Love and Lust: 'Red Rose (Blood)' by Michael Kudo
Red Rose (Blood) by Michael Kudo
What it's about (courtesy Wilde City Press):
"I don't like to be called an Assassin, I prefer the term problem solver."
My name's Alex. I'm an average guy. I kill people for a living. But don't judge me.
I don't take jobs on just anybody though. I only kill the really annoying people, like cheaters or abusers. So if you think about it, I'm actually doing God's work—okay, maybe that's stretching things a bit.
Other than the whole committing murder and trying to get away with it thing, my life is simple.
Well… except for the fact I'm in love with a fellow assassin who happens to be my mentor. I also have to make sure I'm careful when I'm on the job because if I ever fail a hit, I'll be considered a "liability" and be executed promptly. Oh, and there's a small chance someone in the organization is trying to have me killed. But I'll figure that out, eventually. Did I mention I'm gay?
Okay, maybe my life isn't so simple.
Why you should read it: I'm sometimes surprised when the "hero" of a book is a bad guy … and I love him. Antihero, I guess is the proper term. We get to know the hired assassin Alex quite well, his motives and his personality, because the book is written in first-person POV.
Alex is actually quite good at his job. His mentor, who is also his former lover, is Lance, and Lance is the kind of bad guy you hate, as expected. He's a total jerk. Hastings, the boss of the organization that hires Alex, handles Alex like a puppeteer pulling strings. Alex gets to choose his jobs, and sometimes he justifies his choices as though he's taking out the garbage. He is climbing the ladder in the organization through a point system based on jobs done, whether he got caught, etc., but he isn't a top-dog employee yet. Nevertheless, he is assigned a protégé named Theresa to mentor and train. Is this because he's so good or because he's being set up to take a fall? Because Theresa defines the word overeager.
Sinister and funny, this is delicious gallows humor. I laughed and then checked myself, thinking, should I be laughing at how a death is planned and carried out? Well, yes, because Red Rose// is written in such a way that you can't help yourself. I find myself looking around and wondering if that nice-looking man standing in line at the coffee shop is an assassin and if there's someone else around who is going to die because he made the wrong person mad enough to spend some serious cash getting rid of him permanently.
Red Rose is the first book in a new series, and I can tell you we are all in for a treat watching this young author provide excitement and entertainment for readers. I recommend that you pick this book up from your favorite bookseller today and settle in for a wild ride.
Becky Condit is a widow, mother of three and grandmother of 10 who reads all kinds of books, but her go-to comfort books are erotic romances. A romance novel coupled with just-out-of-the-oven chocolate-chip cookies and a glass of cold milk is her idea of heaven. She reads and reviews more than 250 books a year, so you won't often find her without her Kindle in hand, but when you do, she'll probably be gardening, doing needle crafts, working in her upholstery workshop and spending time with her family.