cold-blooded killer and a pacifist musician find any common ground?
Read the rest of my review here: http://paradevo.blogspot.sg/2013/01/r...
Amsterdam-based author Martyn V. Halm is here today to share a little about his writing process.
1. I’m impressed with how accurately you portray a blind character. What kind of research did you do? Have you met any blind people in person?
About two decades ago, I dated a blind girl for about six months, and through her I also met some other blind and visually impaired people. Being intimate with a blind person on a day-by-day basis, as well as having frank discussions with her friends, provided me with more than enough background information.
My relationship experiences also helped me with the relationship between Katla and Bram. Like Katla, I didn’t pity my girlfriend, nor did I censor my speech or help her with tasks she could handle herself. Many people with disabilities told me that they became frustrated by people either handling them with kid gloves or treating them like their physical disability also affected their mental capabilities. Katla doesn’t consider Bram ‘disabled’, she knows that he’s extremely capable in different ways. She recognizes his intelligence and strategic skills and manipulates his conscience to enlist him in her homicidal enterprises. In the sense of a character arc, Bram’s journey is much more interesting than Katla’s, because his role runs the whole gamut — witness, target, friend, lover, confidant, partner, and accomplice. And nowhere in the story is he taken for granted, not by Katla, nor by his friends who appreciate him for his skills and intelligence.
2. What made you decide to include a blind character in the Amsterdam Assassin series?
Years ago, I wrote part of a novel where an opportunistic street musician pretends to be blind and turns out to be the only witness to a murder, but that story didn’t work. I liked the characters, so I turned the story around to make the assassin the main protagonist and a blind man walking in on her. Most of the story evolved naturally from that situation.
Often, when we’re in love, we’re blind to any negative traits of our new love. Bram’s blindness is a positive trait, not only because it saves his life in the first chapter, but also because he can ‘see’ Katla for who she really is. None of the other characters manage to see beyond the image she projects.
One of the issues I have with most stories, whether they’re about assassins or blind people or martial artists or Amsterdam, is that verisimilitude is rare in fiction. I want to show assassins who are consummate professionals, blind people who have adjusted to their situation and lead full lives, martial artists who train every day to master their own inadequacies, and an Amsterdam beyond what tourists see.
3. There are several other secondary characters with disabilities as well. Is there a reason, or did it just happen?
I’d like to say there was a reason, but it did just happen. In most cases, characters reveal themselves to me pretty much the way they end up in the book. And often, just like in real life, there is no ‘reason’ for the disability. The disability does influence their lives, but most of the time it’s secondary. Paul is a tattoo artist with a crippled leg, not a cripple who happens to run a tattoo shop. Deborah is a DEA agent who struggles with alcohol addiction, not an alcoholic who happens to work at the DEA. Until Reprobate was reviewed on paradevo.net, I hadn’t noticed the many disabled characters in my stories. Rather, I viewed their disability as part of who they are, just as other characters are influenced by their appearance or faith or sexual predilections. None of my characters are black or white, and everyone is fallible. I think that makes the Amsterdam Assassin Series attractive to a variety of readers.
4. Did you find it challenging to narrate scenes from the point of view of a blind person?
I had a misadventure as a young boy where I lost my sight for a day. From then on, I had the idea that I would one day become permanently blind. I used to train for the eventuality, walking around the house with my eyes closed, stumbling into the walls and the furniture. My mother was worried, especially when I told her the reason. I know the feeling persisted for a long time. I read books about blindness, about a young boy needing to learn how to type and his frustrations in learning the layout of the keyboard. I remember being strangely relieved when I mastered touch typing, as if I had attained a skill that would serve me when ‘I’d become blind’.
Coupled with the experiences I had with blind people, writing from a blind man’s point of view was actually easier than writing from the point of view of a heroin-addicted sniper or a bisexual female sculptor. Easier to research as well.
5. Do you have a set number of books planned for the series, or is it open-ended? Are we going to see more of Bram in the future?
When I wrote Reprobate, I had plans for a trilogy, but now that the second novel Peccadillo is published and I’m writing the third novel Rogue, I’m collecting ideas for the fourth novel. So, yes, after Reprobate and Peccadillo (where Bram plays an even larger role), there will be at least two more novels with Katla and Bram. Probably more.
In between the novels, I will write some more Katla KillFiles, short stories that examine the contracts Katla fulfilled before she appeared in Reprobate. While the KillFiles give more insight in Katla’s personal history, skills and methods, they do not feature Bram. I’ve been thinking about creating something similar to the Katla KillFiles and call the Bram Outtakes, but Bram’s backstory is already told in increments in the novels. Still, if fans would desire short stories about Bram, I might get tempted. [DG:Yes, please do!]
I think there’s a depth and growth to the characters that allows for more than four or five books and a handful of short stories, but a lot depends on matters beyond my control. Writing novels is time-consuming, and I have to direct part of that effort to promote myself to get myself noticed. What I really need is to get people who enjoy my books to recommend them to other people, through word-of-mouth and reviews on their blogs.
6. What made you decide to self-publish, rather than go with a traditional publisher? Did you try to sell the MS to an agent or editor?
In traditional publishing, debut novels often have to prove themselves within six months with almost no support and sketchy distribution, before they are returned to the publisher and destroyed. The books go out of print, while the publisher retains the rights, effectively blocking the availability of the book while sequels might gather interest.
In contrast, self-publishing would allow me full control over the title, the name of the series and, most importantly, the price. Because my overhead is low, I can afford to sell my books for half or a third of the price asked by traditional publishers. Traditional publishers keep the price of e-books artificially high, because there are non-related factors in play. I want people to be able to afford my novels without breaking the bank.
Because the shelf life of an e-book on Amazon is indefinite and I retain the rights and the possibility to publish the novel through a variety of channels all the books in the Amsterdam Assassin Series will remain available for as long as I want them to be.
I did try to get a traditional publishing contract and Reprobate was considered by Tor Books in New York, but after deliberating over my manuscript for eight months Tor decided to pass. I could see the shift in the publishing landscape and decided to publish the books myself. I know that the Amsterdam Assassin Series might drown in a sea of garbage, however I’m convinced that good writing and good storytelling will prevail. And e-books have the advantage that you can download free chapters to see whether you want to download the entire novel – like scanning the first pages of a book in a book store, but more comfortable. Ultimately, if your writing isn’t up to par or your story-telling abilities are lacking, you won’t be downloaded.
[Note: Reprobate was a quarter finalist in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest in 2010]
7. Any advice for authors who are thinking of self-publishing?
If you’re self-publishing, you have to realize that you’ll spend a lot of time doing other things than writing: finding retailers, converting your manuscripts to epub and mobi files, making or commissioning covers, promoting yourself endlessly. With 350,000 books published every year, it gets harder and harder to get noticed. Make sure you research self-publishing by participating on boards like, for instance, Kindleboards, so you won’t delude yourself thinking that you’ll just put your story on Amazon or iTunes and watch the money roll in.
On average, the more publications you have, the more exposure you have. Series tend to work very well, if your characters strike a chord with your readers, readers will want to read other books with the same characters. So if you’re able to create characters that are interesting enough to be featured in a series, you’re ahead of the game. Most important thing is to have the stamina to write and publish for years before you become an ‘overnight success’. Don’t get hung up if the first book isn’t selling, don’t follow the herd into throwing money to make book trailers or advertisements, but write more books and interact with your readers.
