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The Assassin (Paperback)

by Thomas Gifford (Author)
3.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Paperback: 688 pages
  • Publisher: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group; Bantam rack ed edition (1 Dec 1991)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0553287400
  • ISBN-13: 978-0553287400
  • Product Dimensions: 17.4 x 10.4 x 3 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 1,193,883 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Review
"A classic thriller."--"Publishers Weekly."
"Adds new meaning to the word riveting."--"Atlanta Journal And Constitution,"
"Masterfully plotted and brilliantly told, "The Assasini's" suspense is unrelenting and its satisfaction is guaranteed."--Ross Thomas author of "The Fourth Durango"

Product Description
For fans of The Da Vinci Code: A conspiracy thriller about an age-old brotherhood of killers. Once hired by princes of the Church to protect it in dangerous times, whose orders do they obey now? In the Vatican, the pope is dying as priestly vultures gather around, whispering the names of possible successors. In a forgotten monastery on Ireland's gale-swept coast, a dangerous document is hidden, waiting to be claimed. And in a family chapel in Princeton, New Jersey, a nun is murdered at her prayers. Sister Valentine was an outspoken activist, a thorn in the Church's side. When her brother, lawyer Ben Driskill, realizes that the Church will never investigate her death, he sets out to find the murderer himself -- and uncovers a dangerous, explosive secret. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Customer Reviews

12 Reviews
5 star:
 (2)
4 star:
 (3)
3 star:
 (3)
2 star:
 (4)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.2 out of 5 stars (12 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars As many priests as Father Ted...., 15 Mar 2006
By A Customer
This review is from: The Assassini (Paperback)
I am nearly finished this book and it's a struggle. The pace is very slow. I don't know if I will stick with it. It's getting more and more ludicrous and I no longer care about any of the characters, if I ever did to start with.

Almost every character is a priest, a nun, a bishop, a cardinal, the pope or some kind of clergy. Ben, the lead character, is a lapsed Jesuit. Practically everybody he knows and comes across is a priest or a nun. The only woman he meets who is not a nun he immediately shags.

I keep thinking of Father Ted reading this. All the nuns are gorgeous and sexy. Who lives in a world like that, apart from Father Ted?

I think the book was reissued following the success of the Da Vinci Code. Church bashing is apparently the new vogue, whereas if you think about it the real crooks these days are multinational companies, although they are not as picturesque.

The book needs some editing and some of the grammar in it is really bad, especially at the beginning.

Where did he get the idea that monks still sleep in beehive cells in Ireland?

It's preposterous really, but I suppose I've started so I'll finish...

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars assassin reader, 2 Sep 2004
Although the initial pace is a bit slow and you are tempted to skip over some of the historical background, don't! The Assassini has a lot packed into a small(ish) book. This book is very much a matter of taste, plot twists and developments which one reader may like will very much can be to the dislke of others. The plot is long and winding, but it catches you and forces you to deny yourself those badly needed hours of sleep. Having been written in the dying days of the Cold War in 1984 the book has dated a little, bu not enough to spoil it.
Over all, well worth the effort. This is the first Thomas Gifford book I have read, I will read his others.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Superbly plotted but based on an absurd historical pretense, 1 Mar 1998
By A Customer
The mosaic of the plot is skillfully put in place. Gifford's style is very refined and certainly entertaining. However, the book is full of historical hogwash. The excesses of the Borgias have as much to do with today's Vatican policy as Henry the VIII's divorce by decaputation has to do with the family life of the contemporary English royalty. Moreover, making any references to Paris as a center of any actual resistance to the Nazis is an insault to any even semi-informed reader. After nearly a decade of research, Mr. Gifford should know that only serious casualties suffered by the Germans in Paris were those inflicted by French prostitutes. C.K. Tchorznicki
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Before 'Angels and Daemons'
In terms of plot, this is much better than anything Dan Brown has produced, the fact that this was published in the 80s and 'Angels and Daemons' came along in 2000 it isn't... Read more
Published 18 months ago by S. Dawson

5.0 out of 5 stars A Conspiracy Thriller

This is not really my type of book and comes under my own personal filing system as one of the children `spawned' by Dan Brown and the Da Vinci Code. Read more
Published on 24 Mar 2007 by J. Chippindale

4.0 out of 5 stars A Conspiracy Thriller

This is not really my type of book and comes under my own personal filing system as one of the children `spawned' by Dan Brown and the Da Vinci Code. Read more
Published on 9 Mar 2007 by J. Chippindale

3.0 out of 5 stars Okay read
This was a nice read. The story is interesting, and is a nice patchwork of several different but related stories, set in the present and in the past. Read more
Published on 15 Oct 2005 by Rory Morty

2.0 out of 5 stars Too many ideas but not enough pace
Yet again another book emerges riding on the coat tails of The Da Vinci Code. Like many of its bretheren however, The Assassini lacks one of the key elements that made Dan... Read more
Published on 13 Oct 2004 by C. Green

2.0 out of 5 stars Much Ado About Nothing
The premise was interesting, but the book was tedious and unexciting. As the plot thickened, I found that I cared less and less about the characters and their unrealistic... Read more
Published on 18 April 1999

5.0 out of 5 stars An intriguing and believable Vatican mystery
That Thomas Gifford was met by stiff opposition during his nine years of impeccable research for this work of art speaks volumes about the internal workings of the Catholic... Read more
Published on 1 Feb 1998

2.0 out of 5 stars A one-volume argument for renewing the Inquisition
I beg to differ with the other reviewers. This is a miserable piece of anti-Catholic claptrap. The book is endless and tiresome and has more false endings than I can count... Read more
Published on 7 Oct 1997

4.0 out of 5 stars A ride that only accelerates as the story proceeds...
This book was worth the struggle to get through the first 100 or so pages. Slow to develop, but once the story gets going, it is tough to put down. Read more
Published on 23 April 1997

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