In March, 1945 American President, Franklin D. Roosevelt was at his retreat at Warm Springs resting before an anticipated appearance at the founding conference of the United Nations. He had become increasingly frail and ill into his 4th term as President, but this had been kept from the public, so his death, from a cerebral haemorrhage, was a shock for the nation. When he died he was sitting for a portrait painting by the artist Elizabeth Shoumatoff, the painting now a famous work known as the Unfinished Portrait of FDR. Amongst others present at Warm Springs was Lucy Mercer, his former mistress and long time close personal friend. The circumstances, location and people present at Roosevelt's death are all a matter of fact. THE ASSASSINS GALLERY simply proposes that his death was not really from natural causes and he was the victim of a well covered up assassination?THE ASSASSINS GALLERY opens with a wetsuit clad swimmer stepping from a cold Atlantic Ocean on New Year's eve. Cool, efficient, and very experienced, this assassin will despatch anybody who interferes with the mission. The only clue to their even being in the country is the inadvertent leaving of an unusual and ancient knife at the site of a murder that night. The connection is only picked up by chance and Professor Mikhal Lemmeck, an expert on the history and weaponry of Assassins and his ex-student Nabbit, now a Secret Service Agent, need to work out where she is, who she is here to kill, and that she really exists. Yes, she, the other twist in THE ASSASSINS GALLERY is that the Assassin is a woman, using the name Judith. In end of War America, where so much of the workforce and local populace is female, so many men being away at the war.THE ASSASSINS GALLERY mixes up the facts around FDR, America and American society in the dying days of WWII with the story of Judith. Judith is a Persian Muslim woman, an experienced assassin, she alone knows who she is working for, and who she is here to kill, as well as knowing she has a limited time in which to get to FDR. The story of how she goes about infiltrating Government circles is fascinating and very clever. Passing herself off as a Creole-Black woman from New Orleans she is able to move backwards and forwards in white and black circles seamlessly, finally choosing to work as a domestic in the homes of people in government circles to move her way gradually closer to FDR.Despite some niggling concerns about the convenience of having a Muslim Assassin as it's central character, THE ASSASSINS GALLERY is saved from the possibility of a villain of convenience. The motivation for the assassination is not revealed until the end, and Judith herself, is not a stereotype. She's ruthless, able, quick, unapologetic but not without human compassion and feeling. She also makes no bones about the fact that she is an assassin - it's what she does. The book moves along at a clipping pace, with the tension being double focused. Firstly the increasing pressure on Judith to get into a position where she can kill FDR, in a very closed circle, with the complication of FDR's failing health making him less accessible. On the other hand Lemmeck and Nabbit struggle to work out how to get a lead on their suspected assassin, the intended victim, the method - anything that will give them a hint where to go next.THE ASSASSINS GALLERY has all the elements of a good thriller, it's entertaining, engaging, it has enough things that are believable and save you from having to suspend your disbelief too far. Working the premise into a known historical situation, would normally turn me off a bit, but in this case it worked really really well. Possibly this is because the only playing with the reader's understanding of the truth of history is in the final event, the death of FDR. Everything in the lead up fits into the known society at the time so effortlessly that just for a few seconds, you do wonder...
On the back cover of this book, in bold letters, are these words: "What if FDR was assassinated?" Well, la dee da, there's the entire plot of the book in a nutshell. Which is fine, if you think about it: historical fiction in written with the assumption that your audience knows how it all turns out, at least generally. The trick is to involve characters sympathetic enough that the reader cares what happens to them as individuals. Unfortunately, that does not happen here. The story follows Mikhal Lammeck, a professor who specializes in the history of assassination, as he attempts to uncover a plot to kill the president. That might be somewhat interesting, if a bit cliche, except that Lammeck is also an expert military instructor of - you guessed it - assassins. He spends a lot of time fumbling around, though I find it difficult to believe that after so many years of training killers he'd have so little idea of how to handle tracking one. The assassin herself is marginally more interesting, but still little more than the barest of sketches. I suppose this light treatment was probably intended to make her seem mysterious, but it came off as shallow. I will say that the anecdotes about various assassins through history were quite interesting, but I could have read that in other books without first wading through the tedium of this story.
What do You think about The Assassins Gallery (2007)?
Judith is awesome. I know you're not supposed to root for the villain and all...blah blah blah...but Robbins does an excellent job of portraying her cunning ability to use the way she is read by the white U.S. establishment to deceive her adversaries. They see her as a black maid, innocent and unintelligent, when she is completely the opposite. The way she was able to manipulate the racism of what were ultimately her pawns against them was probably the main reason I was so engaged. The other elements of her personality that come out as the novel progresses also kept me intrigued. Oh, and I guess Lammeck was kinda cool too.For folks who go with the audio book, Guidall does an excellent job of giving each character distinct voices and personalities - he really does so much more than simply narrate. His impressive voice acting is the other major factor that made Assassins Gallery so enjoyable. I'll definitely be looking out for other audio books he voices.
—Chris
I read this book because the title interested me a lot. It turned out to be ten times better than I thought. It starts out with an Assassin coming secretly to the shore of the American ruled shore where she hopes to kill FDR. Once ashore she is forced to kill to locals because they are the volunteer coast guard. The armies of every nation are in the midst of war in Europe. With two mangled bodies and a scrambled police service, a secret service agent decides to step in and investigate. However, before he dives in, he gets help from an old professor who just happens to be an expert on Assassinations. The professor figures through great challenges and ends up facing the assassin. She, the assassin, escapes easily, however he barely gets away with his life. She warns him if he keeps on pursuing her and she notices she will kill him. So, the head of the Secret Service pulls him out of the mission and now he has to watch what is happening from a secure area. He finally figures out how the assassin will get to the president. She will meet him as a maid in a mountain house in Georgia. The only problem, he is in Virginia when the President and the assassin are already at the mountain house. Will he get there, well you'll just have to read it for yourself. This book is packed full of action and deception. I give it 5 stars.
—Marshall
This book was definitely a page-turner, though it does take some slight liberties with historical accuracy. When read as a story, and nothing more, then I have to say that Robbins does a masterful job of keeping you IN the book. His research into some of the nooks and crannies of history (in respect to assassinations) are also pretty impressive, and he does an excellent job of working little trivia tidbits throughout the book.Professor Mikhal Lammeck is a mixture of Eliot Ness (the Untouchables) and Robert Langdon (DaVinci Code), with a little gumshoe detective thrown in for good measure. I don't want to spoil the story, but trust me when I tell you that you won't be able to put it down. Easily read in less than a day.
—MG
