Slingshot

Written by Matthew Dunn & Reviewed by Detective Dru

Lord of the Rings voiceover opening: In the mid 90s east German Kurt Schreiber, some evil ex-Stasi current CIA, conducts a meeting between kgb and USA top military regarding an operation that contains top secret intel that no one must know. To ensure secrecy, Kurt introduces Kronos, the best assassin ever! Very top gun maverick energy with the ambiguous specificity to all things villain. Only thing the reader knows for sure is CIA bad!

Wil Cochrane, consummate hero, is in present day Poland to interfere with some defection arranged by corrupt Russians. Wil deduces Polish head of station Luke is also corrupt and eliminates him before the defector handoff goes fubar. Many Poles and Russian SVR members are killed and the defector is kidnapped during the gunfire.  He possesses a piece of paper that is considered lethal in the wrong hands.

Chapter three provides an early confusing chapter. Four senior CIA members aka Flintlock aka the Chosen Ones are discussing Lenka Yevtushenko, aka the defector. They want to get misinformation to him through his girlfriend so that he walks into a mi6 trap? Maybe?

Kurt the ex-Stasi awaits in his evil lair as ex Mossad Simon arrives with the hostage Lenka. He had nothing but the mcguffin paper, his passport, and a phone with one number (aforementioned girlfriend?). Kurt takes the paper and matches it to his own, revealing a spot in the Black Forest containing a canister that allows him to communicate with Kronos, the world’s best assassin!

“At that meeting, he would order the assassin to kill the traitor who wanted to betray the secret of Slingshot.”

Finally some plot momentum. But why wouldn’t Kurt just make communication arrangements when they last spoke presumably in the 90s?

Wil is home and is now an incel because his mom and two girlfriends died due to his work.  Then the reader is introduced to Mark, Adam, Laith, Roger, Suzy and Peter. This is his new team and there’s too many of them. Alistair his handler is also there. Will wants his team to follow for four Russians that are in Germany under convenient reasoning and he’ll share the Belarusian side piece to see if either leads to Lenka or the paper.

Wil visits the lone cell phone contact girlfriend Alina in Belarus. After back and forth she admits that a Russian was here before asking about Lenka’s whereabouts (svr) and gave her a message to pass to Lenka. The message stated to beware Wil Cochrane, which she has just figured out is sitting in front of her.

Wil goes home to London and is paranoid about enemies. The mail is delivered and he notices a letter written to him with his own stationary and pen, and dabbed with a fragrance now missing from the bathroom. Clever intimidation tactics. The note tells Wil to back off the Lenka investigation or else people Wil loves will get hurt (despite Wil having absolutely no one he cares about in his life for that very reason…probably his estranged sister he’s referring to)

Part II

Kronos aka Stefan aka the world’s best assassin(!) takes his boys on a hike thru Black Forest and checks his dead drop while they’re not looking…luckily it’s still empty. Wil visits his estranged sister and insists she abscond with her husband because they’re in grave danger. They’ll be escorted by an elder couple, ex spies. Kurt’s men monitor the extraction and begin their tail, awaiting the go for kill.

William is now dealing with Mikhail, the man who visited Alina.  She has apparently provided intel and evidence that Wil must locate at Lenka’s cottage.  That uninteresting Flintlock team analyze the intel they received about Wil.  They’re hiring mercs to frame him as an armed robber at the home tomorrow.

At this home, Wil shoots four German shepherds and escapes on his bike. Just a shit show of antagonists. This book has been a real step down from the others. Instead of a solid antagonist, there are at least four.

Part III

Kurt and Rubner, the despicable Mossad agent, chat in their German lair with Lenka. The svr Mikhail has not been effective so Kurt orders Rubner to kill his family. He says hold off on Wil’s sister in case he backs off. They plan to change locales tomorrow and leave Lenka behind to be discovered and tortured by Russians. Kronos will be in play in 48 hers per Kurt. Nice to get some direct plot vectoring to see how the protagonist will navigate the course ahead, known only to the antagonist and now the audience.

Betty and Alfie, caretakers for wils sister Sarah monitor her in the highlands. Sarah is mopey and hubby James is useless. While the old couple discuss Sarah’s melancholy, Kurt’s snipers watch from afar.

