A Time To Die (Victor the Assassin Book 6)

A different role for Victor. Seeing him not only doible-crossed and highly-valuable prey but a thug was refreshing and interesting. Also got to see him improvise so much more, thinking on his feet for more than just a fight.

I've been following the Victor the Assassin series from the first book and while I've enjoyed it immensely, I'm still at a bit of a loss as to explain its attraction. The stories themselves, while nothing original, are well-crafted and filled with suspense and action. I won't get into the specifics of this one since other reviews have already covered that ground, but it follows the formula of previous entries: Victor is hired to kill someone and must confront brainless thugs, charming psychopaths, shady government representatives, femme fatales, deadly rivals, and heavily armed former military operatives. He must plan for every contingency, prepare for all possible outcomes, and be able to improvise at a moment's notice. The plot moves along briskly, the dialogue sounds true-to-life, and the bad guys are suitably reprehensible. You won't find fault in these areas.No, the difficulty lies in trying to clarify the strange allure of its protagonist. Victor is only ever depicted while on the job: spending hours doing surveillance, countersurveillance, studying his target, acquiring tools and weapons, plotting escape routes, sizing up opponents' strengths and weaknesses, ad infinitum. Unlike Lawrence Block's hitman Keller, who devotes his free time to collecting stamps, Victor is always in "assassin mode," so to speak. We don't know if he has any hobbies, if he enjoys fine art or classical music or noveau cuisine, or pretty much anything of substance that would add more dimension to his character. He is analogous to the Terminator, a killing machine that is continuously scanning the world around him with ruthless efficiency. He talks in a flat, even tone most of the time and the only emotions he seems to express are miniscule degrees of surprise and irritation. If it weren't for his very human dislike of cursing and littering, he might as well be a robot.And yet Victor is a fascinating creation. We watch as he goes about his assignments and marvel over how thorough and professional he is. He manipulates everything he possibly can to his advantage and even on those rare occasions when circumstances go sideways, he is able to meet the challenge through an enviable mix of physical prowess and cognitive dexterity. Like the Hollywood version of Jason Bourne, Victor can assess a situation in the seeming blink of an eye and fashion an appropriate response. A lethal killer who never stops thinking - could there be a more potent combination?Despite my respect for his abilities, however, I cannot say that I've ever found Victor 'likable' in the traditional sense of the word. Make no mistake: he is a sociopath, with little to no empathy for anyone. Granted, the people in his world are typically scheming low-lifes but even innocents are often met with callous indifference. As he tells one young woman, a victim of human-trafficking with whom he has struck a deal and who is considering breaking their agreement by delivering him to the men who are keeping her captive, "It's really not smart to threaten me...do not make yourself the kind of problem I don't need. I'm the worst enemy you could have." Whereas Dexter Morgan could be affable and wry and even appealing in spite of the horrible things he does, Victor is largely taciturn and off-putting; any humor he indulges in is sarcastic and deadpan, more suited for the gallows. As a result, there is almost nothing about him that I can feel a kinship with. I'm as emotionally detached from Victor as he is from the people he meets, and the only other character with whom I've felt a similar disconnect is Hannibal Lecter. Victor is like a crocodile gliding below the water's surface, a cold-blooded reptile disguising himself as a harmless piece of driftwood until he gets close enough to strike. But he is mesmerizing every step of the way, which is why the stories work so well.This series is highly recommended for suspense/thriller fans but don't expect to get the warm and fuzzies while reading. More likely, it will feel like someone just walked across your grave.

I really loved this series at first, but it's lost steam and gotten rather boring. It's no longer unique and has become rather predictable. We're going through the same motions of Victor explaining his counter surveillance over and over, getting yet again another handler, tricking another assassin into letting him kill them, getting somewhat attached to a woman and then her dying. All while not revealing Victor's past or allowing him to develop or change as a character. It's a shame, the author seems to have developed the formula and is afraid to shake it up. I'm willing to stick around awhile longer and see if it gets interesting again, but not forever.

