Review: Romance Among Assassins
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 01 12, 2014
“Friends from Damascus” is (more-or-less) part of the bigger story of the origins of the group of “rogue” assassins, known as Friends from Damascus, who take out world bad-guy terrorists, operating outside the boundaries and restraints of any national or political organization. Their funding remains mysterious, but their determination to kill terrorists who endanger civilization is clear and unambiguous. They simply kill them without much emotion connected to the assassinations. Naturally the entire world of terrorist organizations as well as legitimate governments seek them. Thus their operations are highly secretive. They live on the edge of exposure and their own annihilation.In this book, Mr. Happy traces the recruitment of two of the people who become primary players in the small group of self-appointed assassins, Brett/Rene and Talia/Mona. Naturally they become personally entangled and eventually in each other find the love that has escaped them all their lives. The first part of the book (about half) is slow and almost entirely “background.” Though necessary, it’s still slow.Mr. Happy has a tendency to create “superwomen” in all his books. Talia is no exception. She is a walking, talking, breathing death machine, with all the skills necessary to kill anyone she meets, besides being an emergency room doctor. But Talia nearly meets her maker in the book’s denouement in Lebanon.  However, as we read these thrilling episodes, Brett and his deadly-merry band of assassins eventually rescue her. Skipping ahead, Brett and Talia team up in all ways, and Talia joins the Friends’ Group. This revelation is not a spoiler. It could not have happened in any other way, and such was obvious from the very beginning. How many people die in this book?  It’s an unbelievably high number!!Some of the action is a bit overboard and sketchy enough to cause the reader to suspend disbelief – not always possible for this reader.  Too much of the hairy escapes just don’t seem very possible and disbelief wins the day all too often. A writer shouldn’t force his readers to disbelieve plot and action episodes.And yet, it’s a very good story, very well-written, upbeat and assertively positive in its thrust with attempts at ethical reconstruction of behavior.  Mr. Happy may not write anything remotely resembling literature, but he writes a darn good story. It’s a bit like reading one of the Gabriel Allon series by Daniel Silva, only with more technology and a staggeringly effective support group – and mercifully without the Israeli politics.Thus, it’s a 4 on Amazon’s scale.  The entire “Damascus” series is very well done. Kudos to Mr. Happy.