The Assassin and the Deer - Hardcover

Living by her wits, Tessa, the head of the Latin American and Caribbean section of the Watchdog Organization (the action arm of the World Council for Human Rights) relies on a journalistic cover for her survival. But, a murder attempt means that this nearly superhuman agent's cover is in jeopardy. Before Tessa can learn who has tried to kill her and why, she must terminate a KGB agent in Belize--where her brother lives. Tessa's worst fears about combining a vacation and an assignment are confirmed when her family is drawn into the horror of her work. The few humanizing elements (e.g., the scene with the deer and Tessa's relationship with her niece) do not balance the episodes of torture and brutality. Those, combined with violence-filled flashbacks and justifications for Tessa and her colleagues' career choice, overwhelm the slim storyline.
- V. Louise Saylor, Eastern Washington Univ. Lib., Cheney
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Belize is one of the sites where this outlandish first novel's gung-ho narrator Tessa works for the "Organization" in defense of human rights. A self-described exotic beauty, Tessa claims to be lethally effective in the pursuit of secret agents who torture and murder at will. After a failed attempt on her life, she follows her attacker to Belize and assassinates him, as well as his cohorts. (She also takes time out for social engagements and steamy sex with an adoring lover.) The mutilations Tessa boasts of, caused by nonstop derring-do, may weaken her claim to depiction as a raving beauty--but then, the entire story is preposterous. Although loaded with blood, lust and violence, the book, a juvenile fantasy of triumph over evil, arouses no feelings except irritated amusement. Weyer teaches jungle survival and spelunking techniques for the British Forces in Belize and Central America.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.