Victor, Assassin extraordinaire.The best thing about author Tom Wood is the ultra-realism he brings to the high stress world of the assassin. Most assassin novels portray the person as a kind of heroic paladin a gallant vigilante type who believes in “Truth, Justice and some kind of convoluted honor.” Mr. Wood trashes that ridiculous concept and portrays Victor as more of a realistic assassin: More along the lines of Machiavellian principles. Because Mr. Wood routinely “kills” off both good and bad people who cross Victor, I found myself NOT trying to guess or figure out Mr. Woods novels but rather just let them play-out.A Time To Die is a classic Tom Wood, Victor assassin novel. Suspenseful, gritty, realistic and sorrowful. Victor is NOT a vengeful vigilante but an uber professional assassin hired to do a job. In A Time to Die, his most difficult “job” yet he is force to make numerous choices that will surprise the reader. Set mainly in Belgrade, Serbia, I enjoy Mr. Wood’s ability to find new locales and interesting underworld villains.Character development was superb as we learn more and more about the mysterious Victor. He is an ultra-realist whose paranoia keeps him alive: Trust no one, check everything, be constantly vigilant, stay alive. The Victor doctrine.No gratuitous sex, language, or violence. Some graphic violence but germane to the plot and keeps the story moving.Another terrific Tom Wood novel—maybe his best to date! I love how Victor uses both inductive and deductive reasoning to stay alive. I also enjoy with sadness the realism when “Good” characters die. Life as a professional assassin is not happiness and fun but rather survival 24/7/365. As such, to survive Victor does what he must to endure. It’s not always pretty but the life of a killer is what it is, and it mostly is NOT pretty. Looking forward to Mr. Wood’s next Victor novel.

There seems to be a part missing in the version I read. The blurb on the back cover mentions a character,Ana, who is nowhere to be found in the book. It also says she had her whole family killed by the baddie-Rados, and is out for revenge. There is nowhere in the book any reference to this. There is a character called Eva, who is trafficked, but there is no mention of her family or anything else that Rados did to them. So- has a part of the story been lost in publication??Anyway, I found this annoying as I kept wondering when this Ana would make her appearance in the story, only to find out at the end that she didn't exist in the story. So- who writes these blurbs on the back cover???

A time to day is the 6th Victor and is back on best form. In the previous two books it looked like Victor was turning into the Hitman with the heart of gold and not his ruthless self. However this book sees Victor back in Eastern Europe going after some good old Serbian bad guys. Much more his style and he is back rubbing out his rivals with his old Teutonic efficiency.In short Victor, now working for the jolly British has to infiltrate a Serbian crime syndicate and get to the top man and uncovers a grimy world of human trafficking and many other lurid schemes. Needless to say a a lot people get Victored along the way.This a is cracking good read and which bar the inconvenience of life I would have devoured in a day.For those of you who mourn the demise of Jack Reacher, please pick up Mr Wood's creation you will not regret it. I have already converted two people into solid Victor fans and I eagerly await the next in series.

I am a fan of the series but this one didn’t quite hit the mark as has previous novels. Victor (our “hero”) is a blank slate and deliberately void of much personality. To balance this, the books are all about his tradecraft and placing him in strong plots. In this he takes a commission to take out an ex-war criminal, now crimelord in Belgrade. At the same time someone has put a price on his head so while working on his task, Victor has to keep an eye over his shoulder. Which he does anyway. All the time.So he infiltrates the bad guys, and finds he has a few things in common with the guy he is out there to kill. He shows a slightly softer side on occasion, but generally this is all about Victor keeping a few steps ahead of everything and generally being cleverer than everyone.The problem is that we have seen much of this before and the plot is not strong enough to carry repetition and a lack of personality.So this was okay but not up to the high standards the author has set with his previous books.

I have read all the "Victor" novels and I found A Time to Die the most compelling and well thought out. There were twists in the plot which were completely unexpected but which added enormously to my enjoyment of the book. The fact that I finished it in record time speaks volumes. I would say to any "Victor" fan who has not yet read it you don't know what you are missing!Tony Lincoln

I am always amazed by the level of detail Tom Wood puts in to his work, he has a true gift when it come to this genre. It is very easy to immerse yourself in these novels and you will find yourself swept off to foreign lands full of exotic peoples while scoping out the best way to carry out the next mission. For a man who claims never to have killed anyone, he sure knows a lot of ways to do it! These novels are as intriguing as they are exciting. The twists and turns in the plot will keep you turning the pages into the wee hours. Enjoy!