8. Thanks for having such a positive attitude towards devotees, and embracing this (probably unexpected) readership. Anything else you’d like to share with us? Anything to convince a female reader to try out this series?
I love to hear from readers. I’m pleased that my stories are layered enough to appeal to a variety of readers for different aspects. Although I love my novels as a whole, I can understand that some readers prefer the suspenseful parts while others focus on the relationship between Bram and Katla. Most of the feedback I receive shows appreciation for the realism and the attention to detail, whether it’s a description of a location, a killing method or the way a blind person labels his jazz albums, and that’s gratifying. I’m a stickler for verisimilitude and if my research gets noticed I’m glad I put in the effort.
As to convincing readers to try out the series – the stories are suspenseful and set in one of the most charming cities in the world, featuring a strong female lead with an unusual job, trying to conquer adversity both private and professional while deeply involved in a relationship with an enigmatic blind man. If you need more convincing, download a free sample from Amazon or Kobo or iTunes, read the first chapters and see if you don’t get hooked.
Thanks very much Martyn for the interview. We really do appreciate the research and the realism in your writing. Some Bram Outtakes would be great! Please do write them. And big thanks to Ruth for letting me post this interview here!
This interview was conducted by Devo Girl on June 17th, 2013, and featured on the blog of Ruth Madison: http://www.ruthmadison.com/author-int...
Interview on writing about disability and disabled characters:
Katla Sieltjes is a professional assassin for hire, specializing in hits that can’t be traced. When the novel begins, she is taking out the owner of a shop selling antique Japanese swords, with his own merchandise, when she is interrupted by a blind man, Bram Merleyn, who has come to pick up his order. Katla has a firm policy of not allowing witnesses to her hits to live, but Bram is blind, and totally sexy. She lets him go, but can’t seem to stay away from him. So begins an unlikely but fascinating partnership. How will a cold-blooded killer and a pacifist musician find any common ground?
Read the rest of my review here: http://paradevo.blogspot.sg/2013/01/r...
Amsterdam-based author Martyn V. Halm is here today to share a little about his writing process.
1. I’m impressed with how accurately you portray a blind character. What kind of research did you do? Have you met any blind people in person?
About two decades ago, I dated a blind girl for about six months, and through her I also met some other blind and visually impaired people. Being intimate with a blind person on a day-by-day basis, as well as having frank discussions with her friends, provided me with more than enough background information.
My relationship experiences also helped me with the relationship between Katla and Bram. Like Katla, I didn’t pity my girlfriend, nor did I censor my speech or help her with tasks she could handle herself. Many people with disabilities told me that they became frustrated by people either handling them with kid gloves or treating them like their physical disability also affected their mental capabilities. Katla doesn’t consider Bram ‘disabled’, she knows that he’s extremely capable in different ways. She recognizes his intelligence and strategic skills and manipulates his conscience to enlist him in her homicidal enterprises. In the sense of a character arc, Bram’s journey is much more interesting than Katla’s, because his role runs the whole gamut — witness, target, friend, lover, confidant, partner, and accomplice. And nowhere in the story is he taken for granted, not by Katla, nor by his friends who appreciate him for his skills and intelligence.
2. What made you decide to include a blind character in the Amsterdam Assassin series?
Years ago, I wrote part of a novel where an opportunistic street musician pretends to be blind and turns out to be the only witness to a murder, but that story didn’t work. I liked the characters, so I turned the story around to make the assassin the main protagonist and a blind man walking in on her. Most of the story evolved naturally from that situation.
Often, when we’re in love, we’re blind to any negative traits of our new love. Bram’s blindness is a positive trait, not only because it saves his life in the first chapter, but also because he can ‘see’ Katla for who she really is. None of the other characters manage to see beyond the image she projects.
One of the issues I have with most stories, whether they’re about assassins or blind people or martial artists or Amsterdam, is that verisimilitude is rare in fiction. I want to show assassins who are consummate professionals, blind people who have adjusted to their situation and lead full lives, martial artists who train every day to master their own inadequacies, and an Amsterdam beyond what tourists see.
3. There are several other secondary characters with disabilities as well. Is there a reason, or did it just happen?
I’d like to say there was a reason, but it did just happen. In most cases, characters reveal themselves to me pretty much the way they end up in the book. And often, just like in real life, there is no ‘reason’ for the disability. The disability does influence their lives, but most of the time it’s secondary. Paul is a tattoo artist with a crippled leg, not a cripple who happens to run a tattoo shop. Deborah is a DEA agent who struggles with alcohol addiction, not an alcoholic who happens to work at the DEA. Until Reprobate was reviewed on paradevo.net, I hadn’t noticed the many disabled characters in my stories. Rather, I viewed their disability as part of who they are, just as other characters are influenced by their appearance or faith or sexual predilections. None of my characters are black or white, and everyone is fallible. I think that makes the Amsterdam Assassin Series attractive to a variety of readers.
4. Did you find it challenging to narrate scenes from the point of view of a blind person?
I had a misadventure as a young boy where I lost my sight for a day. From then on, I had the idea that I would one day become permanently blind. I used to train for the eventuality, walking around the house with my eyes closed, stumbling into the walls and the furniture. My mother was worried, especially when I told her the reason. I know the feeling persisted for a long time. I read books about blindness, about a young boy needing to learn how to type and his frustrations in learning the layout of the keyboard. I remember being strangely relieved when I mastered touch typing, as if I had attained a skill that would serve me when ‘I’d become blind’.
Coupled with the experiences I had with blind people, writing from a blind man’s point of view was actually easier than writing from the point of view of a heroin-addicted sniper or a bisexual female sculptor. Easier to research as well.
5. Do you have a set number of books planned for the series, or is it open-ended? Are we going to see more of Bram in the future?
When I wrote Reprobate, I had plans for a trilogy, but now that the second novel Peccadillo is published and I’m writing the third novel Rogue, I’m collecting ideas for the fourth novel. So, yes, after Reprobate and Peccadillo (where Bram plays an even larger role), there will be at least two more novels with Katla and Bram. Probably more.
In between the novels, I will write some more Katla KillFiles, short stories that examine the contracts Katla fulfilled before she appeared in Reprobate. While the KillFiles give more insight in Katla’s personal history, skills and methods, they do not feature Bram. I’ve been thinking about creating something similar to the Katla KillFiles and call the Bram Outtakes, but Bram’s backstory is already told in increments in the novels. Still, if fans would desire short stories about Bram, I might get tempted. [DG:Yes, please do!]
I think there’s a depth and growth to the characters that allows for more than four or five books and a handful of short stories, but a lot depends on matters beyond my control. Writing novels is time-consuming, and I have to direct part of that effort to promote myself to get myself noticed. What I really need is to get people who enjoy my books to recommend them to other people, through word-of-mouth and reviews on their blogs.
6. What made you decide to self-publish, rather than go with a traditional publisher? Did you try to sell the MS to an agent or editor?
In traditional publishing, debut novels often have to prove themselves within six months with almost no support and sketchy distribution, before they are returned to the publisher and destroyed. The books go out of print, while the publisher retains the rights, effectively blocking the availability of the book while sequels might gather interest.
In contrast, self-publishing would allow me full control over the title, the name of the series and, most importantly, the price. Because my overhead is low, I can afford to sell my books for half or a third of the price asked by traditional publishers. Traditional publishers keep the price of e-books artificially high, because there are non-related factors in play. I want people to be able to afford my novels without breaking the bank.
