The Brotherhood of the Rose by David Morrell

Saul is being pursued by Eliot, the 'sad-eyed, gray-faced' spymaster who controls both these elite assassins. Chris may have big troubles, but they pale next to Saul's. Where Chris ends up-after several twists of fortune-is with his foster-brother Saul Grisman. Beneath his jacket, behind the belt at his spine he carried a Mauser HSc, 7.65-mm automatic pistol.' Before long, Chris is on the run for having dispatched a Russian drug lord within the sanction. Indeed, his face had been reconstructed several times. His scars had been disguised by plastic surgery. In Bangkok Christopher Kilmoonie makes his way toward the 'Church of the Moon,' one of the Abelard sanctions. Should anyone kill a guest within a sanction, the killer would become subject to an international termination order and every professional assassin in the business would be after him.įade to the present. Once inside, a spy, agent or informer is safe from his enemies. These 'Abelard sanctions,' as they are dubbed, are neutral territory, places of absolute refuge. In 1938 the world's intelligence community established a number of international safe houses. By comparison to any Ludlum, The Brotherhood of the Rose really moves. For this new novel is certainly the best action-thriller since Robert Littell's underrated The Amateur and Thomas Perry's Edgar-winner, The Butcher's Boy. Anyone who knows Morrell's classic chase novel, First Blood, has probably already started for the bookstore. Sound too good to be true? Then just read The Brotherhood of the Rose by David Morrell. IMAGINE a suspense thriller as riveting as The Thirty-Nine Steps or Rogue Male, featuring heroes the equal of Adam Hall's Quiller, and crackling with more action than The Road Warrior, Dirty Harry and The Seven Samurai combined. By MICHAEL DIRDA MICHAEL DIRDA is mysteries editor of Book World.