The Lateo Directive
by Hunter-Mann Purdy

Release Date: 9th Jul 2007
Publisher: Olympia Publishers
ISBN: 978 1 9055 1321 5
RRP: £8.99

You wouldn't want to meet Mac in a dark alley...

Mac is a hit man for hire. There is nothing extraordinary about that, but then, there is nothing ordinary about Mac... at least, not in my opinion. Rather than portraying a hit man as a cold, calculating, killing-machine (which is a rather overdone cliché for this type of genre), Mac is given ethical values, morals, standards, normal human qualities. He does not like wasting innocent lives just to qualify a hit and he is ‘in love’ with a civilian... albeit a sociopathically-challenged one.

Enter Becky. There’s not much that is usual about her either, which is really quite refreshing. A potential psychopath, the two of them met randomly and somehow connected. Their relationship is probably not dissimilar to Obe One Kanobi and Anakin Skywalker, but with sexual chemistry. Becky continues her normal life, but will drop everything and everyone (including current ‘boyfriend’ types) to back Mac up on one of his hits. She’s not a useless sidekick either and one often questions, as does Mac, whether or not she sticks around because she loves him or the action he provides for her.

The plot is a bit of an aside, with an assassination of the UK’s Prime Minister up for grabs. And it would appear that Mac is unwittingly drafted in for the job – although £18 million seems fair recompense for any loss of morals. What makes this book so fascinating is that we are invited along to the background of the assassination itself. We enter the mind of the hit man and are shown the sequence of events that transpire behind the scenes and escalate into the final act; killing the Prime Minister.

I like that the author chooses to hide behind a veil of pseudonyms and silhouettes, myself being partial to frontery (worms are generally not mauve-purple, unless you have squished them) and I like this book. In fact, as much as I am adverse to the clichéd phrase; I am, as you say, “Hooked”. Like a locomotive gathering steam up a hill, we are treated to some great suspense. And like a locomotive hitting the peak and coming crashing down to the bottom again, we are whipped along with the different events and emotions until we reach the inevitable conclusion... or do we? Not everything is at is seems and there are subtleties throughout which make this so more-ish.

Don’t worry though – Mac and Becky will be back in The Umbria Inheritance. I for one, cannot wait!

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