Because the shelf life of an e-book on Amazon is indefinite and I retain the rights and the possibility to publish the novel through a variety of channels all the books in the Amsterdam Assassin Series will remain available for as long as I want them to be.
I did try to get a traditional publishing contract and Reprobate was considered by Tor Books in New York, but after deliberating over my manuscript for eight months Tor decided to pass. I could see the shift in the publishing landscape and decided to publish the books myself. I know that the Amsterdam Assassin Series might drown in a sea of garbage, however I’m convinced that good writing and good storytelling will prevail. And e-books have the advantage that you can download free chapters to see whether you want to download the entire novel – like scanning the first pages of a book in a book store, but more comfortable. Ultimately, if your writing isn’t up to par or your story-telling abilities are lacking, you won’t be downloaded.
[Note: Reprobate was a quarter finalist in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest in 2010]
7. Any advice for authors who are thinking of self-publishing?
If you’re self-publishing, you have to realize that you’ll spend a lot of time doing other things than writing: finding retailers, converting your manuscripts to epub and mobi files, making or commissioning covers, promoting yourself endlessly. With 350,000 books published every year, it gets harder and harder to get noticed. Make sure you research self-publishing by participating on boards like, for instance, Kindleboards, so you won’t delude yourself thinking that you’ll just put your story on Amazon or iTunes and watch the money roll in.
On average, the more publications you have, the more exposure you have. Series tend to work very well, if your characters strike a chord with your readers, readers will want to read other books with the same characters. So if you’re able to create characters that are interesting enough to be featured in a series, you’re ahead of the game. Most important thing is to have the stamina to write and publish for years before you become an ‘overnight success’. Don’t get hung up if the first book isn’t selling, don’t follow the herd into throwing money to make book trailers or advertisements, but write more books and interact with your readers.
8. Thanks for having such a positive attitude towards devotees, and embracing this (probably unexpected) readership. Anything else you’d like to share with us? Anything to convince a female reader to try out this series?
I love to hear from readers. I’m pleased that my stories are layered enough to appeal to a variety of readers for different aspects. Although I love my novels as a whole, I can understand that some readers prefer the suspenseful parts while others focus on the relationship between Bram and Katla. Most of the feedback I receive shows appreciation for the realism and the attention to detail, whether it’s a description of a location, a killing method or the way a blind person labels his jazz albums, and that’s gratifying. I’m a stickler for verisimilitude and if my research gets noticed I’m glad I put in the effort.
As to convincing readers to try out the series – the stories are suspenseful and set in one of the most charming cities in the world, featuring a strong female lead with an unusual job, trying to conquer adversity both private and professional while deeply involved in a relationship with an enigmatic blind man. If you need more convincing, download a free sample from Amazon or Kobo or iTunes, read the first chapters and see if you don’t get hooked.
Thanks very much Martyn for the interview. We really do appreciate the research and the realism in your writing. Some Bram Outtakes would be great! Please do write them. And big thanks to Ruth for letting me post this interview here!
This interview was conducted by Devo Girl on June 17th, 2013, and featured on the blog of Ruth Madison: http://www.ruthmadison.com/author-int...
May 4, 2015
Author – Martyn V. Halm
Star rating – ★★★★☆
Plot – very well thought out and put together
Characters – intriguing, relatable, likeable
Movie Potential – ★★★★☆
Ease of reading – really easy to read
Cover – ✔
Suitable Title – ✔
Would I read it again – Yes.
** I WAS GIVEN THIS BOOK, BY THE AUTHOR, IN RETURN FOR AN HONEST REVIEW **
I really enjoyed this story. But let me start off by pointing out the one or two things that didn’t work for me. They are all because of personal preference. First off, we deal with the FBI, DEA, a hired killer and some experts in this book, so a lot of the ‘official’ stuff goes over my head. For example, the DEA/FBI talk, the martial arts moves and the technical terms are just pretty words to me, so I had to let my imagination do the rest – not really a problem, but something I thought I should point out. Also, I’m not a big fan of having accents written out. I had to read a few bits of dialogue over twice to figure out the real meaning.
Saying that, the rest is all good. The story started with a fast, great hook that kept me interested. I loved how we were left in limbo at points of the story to jump from Katla’s perspective to Deborah or Simon’s. I love when we’re left on a cliffhanger waiting to find out what’s going to happen to our favourite characters while we see what’s going on elsewhere. I think the use of the FBI and DEA was a genius touch. It gave me – the reader – the feeling of being ‘in’ on the secret of what had really happened and waiting to see if the FBI or DEA would cotton on or not, and how.
It did take me a little while to get into the book, but that’s just because of the genius of the author’s writing. I loved Katla from the minute I read ‘Fundamental Error’, before jumping into this novel and by the time we moved on from her story I only loved her all the more. Especially when Bram came into the story. He was a class act of a character. He lightened the mood quite a bit, while providing a realistic reaction to Katla’s chosen career and personality. I loved that he got to know her for who she was before he knew anything about her job.
I also have to admit that I really liked the little characters: Painless Paul and his grandson, James Creoux, Zeph, Kourou and the Japanese staff. They were all nice touches to an already well written and intriguing story. I liked that we got to know a little about Bram before we ‘officially’ met him as well. I will admit, however, that when we first met him I got him mixed-up with the elderly man walking his dog outside the store and spent two chapters thinking he was old. Way too old for the way Katla started thinking about him. ;) But, I will blame that on not feeling well and trying to devour the story too quickly.
Having absolutely no experience of Amsterdam at all, I enjoyed getting really vivid descriptions of locations throughout the story. It wasn’t overly done or done too often and it let me really set the scene for the characters. I also love the little bit at the back of the book, letting us know what locations are pure imagination, like the amazing Roustabout. I’m a big fan of Jazz, so I was really pleased to have little touches of it creeping into the story every now and then. I like to think that me and Bram would get on really well. I also happen to have a really morbid fascination with murder, crime, crime scenes and forensics so I would have no problem chatting to Katla either.
Overall, I loved the focus on Katla and Bram, even when they weren’t directly in the scenes and I thought the gradual development and conclusion of the plot was perfect. It made it more realistic than having everything happen within hours or days when we all know that real life is never that accommodating, especially when it comes to crime scene investigations.
I’m rating this story a 4 instead of a 5 for two reasons: 1) the technical jargon going way over my head and 2) the ending. I think it maybe ended a little abruptly, but I’m undecided of whether this is a good or a bad thing. At the moment it’s a bad thing, because I can’t go straight into the next book, which I think is the point of the cut off.
However, I will definitely be reading the rest of the series soon.
Star rating – ★★★★☆
Plot – very well thought out and put together
Characters – intriguing, relatable, likeable
Movie Potential – ★★★★☆
Ease of reading – really easy to read
Cover – ✔
Suitable Title – ✔
Would I read it again – Yes.
** I WAS GIVEN THIS BOOK, BY THE AUTHOR, IN RETURN FOR AN HONEST REVIEW **
I really enjoyed this story. But let me start off by pointing out the one or two things that didn’t work for me. They are all because of personal preference. First off, we deal with the FBI, DEA, a hired killer and some experts in this book, so a lot of the ‘official’ stuff goes over my head. For example, the DEA/FBI talk, the martial arts moves and the technical terms are just pretty words to me, so I had to let my imagination do the rest – not really a problem, but something I thought I should point out. Also, I’m not a big fan of having accents written out. I had to read a few bits of dialogue over twice to figure out the real meaning.
