Perfect Assassin by Wendy Rosnau, Spy Games #2, Silhouette Intimate Moments #1384, September 2005 Rating: B

In book 2 of the Spy Games series, we get to know Prisca Reznik, daughter of the criminal mastermind in The Spy Wore Red. Her father has trained her from the age of ten to be an assassin, perfecting her skill and style so that her hits look just as his did. Her job now that her father is in custody is to carry out the kill list, believing that her father worked for a government agency and kills traitors and spies. She has also been led to believe that Nadja and Bjorn from The Spy Wore Red killed her mother, Nadja's sister. Pulling off the first two hits according to the list, Prisca decides it's time to go out on her own. The order shouldn't matter after all, so she leaves her companion, Otto, behind and goes after Bjorn and Jacy "Moon" Madox the two men responsible for her mother's death and her father's capture.

Prisca wasn't counting on her plane crashing en route to the Montana wilderness where Jacy Madox lives. Unable to locate Bjorn, the agent who was actually responsible for killing her mother, she's settled on the intel man who aided Bjorn with information. Not realizing the elderly Native American woman who rescued her is grandmother to her target, she finds herself living with Moon and falling in love with him. Ready to flee she discovers at the last minute that Moon is Jacy.

Jacy "Moon" Madox has retired after an injury that left him wheelchair bound a year ago. He had recovered since then and now only walks with a slight limp, but still refuses to return to ONYXX. He is taken with the mysterious woman his grandmother has rescued, feels bad for her that she has amnesia. It isn't until he's fallen in deep that he discovers she's Holic's daughter and had probably come there to kill him. So then why didn't she? Determined to find out after she's fled he finds her and reveals information about her father and mother that startle her and make her realize that she has murdered seeminly innocent men. She was nothing more than a pawn in her father's game.

I enjoyed the Perfect Assassin. I was trying to figure out how it was going to be pulled off that an assassin for the wrong side could be portrayed as a heroine, but it was successful. I enjoyed the suspenseful aspects of it, Prisca's encounter with her father and her determination in doing the right thing even if it meant sacrificing her freedom and her life. I rate this one a B.

©Susan Falk and phantomroses.com