Review: Good and sharp
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 03 3, 2013
An ex-soldier turned secret-service assassin, the delightfully-named Martin Calvary is reluctantly dispatched to the Czech Republic for what his obnoxiously smug superior promises will be one last job: the revenge killing of an elderly British expatriate. Thanks to the involvement of Russian intelligence and the local mafia godfather, matters do not go according to plan; but then again, it all depends what the plan really is. As usual, Stevens presents a complex plot with several complicated set pieces that never become confusing, and the major characters are for the most part plausible and interesting. The hairy mafia monster with the family values is a fairly effective stock villain; but the Russian intelligence chief, not quite old enough to be old-school and not young enough to be new-school, is much more subtly drawn and, at least for the present reviewer, equals the hero in intelligence and ruthlessness and perhaps even surpasses him in pathos. Like many who drift into espionage, Calvary has suffered the traumas of war; but Calvary's trauma is a rather more complex and interesting one than the usual business of seeing a friend killed or accidental participation in collateral damage. Pacey and well written, this is a thoroughly efficient thriller.