Heart of the Assassin: A Novel

Heart of the Assassin completes Robert Ferrigno's trilogy of suspense novels set in a fragmented America, whose most powerful components are the Islamic Republic, comprising the bulk of the former U.S.A., and the Southern "Bible Belt". The two have fought several wars. Now they face a common threat or, rather, two threats. The visible danger is the expansionist Aztlán Empire, the invisible the "Old One", the archconspirator who plots to reunite the country under his own secret sway.

Judged purely as a thriller, this tale is first rate, the action twisting and turning until the villain trips fatally over his own schemes. Implausibility is not absent - can we really believe that Mexicans a few decades hence will worship the Aztec gods and show more conduct human sacrifices? - and the author doesn't do much with what a major thread from the preceding volume: the struggle for hero Rakkim Epps' soul between his true personality and the assassin-ghost with whom he has become supernaturally entangled. Those are not, however, serious or distracting faults.

The novel's great virtue is a realism of character and milieu that one doesn't expect in its genre. What we are shown here is a future in which religion is again at the core of most people's lives. Some of the religion is good; some is evil; some is hypocritical. Never, though, is it mere decoration. Those who use it cynically, as a path to other ends, discover that there is more to heaven and earth (and hell, too) than they realized. Those who ignore it, thinking that their natural talents are all-sufficient, either fail utterly or gain success that isn't worth possessing.

I am not at all sure that the author intended the message that emerges from his text, and the reader who would prefer not to see it will not find it intrusive. It is, as it were, an Easter egg. show less