Friday, January 18, 2013

The Proxy Assassin By John Koerle


The Proxy Assassin (Spy Thriller)
By John Koerle
ISBN #978-0982090398
Blue Steel Press www.johnknoerle.com
Price $15.00
270 Pages
Rating 5-Stars

“A Slam Bang Finish.”

Former OSS agent Hal Schroeder is back: it’s 1948, and Hal is asked by his CIA contact, Frank Wiser to take on another assignment. This time he parachutes into the Carpathian Mountains in Central Romania to meet up with a group of anti-Communist guerillas, led by Captain Sorin Dragomir. Complicated twists and turns lead to capture, then an odd escape with the help of Princess Stela Varadja. More twists and turns as Schroeder learns that Dragomir is holding Stela’s child, a three-year old boy, the descendent of Vlad Tepes Draculea, and Dragomir’s hope for the future ruler of Romania.

Several plots crisscross in this tale, with throwbacks to the first two stories in this book trilogy, but everything ties together at the end. Throughout the adventure, Schroeder comes close to death many times, and with foreknowledge that this would be the final story featuring Hal Schroeder, I half expected to see his death in a final confrontation with Russian spies.

This has been a fascinating series, and all three stories were great reads. I felt the first story, “A Pure Double Cross,” had the best twist in any story I’ve read since O. Henry, and the sequels were hard-pressed to surpass it, but somehow they succeeded in keeping the series fresh and unique to the spy genre. Readers who expect great action and story telling will find it in the Hal Schroeder novels by John Koerle. A fascinating series to the end.

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