The title attracted me to this story. I’d read other Quentaris books some years ago and enjoyed them, so decided to purchase this one. It wasn’t until I got home and examined the book more closely that I realised it was written by Pamela Freeman, author of The Castings Trilogy, which I loved.

The main character of The Murderers’ Apprentice is named Merrith. She is apprenticed to become an assassin with the Murderers’ Guild. But Merrith doesn’t actually like killing people and she’s not doing too well in her lessons as a result.

But she can’t just walk away from the guild as a prophecy has everyone else convinced that she’s going to save Quentaris. Unlikely as it sounds to her, she goes through the Rift Caves and attempts to do her job.

The book is easy to read and easy to absorb. I enjoyed the story line and liked the characters. Whilst I wouldn’t consider the book ‘deep’, sometimes that’s not what I want when reading. I accepted the book for what it is and should be — entertaining. ( )

In Quentaris, everyone is expected to follow the path of their parents and join the appropriate guild. Merrith ‘s parents have been murderers and very good ones at that but Merrith doesn’t want to follow in their footsteps. The novel opens with her running from 2 assassins as part of her initiation ceremony and then suddenly she is part of a prophecy to save Quentaris by following someone to another world via the rift caves. There she discovers a plan to trap thermal energy to run machines in Q; a plan that could see untapped lava flowing into Q to destroy everyone!