Saying that, the rest is all good. The story started with a fast, great hook that kept me interested. I loved how we were left in limbo at points of the story to jump from Katla’s perspective to Deborah or Simon’s. I love when we’re left on a cliffhanger waiting to find out what’s going to happen to our favourite characters while we see what’s going on elsewhere. I think the use of the FBI and DEA was a genius touch. It gave me – the reader – the feeling of being ‘in’ on the secret of what had really happened and waiting to see if the FBI or DEA would cotton on or not, and how.
It did take me a little while to get into the book, but that’s just because of the genius of the author’s writing. I loved Katla from the minute I read ‘Fundamental Error’, before jumping into this novel and by the time we moved on from her story I only loved her all the more. Especially when Bram came into the story. He was a class act of a character. He lightened the mood quite a bit, while providing a realistic reaction to Katla’s chosen career and personality. I loved that he got to know her for who she was before he knew anything about her job.
I also have to admit that I really liked the little characters: Painless Paul and his grandson, James Creoux, Zeph, Kourou and the Japanese staff. They were all nice touches to an already well written and intriguing story. I liked that we got to know a little about Bram before we ‘officially’ met him as well. I will admit, however, that when we first met him I got him mixed-up with the elderly man walking his dog outside the store and spent two chapters thinking he was old. Way too old for the way Katla started thinking about him. ;) But, I will blame that on not feeling well and trying to devour the story too quickly.
Having absolutely no experience of Amsterdam at all, I enjoyed getting really vivid descriptions of locations throughout the story. It wasn’t overly done or done too often and it let me really set the scene for the characters. I also love the little bit at the back of the book, letting us know what locations are pure imagination, like the amazing Roustabout. I’m a big fan of Jazz, so I was really pleased to have little touches of it creeping into the story every now and then. I like to think that me and Bram would get on really well. I also happen to have a really morbid fascination with murder, crime, crime scenes and forensics so I would have no problem chatting to Katla either.
Overall, I loved the focus on Katla and Bram, even when they weren’t directly in the scenes and I thought the gradual development and conclusion of the plot was perfect. It made it more realistic than having everything happen within hours or days when we all know that real life is never that accommodating, especially when it comes to crime scene investigations.
I’m rating this story a 4 instead of a 5 for two reasons: 1) the technical jargon going way over my head and 2) the ending. I think it maybe ended a little abruptly, but I’m undecided of whether this is a good or a bad thing. At the moment it’s a bad thing, because I can’t go straight into the next book, which I think is the point of the cut off.
However, I will definitely be reading the rest of the series soon.
June 7, 2014
I suspect we all have occasional desires to break laws and not get caught, not even by our consciences. Katla, the protagonist of Reprobate, gets away with murder—without regret. Meet your Shadow.
Halm has created a complex, realistic, and compelling character. While she isn’t likeable, he crafts his story in such a way that I couldn’t help rooting for her in spite of her occupation as a freelance assassin. I didn’t find the musician Bram likeable either, but he was equally intriguing. He is a perfect match for Katla.
In writing about Bram, Halm is able to take the point of view of a blind man beautifully, portraying not only the sensory experience but the mind and heart of a man who has coped with his loss through inner strength. Bram’s affinity for Japanese culture—collecting tsuba, playing go, practicing shiatsu and martial arts—is elegantly blended into his character and the way he lives with his blindness. It also subtly permeates the whole book. Although the author is Dutch and the book is set primarily in the Netherlands, Reprobate echoes Japanese literature in its themes, its exploration of a hidden world, and in its contrasting scenes of violence and intimacy. Halm writes about law breakers and law enforcement with equal respect, about sex and autopsies with equal precision, about the execution of an assassination without judgment or attachment. I never felt a good guy/bad guy energy in the story, but an interplay of equal and opposite forces. All the major players are doing jobs, as they see their roles in the world. Many are shown in their private lives with their families, their pets, their friends, their solitude—law enforcement and law breakers alike—revealing layers of their characters through these domestic interactions, and even their choices of animal companions. Katla isn’t an inhuman killer. Though she isn’t the student of Japanese culture that Bram is, she seems to follow something like the samurai code of the philosopher-scholar-warrior who is at peace with death, and studies the arts of strategy and violence.
The book had few flaws, but here are the reasons it lost it fifth star:
One: Occasional unnecessary details had a kind of peephole quality. The reader doesn’t need to know that one character attempted unsatisfactory masturbation in order to get to sleep, or precisely how another went about urinating while coping with a bullet wound in the leg. In my opinion, it would have been enough to say that the task was difficult.
Two: The overuse of names in conversation grated on me. Unless this is some Dutch idiosyncrasy, it’s not realistic (and even if it’s a Dutch thing, Halm has characters of all nationalities doing it). The following are two examples that sounded strange to me. Simon arrives at his health club. The attendant speaks to him. “You’re early, Simon.” “I’ll be at the pool, Ruud.” A similar thing occurs later in the airport with two Latin American characters. “What do you think, Jesus? DEA or FBI?” “I think they’re FBI, Rafi.” The book is peppered with this sort of thing.
Three: I was surprised by what two characters talk about in the back of a taxi near the end. Is the back seat soundproof to the front? I’ve never been in a Dutch taxi, but in the American taxis I’ve been in, there’s no barrier. I can’t believe they would let themselves be overheard.
All in all, though, this is polished, inventive work. I looked forward to each chapter even though I don’t normally read books with this much violence. The violent scenes, while graphic, are always relevant to the story. Halm is a master of characterization and plot, adept at integrating settings and research into a page-turning tale. I think many readers will get hooked on the series.
Halm has created a complex, realistic, and compelling character. While she isn’t likeable, he crafts his story in such a way that I couldn’t help rooting for her in spite of her occupation as a freelance assassin. I didn’t find the musician Bram likeable either, but he was equally intriguing. He is a perfect match for Katla.
In writing about Bram, Halm is able to take the point of view of a blind man beautifully, portraying not only the sensory experience but the mind and heart of a man who has coped with his loss through inner strength. Bram’s affinity for Japanese culture—collecting tsuba, playing go, practicing shiatsu and martial arts—is elegantly blended into his character and the way he lives with his blindness. It also subtly permeates the whole book. Although the author is Dutch and the book is set primarily in the Netherlands, Reprobate echoes Japanese literature in its themes, its exploration of a hidden world, and in its contrasting scenes of violence and intimacy. Halm writes about law breakers and law enforcement with equal respect, about sex and autopsies with equal precision, about the execution of an assassination without judgment or attachment. I never felt a good guy/bad guy energy in the story, but an interplay of equal and opposite forces. All the major players are doing jobs, as they see their roles in the world. Many are shown in their private lives with their families, their pets, their friends, their solitude—law enforcement and law breakers alike—revealing layers of their characters through these domestic interactions, and even their choices of animal companions. Katla isn’t an inhuman killer. Though she isn’t the student of Japanese culture that Bram is, she seems to follow something like the samurai code of the philosopher-scholar-warrior who is at peace with death, and studies the arts of strategy and violence.
The book had few flaws, but here are the reasons it lost it fifth star:
One: Occasional unnecessary details had a kind of peephole quality. The reader doesn’t need to know that one character attempted unsatisfactory masturbation in order to get to sleep, or precisely how another went about urinating while coping with a bullet wound in the leg. In my opinion, it would have been enough to say that the task was difficult.
