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The Perfect Assassin: Book 1 in the Chronicles of Ghadid Kindle Edition
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A novice assassin is on the hunt for someone killing their own in K. A. Doore's The Perfect Assassin, a breakout high fantasy beginning the Chronicles of Ghadid series.
Divine justice is written in blood.
Or so Amastan has been taught. As a new assassin in the Basbowen family, he’s already having second thoughts about taking a life. A scarcity of contracts ends up being just what he needs.
Until, unexpectedly, Amastan finds the body of a very important drum chief. Until, impossibly, Basbowen’s finest start showing up dead, with their murderous jaan running wild in the dusty streets of Ghadid. Until, inevitably, Amastan is ordered to solve these murders, before the family gets blamed.
Every life has its price, but when the tables are turned, Amastan must find this perfect assassin or be their next target.
“The Perfect Assassin is a thrilling fantastical mystery that had me racing through the pages.” —S. A. Chakraborty, author of The City of Brass
“Full of rooftop fights, frightening magic, and nonstop excitement and mystery, I absolutely loved it from start to finish!” — Sarah Beth Durst
The Chronicles of Ghadid
#1: The Perfect Assassin
#2: The Impossible Contract
#3: The Unconquered City
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherTor Books
- Publication date19 Mar. 2019
- File size5222 KB
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About the Author
Review
"The Perfect Assassin is a thrilling fantastical mystery that had me racing through the pages. With a mix of heart and adventure, and set in a wonderfully inventive new world, K.A. Doore's debut shines." --S. A. Chakraborty, author of The City of Brass
"Doore is a force to be reckoned with, blending a stirring plot, elegant worldbuilding, effortless style, and diverse, empathetic characters. Her debut is sure to be a hit with fans of Sarah J. Maas and George R.R. Martin." -Publishers Weekly, starred review
"The writing is smooth and the world immersive, the characters lively and distinct; it's queer AF, well-paced and fascinating and political, and grapples with the morality of assassination in a thoughtful and considered way. I loved these stabby Hufflepuffs to pieces!!" --Sam Hawke, Aurealis Award-winning author of City of Lies
"The Perfect Assassin is one of those rare books that manages to be both thrilling and tender. It's full of rooftop fights, frightening magic, and nonstop excitement and mystery, while at the same time it's a thought-provoking exploration of what it means to be a monster and the power of love and forgiveness. I absolutely loved it from start to finish!" -- Sarah Beth Durst, award-winning author of The Queens of Renthia series
"K. A. Doore has crafted a thrilling and poignant tale on the costs of loyalty. In the city of Ghadid, ideas of justice and family battle and braid themselves around each other in action-packed fashion. Part murder mystery, part family saga, part coming-of-age chronicle, The Perfect Assassin intrigues and excites in equal measure." -Tochi Onyebuchi, author of Beasts Made of Night
In a high-flung desert city, a reluctant assassin's choices threaten his family's way of life, those he loves, and, worst of all, the spirits of the dead. Amastan Basbowen's options are all dangerous, but he must move forward. The ensuing intrigue forms the core of a highly exciting adventure." -- Fran Wilde, Hugo and Nebula nominated, Andre Norton Award winning author of Updraft
"Set in a world of believable richness, The Perfect Assassin combines a suspenseful plot with a memorable cast of characters, and an assassin protagonist who is compelled to make hard choices." --Ilana C. Myer, author of Last Song Before Night and Fire Dance
"A bold, original adventure set in a world of enthralling beauty. The Perfect Assassin shimmers with mystery and romance, and with characters whose courage and charisma brighten every page." -- Ausma Zehanat Khan, author of The Bloodprint
"Fascinating world building with all the mystery and appeal of the One Thousand and One Nights." --Duncan M. Hamilton, author of the Wolf of the North series
"Doore's thrilling fantasy debut is a suspenseful murder mystery wrapped around a coming-of-age story, sprinkled with family intrigue, vengeful ghosts, and a gentle but bittersweet m/m romance. Ghadid, set on platforms hundreds of feet above shifting sands, is vividly described, with a fascinating history and culture that Doore folds in naturally. This author is one to watch." --Booklist
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.Product details
- ASIN : B07CG4LGKZ
- Publisher : Tor Books (19 Mar. 2019)
- Language : English
- File size : 5222 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Not Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Sticky notes : On Kindle Scribe
- Print length : 346 pages
- Page numbers source ISBN : 0765398559
- Best Sellers Rank: 654,707 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- 10,523 in Epic Fantasy (Kindle Store)
- 19,850 in Epic Fantasy (Books)
- 133,275 in Whispersync for Voice
- Customer reviews:
About the author

K.A. Doore grew up in Florida, but has since lived in lush Washington, arid Arizona, and cherry-infused Michigan. While recovering from climate whiplash, she’s raised chickens, learned entirely too much about property assessment, photographed cacti, and now develops online trainings, none of which has anything to do with – or perhaps has everything to do with – her BA in Classics. The Perfect Assassin is her debut novel.
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Ghadid is a city above the endless sands of the desert, connected by a series of pumps to an aquifer filled once per year by the annual storms. This makes for a VERY intriguing society and barter/magic/economical system whereby those who plan poorly run out of tokens to access water before the end of season and, basically, die. To complicate matters further, water is essential to the magic of healing - and those who can't pay don't get treated.
Add in to this a series of gruesome murders and a sweet, reluctant assassin who'd rather be a historian and who dips his toe into the waters of romance for the first time, and you've got a hugely engaging novel part thriller, part murder-mystery, and all fantasy. Highly recommended.
My favourite aspect of this book was the world building. Set in a desert fantasy city, both the location and the culture were beautifully laid out and fully absorbing. I also really enjoyed the jaan, the concept of a spirit that must be calmed or else runs riot after a person’s death, but this wasn’t presented in quite as much detail as I would have liked.
The characters were decidedly mediocre, in my opinion. While I didn’t dislike any of them, Amastan felt much more like a tool through which the author was telling a story than the lead protagonist of a novel. Although of course all characters are tools through which a story is told, their personalities and quirks usually make up a decent chunk of the book, and a well written character feels like they’re leading the plot, as opposed to simply being present while the plot happens. I just didn’t feel this with Amastan. Despite him being very active and present throughout, it almost felt like the entire thing could have happened without him.
With better characters and a slightly faster-paced plot, this could have been an excellent fantasy novel.
OK. Good.
The Perfect Assassin is a fantasy novel, set in a city raised up above the sands on platforms, where water is an important commodity. This city is ruled by the Circle, the council of the leaders (drum chiefs) of the districts. In this city, there is also a family of assassins, who live in, if not harmony with the drum chiefs, then something approaching symbiosis.
Amastan is a newly minted member of the family, who realises, all of a sudden, that actually he doesn’t really want to kill people. So when it’s revealed that there is actually a ban on contracts, he’s relieved. But then he and his ‘cousin’ stumble across the dead body of one of the drum chiefs, and suddenly Amastan is required to solve a murder, even as the mystery starts to thicken.
THE GOOD
1) It’s gay! It’s so gay! Is anyone straight? (Yes, but let’s leave that to the side for a moment.) The main character is gay, his ‘cousin’ (who gets significant page time) is a lesbian, and one of the drum chiefs is sapphic. And there is absolutely no homophobia.
2) The worldbuilding and description is so well done. You can picture everything about the city, and the world it’s in. If there’s one tiny tiny thing, it does seem like it’s wholly isolated from the outside world (there are only a few mentions of one), but it is that way both geographically and politically within the book, so that really is something only tiny.
3) It’s a well-paced mystery story. Yes, maybe I felt a couple of times Amastan could have done more investigating than he did, but I was never bored by the plot. And it did slowly come together in a very smooth way, one that makes you look back and think ‘was this foreshadowing’ in a kind of paranoid way. The romance was also integrated well into the storyline so it never felt like it was detracting from progress in the mystery.
4) I actually adored Amastan. I made a currently reading thread on Twitter, and half my tweets were just about how much I loved him. He was a combination of chaotic, functional and distinguished, and I don’t even know how that’s possible but he was. I also loved the rest of the characters, sure, but Amastan was by far and away my favourite.
5) That ending! There was no cliffhanger, not really, but it still left me desperate for the next book. It was intense and heartbreaking (and also if I say anymore this’ll end up spoilery so I’ll stop).
THE NOT-SO-GOOD (or, things I didn’t like so much, this all sounds so negative and I don’t mean it in that way)
1) About 75% in, it’s really really intense (when they uncover the murderer’s identity), and then the intensity just drops off a little. Just for a moment, because it gets more intense again by about 80%, but that moment was enough that I felt momentum was lost. That’s probably the only reason why I chose to round down to four stars.
2) Yeah, that’s it really.
Conclusion: read the book.



