The Game (Victor the Assassin, #3) in SSG: Spy/Spec-Ops Group

Sep 03, 2013 Samuel rated it it was amazing

DECONSTRUCTION
He has survived the CIA, SVR, a sociopathic SIS officer, arms dealers, Private Military Contractors and a Kidon Team from Mossad. But in “The Game”, the third book in Tom Wood’s “Victor The Assassin” series, the amoral main character has his work cut out for him in a job that has been specifically designed as a suicide mission for those involved. Now to the review, what happens when the perfect assassin is forced to play a game where nobody wins…..

The story starts in Algiers. Vic DECONSTRUCTION
He has survived the CIA, SVR, a sociopathic SIS officer, arms dealers, Private Military Contractors and a Kidon Team from Mossad. But in “The Game”, the third book in Tom Wood’s “Victor The Assassin” series, the amoral main character has his work cut out for him in a job that has been specifically designed as a suicide mission for those involved. Now to the review, what happens when the perfect assassin is forced to play a game where nobody wins…..

The story starts in Algiers. Victor is tailing a Dutch contract killer on vacation who recently murdered a CIA NOC. Forced to break cover due to a pesky watch vendor giving him away, Victor chases his target and quietly shanks him. Before dying, the target asks Victor to do him a favour but bleeds out before he can explain further. Four weeks later, Victor undergoes some surgery in regards to an injury he sustained in “The Enemy” and as he leaves, notices a surveillance team. Performing counter surveillance, events escalate to the point when he’s jammed a Glock 19 into the forehead of Janice Muir, a CIA officer and one of NCS Associate Director Procter’s staffers. Informing him his boss is temporarily indisposed; Muir gives Victor some context on the Algiers job. With the client and assassin neutralised, she wants him to go after the intermediary who coordinated the killing by impersonating the dead assassin. Meeting the intermediary, the man offers Victor a job with an unknown target. Muir hires Victor to go undercover, find out the specifics and deconstruct the job from within before it can be conducted. Thus, events spiral out of control as Victor travels to Italy, is holed up in a farmhouse along with several other bloodthirsty killers who are constantly at each other’s throats and when the specifics of the job are revealed, is forced to improvise and kill like never before in order to survive and answer the underlying question. In a game with no rules, who is playing who?

In terms of plot, “The Game” is superb. Victor is thrust into a situation which starts simple and gets far more complex that for a moment; even he seems to be out of his depth. The action is dialled down a few notches compared to the previous books but Mr Wood knows when to make the bullets fly and does so plausibly but with style, a particular highlight being a dinner at a Japanese restaurant which turns bloody due to some uninvited guests. On the research front, “The Game” is very solid. The author still knows how to prevent the story from becoming a technical manual while at the same time; sprinkling all those interesting small details that will make the enthusiasts smile such as all the weapons, tactics and martial arts which Victor and the opposition use on each other which gives the story that extra bit of plausibility.

As for character development and interaction “The Game” excels compared to its predecessors and where the story gets most of its tension. Let’s start with Victor who once again gets a subtle, yet drastic amount of character development, being forced to risk his life for others who mean nothing to him. Nevertheless, he thankfully hasn’t developed a conscience or lost a step, at one point making an utter mockery of the female fatale cliché before silencing the woman in question. But the fun part in Victor’s storyline during “The Game” is to see him outwit and play off the group of killers just like him, mercilessly pressing psychological buttons with the skill of Francis Urquhart in order to make them underestimate him until it is too late. Next, there’s the gang of killers itself. It seems Mr Wood decided to deconstruct heist films and that old saying “honour among thieves”, because honour is certainly lacking amongst the men Victor meets. They could have been boring stock psychopaths, but Mr Wood gives them just enough depth and makes their interactions with each other like a dozen flash bang grenades going off in the Sistine Chapel. A particular highlight was Mr Leeson, the main antagonist. Styling himself like the Steve Jobs of contract killings, he’s the best villain Mr Wood has produced so far. Seemingly living a charmed life, Lesson happens to have a graveyard of skeletons in the closet and has a hidden side behind his façade. Finally, there’s Janice Muir, Victor’s interim handler. Despite being a rookie officer who gets off on the wrong foot with Victor with near lethal consequences, she learns quickly and at the end, comes away having lost some naivety and having won some respect from Victor.

Now for some criticism. I found the writing in this story to be less "taut" compared to the previous books. This may be due to the format (undercover operations do not have much shooting till the end) but there was less intensity in "The Game". Finally, in the aftermath of the Japanese restaurant scene, there is a bit of dialogue which might erode some suspension of disbelief among certain readers who have an understanding of the rudiments of tradecraft.

Entertaining, electrifying and excellent. These three words can sum up the series that Tom Wood has built. While a little more quiet, Mr Wood has demonstrated with “The Game” that he can do characterisation like a pro and is not a one trick pony with his mostly plausible but always stylish action scenes. The possibilities for Victor are endless with our anti-hero still a ghost and his enemies list is growing healthily with every book, whatever trouble the author is planning to throw Victor into; it’s definitely going to be interesting.
WELL EXECUTED.
...more

4 likes · Like · see review

Mar 22, 2018 Jarrod rated it really liked it

Shelves: audio-book, fiction

The end of this book was better than the telling of how they got there. Less action and more talking, but not too bad. Still an enjoyable tale, but not as good as the previous two books. The series is good and I like Victor as a character.

1 like · Like · see review

Nov 13, 2015 Patrick Schultheis rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Another wonderful Victor the Assassin book. The character of Victor continues to evolve nicely.

Like · see review

Jan 09, 2016 Ian Heap rated it really liked it

I liked it! Good style of writing, and the plot went along at a fairly good pace.

The end was another frantic dash and I have become accustomed to wondering just how Victor is going to get out of this new sticky situation.. I also wonder how he'll do it in so few pages left in the book!

I'd recommend this book to anyone who has read the previous ones, and to anyone who likes Jack Reacher/John Rain books. ...more

Like · see review