The Face of the Assassin

Rating:
Summary: fine civilian in the cold thriller
Review: Adopted as an infant, Austin, Texas widower Paul Bern lives a contented quiet life earning a living as a highly regarded forensic resurrection expert, who recreates visages of severely damaged accident or criminal victims. Client 'Becca Haber arrives at his home bringing with her a skull she purchased from a street kid in Mexico City. She wants him to recreate the face. Paul is hardly into his effort when he already recognizes the countenance staring back at him as one he sees whenever he looks into a mirror.

Not long afterward, the call comes confirming what an unsettled Paul theorized: that the skull he holds is his twin. The caller Vincente Mondragon informs him that the sibling he never knew existed was recently murdered CIA field agent Jude Lerner. Vincente insists that Jude's operation affects national security so without the superstar the country is in trouble. The civilian Paul is expected to perform as Jude so that the scenario is completed in a favorable manner.

Though the twins never met theme feels ancient, David Lindsey keeps his thriller fresh due to a wonderful out of place hero who belongs more in an academic background than in the midst of a deadly operation. The action-packed story line is filled with plenty of twists that will keep the audience guessing as to what happens next to Paul and by whom. His teen neighbor is an interesting support character suffering from a cognitive-disconnect disorder caused by an accident, but she enables the reader to see deep into what kind of person Paul is. Twins aside, readers will enjoy this fine civilian in the cold thriller.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: A Thoughtful and Deeply Written Protagonist
Review: Forensic artist Paul Bern has the ability to take a skull and, with the right materials, recreate the face that once graced it. He spends much of his day sketching pictures for the police, often keeping Alice, his goddaughter who was brain damaged in the same boating accident that took his wife, company.

The two have a sort of peace between them, his drawing calms her, and he enjoys her company, even though she doesn't seem to be able to understand a word he says. Her own conversation seems perfectly normal, save for the fact that the way she puts the words together make no sense.

A woman brings a skull to him, claiming that she bought it off a street kid in Mexico. She needs to know if it is, as told, the skull of her lost husband. Alice doesn't believe her...something about her facial expressions makes the young women believe their visitor is lying, but Paul doesn't mind, knowing that though Alice is accurate, she could be picking up on anything. But soon his client will disappear, and the face that the skull reveals is uncannily like his own.

When he meets Mondragon, the man blackmails him into helping the CIA. They want him to take the place of the man the skull once belonged to. Paul learns that he had a twin brother, Jude Lerner, and that Jude had managed to infiltrate a terrorist network. No one knows Jude's dead, and it's up to Paul to learn how to be his brother...everything he was, Paul needs to become, in order to destroy the network.

One of the most interesting things about this story is how Paul learns about his brother...and, oddly enough, about himself. Jude, according to his ex-partner Susana, was not the most likable of men. This is a unique way of telling the story, having the protagonist step into someone else's shoes, someone with uncanny similarities (for instance, they have a lot of the same ways of sitting, same expressions, which is interesting since they never met each other) and tragic differences. Things he never thought himself capable of, he finds himself doing, all because Jude did.

The main idea of the story...that a terrorist leader is looking to defect and that Jude/Paul is the only one he trusts enough to help him is also well done, and lends itself to many page turning moments, especially since you know that it's not going to as simple as all that, not in the least.

The run down is that Lindsey once again takes an extremely interesting situation and creates a tense, intelligent, action packed read. Paul Bern is a thoughtful and very deeply written protagonist.

Rating:
Summary: Great read
Review: I have been a fan of David Lindsey since I was at university. I have read all of his books and this is one of his best. The story never flags and the pace is an adrinaline rush. Other reviewers have summerized the story, a bit exhaustably I might add, but I'll just say that if you like your thriller taunt, well written, and billiantly paced you will love this book.

Rating:
Summary: Great read
Review: I have been a fan of David Lindsey since I was at university. I have read all of his books and this is one of his best. The story never flags and the pace is an adrinaline rush. Other reviewers have summerized the story, a bit exhaustably I might add, but I'll just say that if you like your thriller taunt, well written, and billiantly paced you will love this book.

Rating:
Summary: A Compelling Work by a Writer Who Keeps Getting Better
Review: I was aware that David Lindsey had written several novels; I was somewhat surprised though to find that his latest, THE FACE OF THE ASSASSIN, is his thirteenth. It wasn't until MERCY --- not necessarily Lindsey's best book, but arguably the one for which he is best known --- was published that Lindsey began to receive the attention that more writers earn than actually receive. MERCY is generally thought of as Lindsey's first novel, but it's actually his sixth. He certainly hit his stride with it and has never looked back.

Which brings us to THE FACE OF THE ASSASSIN, a complex but riveting thriller set primarily in Mexico City. It is full of twists and turns, practically from its rather gory beginning (if you are in the habit of eating while you read, you might want to forego the deli food for the first few pages of this one, my friends), to the last few paragraphs. The primary protagonist of THE FACE OF THE ASSASSIN is Paul Bern, a forensic artist residing in Austin, Texas. Bern is slowly but surely adjusting to life as a widower when his life is turned upside down by a new client, a mysterious woman who gives him a skull that she has smuggled out of Mexico. The woman tells Bern that she believes the skull is that of her estranged and missing husband. As Bern begins the artistic reconstruction of the skull's face, he slowly comes to the realization that the face is his own --- and that the skull is that of his twin brother, a brother who he never knew he had.

