If the plot was resolved with some completely improbable luck, this was still a worthy beach read and different in format from Patterson’s typical reads. ( )

Engaging from the start I found this to be an enjoyable thriller. 3.75/5 ( )

I've read or listened to dozens of books by James Patterson and enjoyed most, but have resisted them lately because the plots and circumstances were too similar. This was refreshingly different and creative and had me even more engrossed than usual having trouble putting it down. It veered a little too much into science fiction or fantasy in a few sections like when Kira stole a corporate jet at O'hara airport and just took off with it without any tower clearance and managed to fly thru Canada and Alaska without being intercepted by the Air Force only to be shot down by a woman from the school who somehow had an F16 fighter. Some things like this could have been more realistically developed with past preparations by Kira or other creative ideas to make them more plausible. Anyway it was a fun book! ( )

No page turner is The Perfect Assassin. In fact the only perfect thing about this books is in the title. The story plods along at at first then spirals downhill from there. This Doc Savage book is nothing close to the original series. To much back and forth for about a third of the book. Save your money! ( )

The Perfect Assassin: A Doc Savage Thriller, James Patterson and Brian Sitts, authors; Joshua Kane and Suzanne Elise Freeman, narrators
Although this is not a book for everyone, I predict it will take off as the next best, new series, for those who love books about superheroes. Doc has humility, as well as courage and strength, Add good looks and you have the most perfect “Clark Kent into Superman” character, especially for those who do not like the way some of our superheroes of the past have morphed into political symbols for the more progressive reader. From research, I discovered that Clark (Doc) Savage was created by Lester Dent, in 1933. He predates Batman and Superman, and apparently served as inspiration for their creation. His Doc, like Patterson/Sitts’ Doc, is a mild-mannered man who believes in doing what is right. He gains his power from training and education.
The novel begins with the kidnapping of a set of twins in a remote area of Russia and continues back and forth over the following three plus decades with the kidnapping of the new Doc Savage, Professor Brandt Savage, employed by the University of Chicago. He is the grandson of the original Clark (Doc) Savage, and Meed, a young woman who had been trained since her own kidnapping, as an infant, to be a cold-blooded murderer, a follower of orders who would do anything she was told to do, kidnapped him and began to train her captive, whom she calls “doctor” to be an assassin, and unbeknownst to him, also a savior of the world.
While at school, she had no knowledge of her past. When she learned of her history, she changed the trajectory of her life. In the novel, as she trained her “doctor”, she also turned him into a stud, the opposite of the nerdy, shy man he once was! As the readers learns about the diabolical plan afoot to raise perfect assassins who are brainwashed and totally controlled, who live at a school that monitors every aspect of their lives, where the outside world is practically nonexistent to them, they get to know the two main characters, “doctor” and Meed”, who seem to be the yin and the yang of right and wrong. One does not believe in breaking rules and one has no rules that have to be obeyed. They are both loners and must depend only on themselves. The discovery of their surnames, Savage and Sunlight, will prove to be prescient for both of them.
The delightful banter, between these two main characters, will charm the readers, as will the two of them, while the back story will capture and hold their interest, as the narrative moves back in forth in time over three plus decades. It is action packed on every page, and it contains all the necessary elements of a good mystery novel today, with some violence, some romance, some espionage, world conflict and lots of danger; it also contains the basic concept of humanity and compassion in the underlying themes. The reader will surely hope for the series to continue, even though it stretches credulity, at times.
Although there is a human trafficking business in infants, who will be trained as mindless assassins based on their genetic background of good health and high intelligence, it is not widely known. This novel is about that criminal enterprise and the huge amount of so many unsolved kidnapping crimes that require justice. The idea of mindless assassins is really not new, since there are many countries researching the use of AI (Artificial Intelligence), and other means to create just such a weapon, in our present time. Hopefully, there will always be a “superhero” who can rise to the occasion and save the world from tyranny. ( )