Two: The overuse of names in conversation grated on me. Unless this is some Dutch idiosyncrasy, it’s not realistic (and even if it’s a Dutch thing, Halm has characters of all nationalities doing it). The following are two examples that sounded strange to me. Simon arrives at his health club. The attendant speaks to him. “You’re early, Simon.” “I’ll be at the pool, Ruud.” A similar thing occurs later in the airport with two Latin American characters. “What do you think, Jesus? DEA or FBI?” “I think they’re FBI, Rafi.” The book is peppered with this sort of thing.
Three: I was surprised by what two characters talk about in the back of a taxi near the end. Is the back seat soundproof to the front? I’ve never been in a Dutch taxi, but in the American taxis I’ve been in, there’s no barrier. I can’t believe they would let themselves be overheard.
All in all, though, this is polished, inventive work. I looked forward to each chapter even though I don’t normally read books with this much violence. The violent scenes, while graphic, are always relevant to the story. Halm is a master of characterization and plot, adept at integrating settings and research into a page-turning tale. I think many readers will get hooked on the series.
February 17, 2014
Martyn Halm’s Reprobate attracted me with its premise of a female assassin ; I love strong female protagonists, and Katla didn’t disappoint me in her physical and mental strength. However, Katla is too perfect. She has no internal struggles, weaknesses, or imperfections. She is sexy, smart, sensitive, strong, and sly. Katla doesn’t mind killing at night and giving pornstar-like oral sex in the morning. Did I mention she lounges naked on her couch, stands naked on her balcony in the rain, and even works out naked in her home?
The conflict in Reprobate is entirely external, which gave me the distinct feeling of being pulled along by “stuff happening” rather than having the characters entice me with their struggles. Katla and her newfound blind companion are flawless. They have no difficult decisions to make, and they have no issues with each other or within themselves. They have no mystery, stress, angst, or suspense. These characters feel like types, not like real people. In fact, Katla’s companion is repeatedly referred to as “the blind man.” All other characters in the novel serve only to explain the plot. I had my heart set on the American ex-drunk being interesting or important, but she faded into the pages, even though she initially appeared integral to the story.
Commas are omitted where they are absolutely necessary in order to comprehend a sentence correctly the first time:
“As Katla entered a bell jangled overhead...”
(I read it as her entering a bell.)
“Apart from the white slashes covering his eyelids faded traces of tiny cuts peppered his face…”
(Did the faded traces cover his eyelids? Or the white slashes?)
“His eyes bulged and his hands dropped twitching into his urine-stained lap…”
(I read it as his hands dropping twitching, an object.)
The overkill of unimportant details also bothered me. I’ve never read a novel with more proper nouns than Reprobate. At first I thought I needed to pay attention because the names would clue me in to something important. Nope. For example: “He turned onto the Oudezijds Achterburgwal. Katla watched until the blind man turned into the Spinhuissteeg before she walked to the Oudemanhuispoort.” Eh? Just because an author can doesn’t mean he should. Details are good, but too many unnecessary details derail the reader into Frustrationville.
Lastly, there are taboo topics that fiction writers should shy away from writing. We want to escape when we read, not be reminded of the realities of life. Characters brushing their teeth, being on their periods, having sore labia as a result of sex, and swallowing/not swallowing semen during oral sex really don’t add depth to a story. Instead, they remind the reader that this story is written by an author, and here he is, sounding as though he couldn’t decide if he should write erotica or suspense.
Reprobate could’ve been excellent. I genuinely appreciated its authenticity and the detailed, extensive research that clearly went into its authorship. I even enjoyed reading about the murders themselves, but the unnecessary details, flat characters, and odd mentions of taboo topics nearly killed it for me.
The conflict in Reprobate is entirely external, which gave me the distinct feeling of being pulled along by “stuff happening” rather than having the characters entice me with their struggles. Katla and her newfound blind companion are flawless. They have no difficult decisions to make, and they have no issues with each other or within themselves. They have no mystery, stress, angst, or suspense. These characters feel like types, not like real people. In fact, Katla’s companion is repeatedly referred to as “the blind man.” All other characters in the novel serve only to explain the plot. I had my heart set on the American ex-drunk being interesting or important, but she faded into the pages, even though she initially appeared integral to the story.
Commas are omitted where they are absolutely necessary in order to comprehend a sentence correctly the first time:
“As Katla entered a bell jangled overhead...”
(I read it as her entering a bell.)
“Apart from the white slashes covering his eyelids faded traces of tiny cuts peppered his face…”
(Did the faded traces cover his eyelids? Or the white slashes?)
“His eyes bulged and his hands dropped twitching into his urine-stained lap…”
(I read it as his hands dropping twitching, an object.)
The overkill of unimportant details also bothered me. I’ve never read a novel with more proper nouns than Reprobate. At first I thought I needed to pay attention because the names would clue me in to something important. Nope. For example: “He turned onto the Oudezijds Achterburgwal. Katla watched until the blind man turned into the Spinhuissteeg before she walked to the Oudemanhuispoort.” Eh? Just because an author can doesn’t mean he should. Details are good, but too many unnecessary details derail the reader into Frustrationville.
Lastly, there are taboo topics that fiction writers should shy away from writing. We want to escape when we read, not be reminded of the realities of life. Characters brushing their teeth, being on their periods, having sore labia as a result of sex, and swallowing/not swallowing semen during oral sex really don’t add depth to a story. Instead, they remind the reader that this story is written by an author, and here he is, sounding as though he couldn’t decide if he should write erotica or suspense.
Reprobate could’ve been excellent. I genuinely appreciated its authenticity and the detailed, extensive research that clearly went into its authorship. I even enjoyed reading about the murders themselves, but the unnecessary details, flat characters, and odd mentions of taboo topics nearly killed it for me.
October 13, 2013
A cold-blooded, heartless, psychopathic assassin is loose on the streets of Amsterdam leaving bodies behind in the pursuit of fulfilling contracts…and we love her.
Reprobate – A Katla Novel opens with Katla Sieltjes, being surprised by an intruder at her most recent contract. For some reason, unknown even to her, she allows the witness to live. Throughout the rest of the novel her fascination for the blind musician turns into a developing relationship.
She is then hired to perform, shall we say, a removal that is intended to foil the CIA’s latest endeavor in the area. What should have been a simple, clean hit turns into a blood bath and an injured, but incensed Katla begins the search to find whomever it was that betrayed her.
Author Martyn V. Halm has written an authentic feeling novel set in the Netherlands. It comes complete with a glossary to help the reader with words and phrases that are used to retain that authenticity.
His knowledge of the human anatomy and ability to portray fights, killing methods and confrontational body language cause the reader a visceral response. The settings, circumstances and situations are intriguing and believable.
The literal descriptions of each murder are complete to the point of feeling like you are there watching it unfold…without becoming grotesque or obscene. Well done Martyn.
He apparently possesses a strong knowledge of what is required for the assassin to remain undetected and private. This is either from research, imagination or experience. Whichever it is, it is exciting to read.
There is a nice separation of voices for each of the unique and eclectic mix of characters.
The story arc brought questions to mind as I read - questions that I was pleased to see answered as the plot unfolded; again, showing the depth of research and accuracy of Halm’s work.
