Book Review: The Ethical Assassin

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

The Ethical Assassin     Amazon US HC Amazon Canada HC
David Liss
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Thriller   Psychological Suspense
Ballantine, Mar 2006, $24.95, 336 pp.

In 1985 in a trailer park near Jacksonville, seventeen years old Lemuel “Lem” Altick goes door to door selling encyclopedias. Though he makes good money, the job devastates his nonexistent social life and makes him feel middle aged so he plans to stick with it for one year and then find something more appealing like sleeping through college.

Lem tries to sell his wares to Karen and the “Bastard” when someone kills both of them. Stunned into inertia Lem listens to Melford Kean explain that these two, as animal abusers, deserved death. Meanwhile police chief and self declared mayor of the trailer park Jim Doe investigates the double homicides, but seems more interested in keeping Lem quiet anyway possible. Apparently the killings interfere with the Mayor’s fund-making rackets including a speed trap, the encyclopedia selling operation, and a hog farm where animals are brutally mistreated before being dumped in the "waste lagoon" that also serves as a human cemetery. Not sure which side is less psychopathic, Lem wants to live long enough to register in college and steal kisses from a bookselling peer.

In the tradition of the zany South Florida (though this is few hundred miles north on I-95) suspense thriller, THE ETHICAL ASSASSIN is a wacky coming of age tale starring a bewildered teen wondering how he got into this quagmire. The story one told from the shocked Lem’s perspective is loaded with puns, barbs, and satirical asides on life in Reagan America. The secondary cast makes for a wild time with loonies (whose names matter) aging the stunned teen. Sub-genre fans will welcome David Liss, who provides a fresh madcap mayhem to the Florida swamps.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner