The Perfect Assassin, by K.A. Doore

Review copy provided by
our mutual agent. Also we're friends.

Every system, every
society, every government, has its drawbacks. People differ on what those are
and how to address them--in the real world. In too much fantasy, this
disagreement gets flattened out into pure antagonism: this is the obvious
problem, and if you're not at least sort of aligned with me on the solution,
you are The Baddie.

The Perfect Assassin
doesn't do that. Even in a system that features, well, secret assassins. And I
enjoy that a lot.

Amastan is an historian
by day, assassin by night. He and the others of his age group have been
training for years, learning the rules that keep them in check as well as the
skills that will be the difference between life and death for them and others.
But someone else isn't following those rules. Amastan and his friends discover
not only a corpse, but one whose jaani (spirit, more or less, sort of) has not
been properly laid to rest. This unexpected danger spurs him to find out more
about the people around him, and about the past he is supposed to be studying.

Amastan is a beautifully cautious protagonist. He thinks things through, he tries his best--and he still gets himself into heaps of trouble. You will never have the "UGH THINK THINGS THROUGH" problem here, because 'Stan does think things through--and the results are beautifully, humanly messy anyway. I was nearly late for a lunch meeting when I picked up this book, and it remained fun, exciting, and especially compelling throughout--for me, substantially because its protagonist is so well-drawn. Definitely recommended.