Simon Rubner, the Mossad scum. He was recruited by Kurt while still Mossad and resigned to work for Kurt. He went to USA and baited CIA into approaching him for Israeli secrets. He played along in order to leverage the name Lenka out of them as their Russian double agent. He passed it to Kurt who arranged the defection kidnapping prologue. Now Simon leaves instructions to Kronos to kill some guy at the Hague that is about to testify something that would reveal the secret behind slingshot (dramatic cut to commercial)

Chapter 26 was another expo dump, this time with caretaker Betty spilling to Sarah her brother is a spy. Big moment and done well, the reader learns about Wil’s mortal wounds (the death of his father and not being able to stop his mother’s murder. Sarah’s ensuing estrangement made him give up on himself, hence the death wish).

Kronos scouts for a Dutch klm pilot at Frankfurt…hopefully he’s not too short to be a stormtrooper.  Wil meets with Geoffrey head of CIA Tel Aviv. After much back and forth they piece together Rubner’s back story and deduce it must be Peter Rhodes that knows Lenka’s true role.  Wil and the team trap Peter at an airport. After some threats he reveals the Flintlock team are Rubner’s CIA handlers.  Really underwhelming.

Part IV

Admiral Jack Dugan, who was at the prologue meeting in 95 but is now a wealthy senator is the witness needing silenced. Ok? Reader knows nothing about him so who cares? Just a human mcguffin 200 pages in…..Peter Rhodes sends a false text to Flintlock that Wil was pulled off their op and their secret remains safe. Then he commits suicide via hypothermia in Asian wilderness.   

Finally chapter 38 gives the reader some hope about this book. Wil meets a contact in Holland for a weapon then intercepts Hague court members and attempts to extract witness intel. Mikhail has been surveiling and finally breaks cover. Mexican standoff before ICC Metz of The Hague agrees to allow the both of them to jointly review witness safety integrity vs Kronos without revealing the witness.

Mikhail and Wil get blindfolded at Eindhoven airport to be transported to the witness. The transport goes south. Kronos, the best assassin ever, sabotaged the plane and steered it toward some remote airfield where he injured everyone but the witness Dimitriev. (not Admiral Jack Dugan!) He questions him and learns Kurt is arranging a genocide. He leaves Dimitriev alive to testify at The Hague. An assassin with scruples apparently.

Wil is flown back to USA and confronts Flintlock. Super melodramatic.  The majority of this book is unnecessary. Mikhail calls his family from the hospital he’s recovering at. Then he calls svr to have Lenka transferred to Belarus, he wants to pretend he’s dead so that he can be with his family instead of a Russian prisoner.

Dimitriev gives his testimony. Slingshot is a joint military protocol between Russia and USA to attack Chinese mission sites if they become a threat. Russia plans for it to be genocide as well, not just missive site destruction.

Six weeks later Wil meets with Alfie at Betty’s grave. He has received a note presumably from Kronos, the best assassin ever, detailing when and where Kurt will be in Germany. Wil recruits Alfie for his vendetta for Betty. They are going rogue to avoid due process. They want vengeance.

Kronos, the best assassin ever, sets up his nest to observe Kurt’s place, making mental note this would be his final adventure. Wil and Alfie infiltrate with Kronos clearing their path. How cute. They reach Kurt, he issues threats to Sarah and negotiates his escape where Kronos kills him immediately via sniper. Probably because he’s the best assassin ever!  Wil anticipated the Sarah play and had Mikhail take out Kurt’s team watching Sarah and her hubby James in Edinburgh.

Wil returns Lenka to Alina. Lenka says he stole 20 pieces of paper, not one. Meaning there are 19 other assassins on par with Kronos, the best assassin ever! One last eye roll.

This book was a real disappointment. Overly diluted villains and the all too common lonely hero internal conflict. This franchise had previously been a favorite along with Silva’s Gabriel Allon. I still like that it relies more on characterization than action, but when characterization just becomes “I am a bad person but not as bad as the person I’m trying to kill, thus exempt from bad person status” which evolves into “I am alone and unloved because I’m a bad person but this is the hero tax I must pay” it really just becomes a snake eating its own tail. Like most middling stories, the protagonist is no different at the end than the beginning, just more scars and less family.

And one less reader.