sabre

after seeing collateral and bourne supremacy (read all the bourne books) I'm strangely in the mood for some books about assassins. I guess its the one man alone which makes them compelling reading and films. along the line of day of the jackal and the above films. Anyone with some ideas?

Cedar

Hit Man and Hit List by Lawrence Block are very good reads.

SFranke

I thought Brotherhood of the Rose by Morrell was cool [and should've been made into a movie].

The Dude

I think they did (mebbe)...

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096985/maindetails

djmont

Here are some suggestions for hit man books, all terrific reads:

Lawrence Block -- Hit Man
Thomas Perry -- The Butcher's Boy
Barry Eisler -- Rain Fall
Trevanian -- The Eiger Sanction

I'm sure I could come up with more, if you need 'em, but those are some excellent ones.

Joem

Based on this thread, in the past week I've read Rain Fall, Hard Rain, and Hit List

I liked all three, particularly the Japanese flavor of the Rain books. Gonna start one by Perry next.

Joem

Ok, just finished Brotherhood of the Rose. Outstanding book....was the movie version any good (saw the link up there to the imdb site, went to it, and watched the trailer)?

JDF5244

The Day of the Jackal is a good one.

RevLiver

The Assassini by Thomas Gifford. It's a religious conspiracy assassin thriller.

wolverine1028

A couple of books from Daniel Silva are quite good.

Joem

I'll have to try that Assassini one next, thanks RevLiver.

I've looked at a few Silva books, but always end up not getting them for some reason...any one to start with?

Jazzbutcher

I can't believe no one mentioned Stephen Hunter. Bob "The Nailer" Swagger is the best assassin out there. His father Earl ain't bad either.

His books should be read in order for full effect, since each book is tied to the last.

Start with Dirty White Boys.

Joem

Excellent! I will add him to my list for next time I go to the library.

Alien Redrum

Awesome, awesome books.

Joem

Ok, picked up Dirty White Boys tonight....the library didn't have The Assassini in, so no luck there.

I'll start DWB soon, but to be honest after reading the back of it I'm only mildly interested...but if 2 people here are recommending it, and it has to do with assassins, I'm gonna give it a go.

RevLiver

I just hope you're not reading these to learn some new techniques.

Joem

Shhhh..........

flixtime

Actually, "Dirty White Boys" really doesn't have anything to do with assassins, and is only indirectly part of the Bob Lee Swagger series of books by Stephen Hunter. Also if you want to get nit-picky, Bob Lee is a ex-marine? sniper therefore perhaps not an assassin - at least in the "hit-man" sense of the word - which seems to be your chief interest.

That being said, "Dirty White Boys" is an excellent, excellent book. Along with 2 of the Bob Lee Swagger books it forms a sort of trilogy with the title "Black Light" being a capstone to events in both "Dirty White Boys" and "Point of Impact".

If you want the Bob Lee books start with "Point of Impact", then although it doesn't feature Bob Lee read "Dirty White Boys", followed by the Bob Lee book "Black Light". Actually since you are reading "Dirty White Boys" go ahead and finish it and then if you want go on to "Point of Impact" since it doesn't really matter which is read first as long as you read "Black Light" third. All 3 titles are given the highest recommendation by me.

If you make it through all that go on to "Time to Hunt" which is another Bob Lee title. It also has more of the cat-and-mouse sniper/assassin suspense/action you might be looking for.

Still interested, try the Earl Swagger (Bob Lee's dad) titles: "Hot Springs", "Pale Horse Coming", and "Havana".

Joem

I'm maybe 100 pages into DWB and I will admit it's better than I thought it would be by a large margin. Hopefully it will only continue to increase in how much I like it, and I'll try those other books after I finish this one.

Cedar

Thanks Flixtime, as a coincidence I had just started on my Hunter collection with Point of Impact, which I will finish this weekend. I would have went to Black Light next, but will trust your experience and read Dirty White Boys instead. Glad for the heads up, because I hate to read series stuff out of order!

Joem

Just updating this a bit....finished Dirty White Boys. It was good, but it didn't interest me enough to go read the Swagger stuff.

So I tried "The Matarese Circle" by Ludlum. Very good book, and if assassins are your thing, you'll probably get a good kick out of this book!

I'm still waiting on the library to have the Assassini or The Eiger Sanction in so I can read them.

Any other Ludlum books (besides Bourne obviously) hit the assassin theme like the Matarese one does?

JEStinson3

Not really assassin stuff, but I stronlgy recomend the novels by Matthew Reilly.

Ice Station
Temple
Area 7
Scarecrow

They are action books from start to finish. Kinda like Tom Clancy on speed. They are great. Ice Station - Area 7 - Scarecrow need to be read in order, but you can read Temple whenever.

BradJ

Another vote for Hunter's Point of Impact...

DWB was ok, not a great read, but Point of Impact is one of the greatest fiction books I've ever read...

Eric F

Robin Hobb's "Farseer Trilogy":

Assassin's Apprentice
Royal Assassin
Assassin's Quest

Joem

When you say "like Tom Clancy"....do you mean with respect to action quotient or writing style? I can't stand to read Clancy, he drives me up a wall....but if you filter it out for the action, he's pretty awesome.