A nightmarish enigma named Vincente Mondragon contacts Bern almost immediately thereafter on behalf of the CIA. Mondragon informs Bern that his twin brother had been a CIA agent working on a clandestine operation against a terrorist group --- and Mondragon wants Bern to take the place of his twin brother, the brother he never knew he had. Bern resists the idea but is blackmailed into doing so. He is almost immediately thrust into a world with which he is totally unfamiliar and where his life is in constant danger. He also must act with the knowledge that his success or failure will make the ultimate difference to the thousands of people who are the target of a multilevel terrorist attack and whose lives hang in the balance as a result.

Lindsey is a magnificent storyteller. His ability to weave unforgettable --- and in the case of Mondragon, REALLY unforgettable --- characters into a fascinating plot has never been so well displayed as they are in THE FACE OF THE ASSASSIN. I'm not just talking about Mondragon here, either. There is a 17-year-old girl named Alice who, as the result of a brain injury, experiences a cognitive disconnection with respect to the ability to recognize and understand the meaning of words. Alice's appearances bookend THE FACE OF THE ASSASSIN. I initially was very disappointed that her appearance was so limited. It wasn't until I had finished the novel and was reflecting upon it that I fully realized that Lindsey knew exactly what he was doing. Alice's condition manifests itself in such a dramatic manner that it would have ultimately hijacked the novel. Less, in this case, was enough.

THE FACE OF THE ASSASSIN may well supplant MERCY as the novel for which David Lindsey is best known. There has got to be a film version in this book's future to help it along as well. This is a compelling work by a writer who continues to get better and better.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

Rating:
Summary: 3 1/2 stars
Review: See storyline above. Preferrably the Booklist review.

As a somewhat avid thriller reader, there was something about this novel that didn't take with me. There was action and some suspense but it seemed to lack the gripping pace and 'pull you in' writing that I come to expect.
This is my first David Lindsey novel. I'm not sure if there will be another.

Rating:
Summary: Perfect for a weekend read
Review: Summer's here. If you need a thriller to keep you entranced for a long weekend, "The Face of the Assassin" should be high on your list.

Paul Bern is a forensic artist: he recreates likenesses of the deceased, working from their skulls. A woman brings him a skull and as Bern works on building a face around it, he is troubled. A household accident brings him to see what is so troubling: the face he has reconstructed from the skull is - you guessed it - his own.

By twists and turns, Bern learns that he had a twin brother who met his end in an untimely and unseemly way. A mysterious agent offers Bern the opportunity to track down his brother's killers - or, should he refuse, face an unseemly end of his own life.

Oh yes, a terrorist or two has to be tracked down along the way.

This thriller moves quickly. Bern is believable as are the other major characters. Bern learns the ins-and-outs of spycraft perhaps a bit too easily, but after all, his twin brother was a spy, so perhaps it's genetic. In any event, the minor disconnects aren't enough to keep this from being a thoroughly enjoyable read with a reasonably solid surprise ending.

Jerry

Rating:
Summary: Perfect for a weekend read
Review: Summer's here. If you need a thriller to keep you entranced for a long weekend, "The Face of the Assassin" should be high on your list.

Paul Bern is a forensic artist: he recreates likenesses of the deceased, working from their skulls. A woman brings him a skull and as Bern works on building a face around it, he is troubled. A household accident brings him to see what is so troubling: the face he has reconstructed from the skull is - you guessed it - his own.

By twists and turns, Bern learns that he had a twin brother who met his end in an untimely and unseemly way. A mysterious agent offers Bern the opportunity to track down his brother's killers - or, should he refuse, face an unseemly end of his own life.

Oh yes, a terrorist or two has to be tracked down along the way.

This thriller moves quickly. Bern is believable as are the other major characters. Bern learns the ins-and-outs of spycraft perhaps a bit too easily, but after all, his twin brother was a spy, so perhaps it's genetic. In any event, the minor disconnects aren't enough to keep this from being a thoroughly enjoyable read with a reasonably solid surprise ending.

Jerry

Rating:
Summary: A masterful tale from a master story teller
Review: There are certain authors one simply cannot get enough of. They regularly turn out a book a year. But one wishes they could spin them off once a month. David Lindsey is top of my personal list and his new work, "The Face of the Assassin" will keep him there. In a word the book is just superb. Its enormously inventive, credible despite being incredible, and impressively researched to boot. (You might have to look up "frenulum" in the dictionary. And don't bother checking him out on extracting mitochondrial and nuclear DNA from bone if you're an amateur forensic nut--I'm a scientist; he's correct) The book bears his trademarks of psychological suspense and his frequent exploration of the many shades and facets of violence, and again features his wonderful ability to bring south Texas and Mexico alive in his pages. Lots of luck trying to put this down before you're done!