There was very little in the way of typos and/or formatting issues. I was curious about the repetitive use of Katla Sieltjes’ name to begin chapters, but certainly there was nothing to detract from the continuous flow of the story.
I’m not often prompted to give 5 stars, but I am in this case For anyone who enjoys Crime Fiction, the Katla Series is a series to put on your reading bucket list. For those who normally don’t read Crime Fiction, this would be a good place to start.
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a digital copy of this book free from the author. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255 : "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."
Norm Hamilton
From Thine Own Well
Indie Writer Book Reviews
Services for Writers
Website
email: Norm Hamilton
Reprobate – A Katla Novel opens with Katla Sieltjes, being surprised by an intruder at her most recent contract. For some reason, unknown even to her, she allows the witness to live. Throughout the rest of the novel her fascination for the blind musician turns into a developing relationship.
She is then hired to perform, shall we say, a removal that is intended to foil the CIA’s latest endeavor in the area. What should have been a simple, clean hit turns into a blood bath and an injured, but incensed Katla begins the search to find whomever it was that betrayed her.
Author Martyn V. Halm has written an authentic feeling novel set in the Netherlands. It comes complete with a glossary to help the reader with words and phrases that are used to retain that authenticity.
His knowledge of the human anatomy and ability to portray fights, killing methods and confrontational body language cause the reader a visceral response. The settings, circumstances and situations are intriguing and believable.
The literal descriptions of each murder are complete to the point of feeling like you are there watching it unfold…without becoming grotesque or obscene. Well done Martyn.
He apparently possesses a strong knowledge of what is required for the assassin to remain undetected and private. This is either from research, imagination or experience. Whichever it is, it is exciting to read.
There is a nice separation of voices for each of the unique and eclectic mix of characters.
The story arc brought questions to mind as I read - questions that I was pleased to see answered as the plot unfolded; again, showing the depth of research and accuracy of Halm’s work.
There was very little in the way of typos and/or formatting issues. I was curious about the repetitive use of Katla Sieltjes’ name to begin chapters, but certainly there was nothing to detract from the continuous flow of the story.
I’m not often prompted to give 5 stars, but I am in this case For anyone who enjoys Crime Fiction, the Katla Series is a series to put on your reading bucket list. For those who normally don’t read Crime Fiction, this would be a good place to start.
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a digital copy of this book free from the author. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255 : "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."
Norm Hamilton
From Thine Own Well
Indie Writer Book Reviews
Services for Writers
Website
email: Norm Hamilton
May 12, 2013
This book surprised me. I actually accidentally signed up to read it for free for an honest review, because the idea of reading about a female assassin heroine was not something that interested me. I like my good guys to be good and I have never been the fan of the anti-hero. Yet, I found myself really liking Katla. Is she ruthless? Yes. Does she kill without remorse? Yes. But the character is so well drawn that you still like her and want her to succeed.
I have always liked stories that are more character driven then plot driven, so this book fits my reading style. The plot is simple, we have an assassin for hire, that does a job for some screwed up people that try to set her up to be caught. It has a romance and a pet parrot (I could just read about him; he was so cute!).
Pros: Katla is well-written and well rounded. She is a perfectionist and pure professional at her job. She has an understated, yet forceful character. She is perfectly confident in her abilities and everything she does is thought out and analyzed. Her romance with Bram, the blind man adds depth to her character and warmth as you realize she is not without feeling or compassion for her fellow man. She keeps herself compartmentalized. She only kills when she has a contract and too protect herself, period. A code of sorts, but without any pesky morality about why or who she takes a contract on keeps the character true to herself, a reprobate.
I also liked Bram in the sense of having a blind boyfriend who can add texture to her planning with his knowledge of the other senses. The cast of quirky characters was also interesting.
I did like seeing the other two sides of the story from the cop angle, to the bad guys angle as well as Katla's.
Cons: There are a few cons. I get the idea that Bram struggled with his conscious a little when he found out what Katla really did for a living. I just don't think he would have been so accepting so fast, but maybe more about his past will come out in the next books. Some of the scenes with the cops and all the acronym agencies got confusing and I couldn't figure out who was who. I did want to know more about Deborah, but you get the feeling she's being introduced to take part in later adventures. I wanted to know more about Katla's back story, but the pace was fine for a series, and I can wait.
Overall, this was a great story and it definitely had the feel of a mainstream novel. I would find it easy to believe if the author gets an offer from a mainstream publisher if he put it out there. It was really well written and interesting. I was never bored, and I couldn't wait to find out how Katla took care of her problems. Which, by the way she did very cleverly!
I have always liked stories that are more character driven then plot driven, so this book fits my reading style. The plot is simple, we have an assassin for hire, that does a job for some screwed up people that try to set her up to be caught. It has a romance and a pet parrot (I could just read about him; he was so cute!).
Pros: Katla is well-written and well rounded. She is a perfectionist and pure professional at her job. She has an understated, yet forceful character. She is perfectly confident in her abilities and everything she does is thought out and analyzed. Her romance with Bram, the blind man adds depth to her character and warmth as you realize she is not without feeling or compassion for her fellow man. She keeps herself compartmentalized. She only kills when she has a contract and too protect herself, period. A code of sorts, but without any pesky morality about why or who she takes a contract on keeps the character true to herself, a reprobate.
I also liked Bram in the sense of having a blind boyfriend who can add texture to her planning with his knowledge of the other senses. The cast of quirky characters was also interesting.
I did like seeing the other two sides of the story from the cop angle, to the bad guys angle as well as Katla's.
Cons: There are a few cons. I get the idea that Bram struggled with his conscious a little when he found out what Katla really did for a living. I just don't think he would have been so accepting so fast, but maybe more about his past will come out in the next books. Some of the scenes with the cops and all the acronym agencies got confusing and I couldn't figure out who was who. I did want to know more about Deborah, but you get the feeling she's being introduced to take part in later adventures. I wanted to know more about Katla's back story, but the pace was fine for a series, and I can wait.
Overall, this was a great story and it definitely had the feel of a mainstream novel. I would find it easy to believe if the author gets an offer from a mainstream publisher if he put it out there. It was really well written and interesting. I was never bored, and I couldn't wait to find out how Katla took care of her problems. Which, by the way she did very cleverly!
April 14, 2014
A quiet afternoon in Amsterdam. A seedy, greedy dealer in Japanese artefacts opens his door to a young woman who asks to see some antique weapons. But the dealer has crossed the wrong people, and the customer is Katla, a professional killer. A few minutes later he has been neatly killed with one of his own swords. Katla is the reprobate of the title, and Reprobate starts the way it means to go on, with lots of blood.
Reprobate – the first of several Katla novels, the Amsterdam Assassin series – has three main protagonists. One is the Amsterdam office of the US Drug Enforcement Administration, which wants to know who is supplying heroin to American soldiers in Germany. The second is the culprit, a Dutch biker gang. The third is Katla. The bikers foil the DEA’s plans to entrap them in a welter of gore, courtesy of Katla. But then they double-cross her. This is a mistake. More gore ensues. The gore never quite gets gross, though. That it doesn’t is a tribute to the skill of Amsterdam-based thriller writer Martyn V. Halm, who does blood with a light touch and some fascinating background detail.
