Review: Doing The Dirty Work?
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 02 27, 2014
Tequila Assassin by Greg Prosmushkin is a hard-boiled crime fiction novel centering on the exploits of Jack Fleming, an ex-Special Forces operative turned professional assassin who is busted in Tijuana, Mexico over a botched assignment. Instead of meeting with an interrogation team, he is propositioned by a US Army Intelligence officer. Major George Romero makes him an offer he can't refuse, setting him on a collision course with the Alacran drug cartel. He is hooked up with Gabriel Artega and Isabella Gomez, an eccentric couple who become his lifeline along a perilous voyage through Mexico and Central America to a bloody showdown in San Andres in Colombia.Prosmushkin's Fleming is the stereotypical tough guy, a hard-drinking loner who remains aware of his surroundings and is capable of fighting his way out of the tightest of spots. He is as familiar with the sleazy underside of criminal life as with the cloak-and-dagger world of military espionage. This leads him to identify Andrew Neptune and his Demons, a hardcore team of British commandos with an international reputation. He finds them along the trail as he encounters Isabelle's uncle, the notorious Dr. Colonel Tengo, as well as the truly demonic SVEMM assassins. This appears as an inside joke by the author, whose acronym curiously resembles the SVEMMBW of Colombia, an organization that monitors maternal mortality rates. Is this going to be the central theme for the next Fleming novel? Go figure.The theme of revenge resonates throughout the novel as the internecine links between protagonists and antagonists provide the emotional tension that puts the zip on this fireball. Fleming eventually narrows the chase down to the brutal Julio Aibyndo and his overlord, the mysterious Maldonado. His collision course through a field of innocent and not-so-innocent bystanders bring the chaos and sheer evil facing many the Latin American rural communities and remote villages to life. It takes a dirty man to do a dirty job, and Prosmushkin's Fleming is the dirtiest player in the game. Pick up a copy of Tequila Assassin by Greg Prosmushkin, fasten your seat belt, and enjoy the ride.