Charlotte Greig (1954–2014)

Assassins by Charlotte Greig and Nigel Cawthorne is an enjoyable read but falls short of the lofty goals it sets for itself, let alone any expectations a reader might bring.

The Introduction sets a very high bar that the reader almost immediately knows can't be reached in the number of pages in the book. It lists all of the victims they will cover, then also the assassins, and the near misses, and profiles of all of the above, plus they even say they will go into detail on the events and the implications. This book is simply too short to do all of what they promise.

If they had not created such sweeping expectations it would have allowed a reader to just enjoy the short overviews of these events and gone in search of more detail on the ones of most interest. A reader can still do these things, I certainly did, but there is still a sense of being mislead by the Introduction.

If you approach this book with reasonable expectations for a book of this length you will enjoy being reminded of assassinations as well perhaps gaining some new information about ones you either didn't know about or only heard about in passing. It makes for a quick read and, as I mentioned before, will pique curiosity in at least a few of the lesser known assassinations and attempts.

I would recommend this with the understanding that this is an overview of many cases and not an in-depth study of any one of them or of the psychological profile of "typical" assassins. With the proper expectations this is an enjoyable read.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.… (mer)