Reprobate is, in fact, an engaging read. This is partly due to Halm’s meticulous research into Katla’s killing techniques – and much else besides, including the locations, and Japanese customs that figure in the plot. But he’s also a fine plotsmith, creating interlocking components that never get out of place so that every unexpected twist in the plot seems, once revealed, to have been perfectly logical. This is a harder trick to pull off then it seems, and is the heart of a good thriller. Last but not least, Halm can create atmosphere. Thus, as the book opens, Katla is calmly planning her first murder of the book amid an utterly normal street scene, replete with locals on bikes, tourists, and the normal trappings of a working day.
If the book has a flaw, it’s Katla herself. She caught my interest, but not my sympathy; and many, but not all, readers need someone to root for in a book, otherwise it may leave them cold. In some ways this matters less with Reprobate, as Katla’s victims richly deserve their fate, and it’s quite fun watching them get skewered. Moreover Halm could (and I suspect would) also argue that Katla is a fascinating study in amorality. She does show feeling for a lover in Reprobate, and it may be that her character is developed more in the later books.
No matter. Reprobate is good stuff – an intelligent, well-written thriller, tightly plotted, with well-drawn characters, good detail and the twists and turns that keep you reading. It’s also a good-value download at $3.99. Recommended.
Reprobate – the first of several Katla novels, the Amsterdam Assassin series – has three main protagonists. One is the Amsterdam office of the US Drug Enforcement Administration, which wants to know who is supplying heroin to American soldiers in Germany. The second is the culprit, a Dutch biker gang. The third is Katla. The bikers foil the DEA’s plans to entrap them in a welter of gore, courtesy of Katla. But then they double-cross her. This is a mistake. More gore ensues. The gore never quite gets gross, though. That it doesn’t is a tribute to the skill of Amsterdam-based thriller writer Martyn V. Halm, who does blood with a light touch and some fascinating background detail.
Reprobate is, in fact, an engaging read. This is partly due to Halm’s meticulous research into Katla’s killing techniques – and much else besides, including the locations, and Japanese customs that figure in the plot. But he’s also a fine plotsmith, creating interlocking components that never get out of place so that every unexpected twist in the plot seems, once revealed, to have been perfectly logical. This is a harder trick to pull off then it seems, and is the heart of a good thriller. Last but not least, Halm can create atmosphere. Thus, as the book opens, Katla is calmly planning her first murder of the book amid an utterly normal street scene, replete with locals on bikes, tourists, and the normal trappings of a working day.
If the book has a flaw, it’s Katla herself. She caught my interest, but not my sympathy; and many, but not all, readers need someone to root for in a book, otherwise it may leave them cold. In some ways this matters less with Reprobate, as Katla’s victims richly deserve their fate, and it’s quite fun watching them get skewered. Moreover Halm could (and I suspect would) also argue that Katla is a fascinating study in amorality. She does show feeling for a lover in Reprobate, and it may be that her character is developed more in the later books.
No matter. Reprobate is good stuff – an intelligent, well-written thriller, tightly plotted, with well-drawn characters, good detail and the twists and turns that keep you reading. It’s also a good-value download at $3.99. Recommended.
April 11, 2014
A quiet afternoon in Amsterdam. A seedy, greedy dealer in Japanese artefacts opens his door to a young woman who asks to see some antique weapons. But the dealer has crossed the wrong people, and the customer is Katla, a professional killer. A few minutes later he has been neatly killed with one of his own swords. Katla is the reprobate of the title, and Reprobate starts the way it means to go on, with lots of blood.
Reprobate – the first of several Katla novels, the Amsterdam Assassin series – has three main protagonists. One is the Amsterdam office of the US Drug Enforcement Administration, which wants to know who is supplying heroin to American soldiers in Germany. The second is the culprit, a Dutch biker gang. The third is Katla. The bikers foil the DEA’s plans to entrap them in a welter of gore, courtesy of Katla. But then they double-cross her. This is a mistake. More gore ensues. The gore never quite gets gross, though. That it doesn’t is a tribute to the skill of Amsterdam-based thriller writer Martyn V. Halm, who does blood with a light touch and some fascinating background detail.
Reprobate is, in fact, an engaging read. This is partly due to Halm’s meticulous research into Katla’s killing techniques – and much else besides, including the locations, and Japanese customs that figure in the plot. But he’s also a fine plotsmith, creating interlocking components that never get out of place so that every unexpected twist in the plot seems, once revealed, to have been perfectly logical. This is a harder trick to pull off then it seems, and is the heart of a good thriller. Last but not least, Halm can create atmosphere. Thus, as the book opens, Katla is calmly planning her first murder of the book amid an utterly normal street scene, replete with locals on bikes, tourists, and the normal trappings of a working day.
If the book has a flaw, it’s Katla herself. She caught my interest, but not my sympathy; and many, but not all, readers need someone to root for in a book, otherwise it may leave them cold. In some ways this matters less with Reprobate, as Katla’s victims richly deserve their fate, and it’s quite fun watching them get skewered. Moreover Halm could (and I suspect would) also argue that Katla is a fascinating study in amorality. She does show feeling for a lover in Reprobate, and it may be that her character is developed more in the later books.
No matter. Reprobate is good stuff – an intelligent, well-written thriller, tightly plotted, with well-drawn characters, good detail and the twists and turns that keep you reading. It’s also a good-value download at $3.99. Recommended.
Reprobate – the first of several Katla novels, the Amsterdam Assassin series – has three main protagonists. One is the Amsterdam office of the US Drug Enforcement Administration, which wants to know who is supplying heroin to American soldiers in Germany. The second is the culprit, a Dutch biker gang. The third is Katla. The bikers foil the DEA’s plans to entrap them in a welter of gore, courtesy of Katla. But then they double-cross her. This is a mistake. More gore ensues. The gore never quite gets gross, though. That it doesn’t is a tribute to the skill of Amsterdam-based thriller writer Martyn V. Halm, who does blood with a light touch and some fascinating background detail.
Reprobate is, in fact, an engaging read. This is partly due to Halm’s meticulous research into Katla’s killing techniques – and much else besides, including the locations, and Japanese customs that figure in the plot. But he’s also a fine plotsmith, creating interlocking components that never get out of place so that every unexpected twist in the plot seems, once revealed, to have been perfectly logical. This is a harder trick to pull off then it seems, and is the heart of a good thriller. Last but not least, Halm can create atmosphere. Thus, as the book opens, Katla is calmly planning her first murder of the book amid an utterly normal street scene, replete with locals on bikes, tourists, and the normal trappings of a working day.
If the book has a flaw, it’s Katla herself. She caught my interest, but not my sympathy; and many, but not all, readers need someone to root for in a book, otherwise it may leave them cold. In some ways this matters less with Reprobate, as Katla’s victims richly deserve their fate, and it’s quite fun watching them get skewered. Moreover Halm could (and I suspect would) also argue that Katla is a fascinating study in amorality. She does show feeling for a lover in Reprobate, and it may be that her character is developed more in the later books.
No matter. Reprobate is good stuff – an intelligent, well-written thriller, tightly plotted, with well-drawn characters, good detail and the twists and turns that keep you reading. It’s also a good-value download at $3.99. Recommended.
January 21, 2014
A solid 4.5 stars.
So this book took me some time to process. It is not a candy mystery that you can wolf down in one sitting and say what you like about it right away.
I was a little apprehensive going into reading this, because I am not a big fan of the anti-hero and I worried that Katla was going to be some kind of monster with no code of ethics whatsoever. What I found was much more complicated than that.
