The Ethical Assassin

by: David Liss

Published by: Ballantine (available in paperback)

Reviewed by Kathy Perschmann, Chanhassen (MN) Librarian

Edgar Award winner David Liss has written an amazing book.

Encyclopedia salesman Lem Altick is making his way thought the August heat of a South Florida trailer park. Finally he is let into a trailer to give the parents his survey/spiel about the importance of education.

Lem is just finishing up his sale to "Bastard" and Karen, a bizarre and nasty pair, when the door bursts open, and they are both shot neatly between the eyes. This is how Lem meets Melford Kean, the ethical assassin. Melford and a shaky Lem "clean up" the site, and Melford returns Lem to his encyclopedia-selling crew. Has Melford really left him there, or will he stick around?

The crew is run by The Gambler, and most of the salesmen are nasty losers, two of whom are out to bully Lem to death, if they can. Lem is attracted to Chitra, who is selling door to door to help out her father before she starts college, and she is one of the reasons he is sticking around. The other reason: Lem is selling for the summer to get enough money to escape Florida and make it to Columbia University.

Add to this stew B.B., a strange, wealthy criminal who loves young boys; Desiree, his "secretary," and Doe, a crooked cop for the trailer park town of Meadowbrook Grove.

Some of the more striking locations: a pig farm with a pungent waste pit and nearby meth lab, a motel and various fast food chain restaurants and gas station stores.

Why were Bastard and Karen assassinated? Who killed Karen's mother--and B.B.? Who let the pigs loose from their cramped pens? Who has been stealing pets and selling them to a nearby medical lab, so they can be used as test subjects and tortured in the name of "commerce"?

Warning: facts and scenes in this book may put you off eating meat.

Armchair Interviews says: The Ethical Assassin moves lightning fast from scene to scene--with twists and turns happening so fast they seem a blur.