Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Confessions of a Hit Man / Richard Godwin


Reviewed by: Keith Nixon

Genre: Thriller / Mystery

Approximate word count: 50-55,000 words

Availability    
Kindle  US: YES  UK: YES  Nook: NO  Smashwords: NO  Paper: YES
Click on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Smashwords store

Author:

Richard Godwin is a widely published author, with a focus on horror and crime, and a playwright. He has written two full length novels – Apostle Rising and Mr Glamour and has contributed multiple short stories to anthologies.

You can learn more about the author on his website.

Description:

Jack is a Royal Marine commando, a trained marksman and explosives expert, good at reconnaissance, sabotage and using information. Needing finance Jack takes on a hit for Luca Martoni, telling himself it would be just the one.

But before he knows it Jack is a full time assassin, his stock on the rise, his fee increasing all the time. But he gets pulled into a government plot selling enriched plutonium to a country that shouldn’t have it…

Appraisal:

Confessions of a Hit Man is as addictive to the reader as it is to Jack. I devoured the story in a couple of sittings. The style is pacey, the sentences chopped, the chapters brief and to the point. The novel itself is short, around 50,000 words and if there’s one complaint it’s that I wanted more, it was such a good read.

The ‘confession’ aspect in the title is an apt description, Jack is writing down the individual hits as a salve to his conscience – he didn’t start out wanting to kill people for a living, it sort of crept up on him. Something he subsequently realizes.

As the narrative progresses it moves from individual chapters to more of an interlinked story line as he gets drawn into the government plot. We steadily learn about Jack and his motivations, but is there still good within him?

Godwin tends to write psychological thrillers and horror so this is a degree of departure for him. However it is a welcome one and suits him. I hope to see Godwin writing more within this genre and Jack too.

FYI:

Nothing of note.

Format/Typo Issues:

No issues.

Rating: ***** Five Stars

3 comments:

Judi Moore said...

It appears this isn't currently available to buy in Britain (I didn't check Amazon US). I hope this means that Richard Godwin has been picked up by a mainstream publisher?

BooksAndPals said...

I'm afraid it is more likely an issue with the logistics between his publisher and Amazon, Judi. I know they were having issues with availability at Amazon US, but it was fixed when I scheduled this review a few days ago.

Judi Moore said...

Ah. Good news that he has a publisher, anyway! Let's hope the problem is soon fixed. I see now that it is only the Kindle edition which is unavailable. These days, for good or ill, I depend on Kindle samples for what I buy. I'll 'wishlist' it in the meantime