Yes, Katla is an assassin. She kills people. She has even killed 'additionals' - hapless victims who had the misfortune of being in her way. But she has her own set of rules. We don't see her gleefully shooting through crowds of people, causing accidents that hurt hundreds just to take out one. I got the sense that if the job required that kind of indiscriminate killing, she would not take it. So, despite my misgivings, I actually liked Katla as a character and heroine.
I liked Deborah, the DEA agent, better. She was smart and no nonsense, and just vulnerable enough to make me believe she is a stranger in a new country, trying to find her feet. I liked the interactions between the law enforcement teams. Just the right amount of competition, camaraderie and power struggles.
In fact, I liked the interactions between all the characters. Definitely an unusual cast and each character had a pretty distinct voice when the reader is in their head. The only addendum to that is that there is an overall aura of foreign-ness to the book. Maybe formality? I'm not sure what to call it. Yes, it is set in a foreign (to me) country, but even the Americans in it had this subtle flavor to them. It may also be attributable to being more like the old 'hard-boiled detective' style of writing, in that people don't get mushy or sentimental and while there are plenty of scenes which should be highly emotional, I didn't get to see/feel that emotion myself.
I think that is where the story lost that half star for me. I never quite connected with any of the characters on an emotional level.
Everything else about the book was very enjoyable. The way the plot had two distinct storylines that intersected - literally coming together in the same room at one point - kept me interested in finding out how it would all resolve. And I didn't foresee the end, even though looking back I could see all the clues. That is the mark of good suspense, to me.
So this book took me some time to process. It is not a candy mystery that you can wolf down in one sitting and say what you like about it right away.
I was a little apprehensive going into reading this, because I am not a big fan of the anti-hero and I worried that Katla was going to be some kind of monster with no code of ethics whatsoever. What I found was much more complicated than that.
Yes, Katla is an assassin. She kills people. She has even killed 'additionals' - hapless victims who had the misfortune of being in her way. But she has her own set of rules. We don't see her gleefully shooting through crowds of people, causing accidents that hurt hundreds just to take out one. I got the sense that if the job required that kind of indiscriminate killing, she would not take it. So, despite my misgivings, I actually liked Katla as a character and heroine.
I liked Deborah, the DEA agent, better. She was smart and no nonsense, and just vulnerable enough to make me believe she is a stranger in a new country, trying to find her feet. I liked the interactions between the law enforcement teams. Just the right amount of competition, camaraderie and power struggles.
In fact, I liked the interactions between all the characters. Definitely an unusual cast and each character had a pretty distinct voice when the reader is in their head. The only addendum to that is that there is an overall aura of foreign-ness to the book. Maybe formality? I'm not sure what to call it. Yes, it is set in a foreign (to me) country, but even the Americans in it had this subtle flavor to them. It may also be attributable to being more like the old 'hard-boiled detective' style of writing, in that people don't get mushy or sentimental and while there are plenty of scenes which should be highly emotional, I didn't get to see/feel that emotion myself.
I think that is where the story lost that half star for me. I never quite connected with any of the characters on an emotional level.
Everything else about the book was very enjoyable. The way the plot had two distinct storylines that intersected - literally coming together in the same room at one point - kept me interested in finding out how it would all resolve. And I didn't foresee the end, even though looking back I could see all the clues. That is the mark of good suspense, to me.
September 11, 2016
This book was a recommendation from my son. I got the book some considerable time before I ever got round to reading it. Initially I wasn't convinced on the premise of the story - a female assassin and her involvement with a blind man. Wow was I wrong! I don't want to go over the plot, as plenty people have already done that. All I'll say is that the story-line is fast moving, full of action and very well written in impeccable English. The characters are really well rounded and even minor characters not that involved in the overall plot make sense to the reader; so you don't get ever get "lost".
I found this book to be very well researched, right from the Amsterdam locations, DEA procedures, weapons and martial arts techniques, motor cycles, and a myriad of smaller things like for instance henna tattoos, something I knew nothing about but which was perfectly explained without spoiling the flow of the story.
I like to mix my reading so am not one to go charging straight through a series of books, but Peccadillo, the follow on novel in the Katla series, is high on my list of next books.
Martyn V. Halm deserves more recognition for his writing - especially with some of the guff "big name" authors have churned out in recent years. The writing, attention to detail and all round readability of this book puts him up there with the best!
I found this book to be very well researched, right from the Amsterdam locations, DEA procedures, weapons and martial arts techniques, motor cycles, and a myriad of smaller things like for instance henna tattoos, something I knew nothing about but which was perfectly explained without spoiling the flow of the story.
I like to mix my reading so am not one to go charging straight through a series of books, but Peccadillo, the follow on novel in the Katla series, is high on my list of next books.
Martyn V. Halm deserves more recognition for his writing - especially with some of the guff "big name" authors have churned out in recent years. The writing, attention to detail and all round readability of this book puts him up there with the best!
September 15, 2014
It took me three attempts to get past the first fifty pages or so, but once I got into the book, we galloped along on a very interesting ride. Halm's writing is a lesson to writers -- so concrete, assured, precise and well researched. His description of a murder is plain clinical. I have read a couple of his blog posts where he stresses the importance of verisimilitude, and he certainly delivers on that! His picture of places, people and events is crystal clear, like sharp black and white photographs. (I will say though that sometimes there is just too much detail. I always like books where you learn new things, but there's a limit. I reached mine when Painless Pete started expounding on tattooing and the art of mehndi.) The plot is very well worked out, the characters are interesting -- Katla herself, the blind Bram very much so, with his music and motley collection of friends, and the skating chatterbox macaw Kourou takes the cake!
So, why am I not eager to read the next book? Well, basically I don't like the premise of an amoral protagonist. It worried me right through the book. Halm doesn't attempt to justify or explain why she is the way she is, which implies that it's perfectly normal to decide one day -- I'll be a professional assassin, because that's what I'm good at. But it's not! Come on, how many assassins do you know? Stieg Larsson's Lisbeth Salander had good reason for being a sociopath, if that's the right term (and she never kills unless it's in self-defence). Katla apparently has none, though admittedly not much is revealed of her past in this book. And Bram going along with it, though he is a moral person himself, doesn't sound right to me. If he loves her, wouldn't he try to wean her from her deadly profession, rather than abet her in it?
Anyway, I liked the book enough to want to know more about Katla's past and what happens to her and Bram in the future; but given that she doesn't look like being redeemed anytime soon, I don't think I'm going to spend any more time and sympathy on Katla. Curiosity isn't going to kill this cat!
So, why am I not eager to read the next book? Well, basically I don't like the premise of an amoral protagonist. It worried me right through the book. Halm doesn't attempt to justify or explain why she is the way she is, which implies that it's perfectly normal to decide one day -- I'll be a professional assassin, because that's what I'm good at. But it's not! Come on, how many assassins do you know? Stieg Larsson's Lisbeth Salander had good reason for being a sociopath, if that's the right term (and she never kills unless it's in self-defence). Katla apparently has none, though admittedly not much is revealed of her past in this book. And Bram going along with it, though he is a moral person himself, doesn't sound right to me. If he loves her, wouldn't he try to wean her from her deadly profession, rather than abet her in it?
Anyway, I liked the book enough to want to know more about Katla's past and what happens to her and Bram in the future; but given that she doesn't look like being redeemed anytime soon, I don't think I'm going to spend any more time and sympathy on Katla. Curiosity isn't going to kill this cat!
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