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Beautiful Assassin

Beautiful Assassin
A Novel
by Michael C. White
Published in USA Apr 2010,
464 pages.

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Rated 5 of 5 of 5 by Andrea S. (Lafayette, IN)
Absorbing story of war, politics and love
I could not put down this story of a Soviet assassin's tour of America in the early days of World War II. It did remind me a bit of the book/movie, "Flags of Our Fathers". We know the outcome from the beginning, but it did not spoil the unfolding of Tat'yana's tale. I learned a lot about the war in Europe before the US entered the battle and the frantic lobbying going on between governments to draw the US into the European war. I did think the book ended abruptly, with a subplot left unresolved, but I still greatly enjoyed the book. This would be a good choice for book clubs-I hope mine will read it!

Rated 4 of 5 of 5 by Lori L. (La Porte, IN)
Beautiful Assassin
When I first started this book, the plot device of the main character reminiscing about her past life was a bit off-putting, cliched, and heavy-handed (been there, done that). However, thankfully, the author did not continually move back and forth between past and present throughout the book, but instead embedded us into the life of a beautiful female Russian sniper. We learn what motivates Tat'yana Levchenko to write poetry and to kill Nazis, and follow her on her journey to America where the machinations and political posturing by both the US and Russia call into question her convictions about her country and her beliefs about her role in the war.

Rated 5 of 5 of 5 by Hilary H. (Tucson, AZ)
The Beautiful Assassin
I really enjoyed this book. Michael White is a new author for me but I will definitely try another one of his books. "The Beautiful Assassin" had an interesting premise though I wasn't sure how it would work. It starts slowly but very quickly becomes an intriguing war/spy story. White uses some real historical characters as well as many fictional characters in a story that is captivating and exciting.

Rated 4 of 5 of 5 by Jeanne W. (COLUMBIA, MD)
Good, but not great
Part spy novel and part romance, I enjoyed this book for the most part, but found it pretty predictable. I had difficulty with the idea that Tat'yana was so naive as to not understand the spying that went on and that was expected of her. We live in such a cynical world now that this kind of innocence was difficult to comprehend. That and the implausibility of Tat'yana's friendship with Mrs. Roosevelt made this book a little hard to really get into.

Rated 5 of 5 of 5 by Kathleen W. (New Brighton,, MN)
A gift that keeps giving...
BEAUTIFUL ASSASSIN by Michael White is a gift that keeps giving. From page one, the reader is presented with a top-notch plot, a protagonist who strongly resonates and an insider's view of the historically gritty, grim and manipulative era of U.S.-Russia relations involving Stalin, FDR and his wife Eleanor. Finish the book and finish the gift? Not on your life. I have now a book reader's dream: the wonderful find of a previously unknown-to-me author. White has written 6 other books!! As I say...the gift that KEEPS giving.

Rated 4 of 5 of 5 by Joe S. (Port Orange, FL)
Fascinating history and an enjoyable story.
When I first started this book I was a little bit skeptical but once the main character's narration began I was enthralled. The chapters describing the day to day life of a sniper in the Red Army in 1942 are fascinating. When the story moves to the US the book becomes an enjoyable historical thriller. I really enjoyed it.
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