Renee, who’s an MI5 officer, a brilliant strategist and a diplomatic manipulator, added with her cold, inhumanely twisted and maniacally smart mind makes her a villain who matches Victor move for move in a game he doesn’t quite understand and never wanted to get involved in. Many parts of London get torn apart in John Wick style brutally nerve-wracking action scenes where Victor faces off against a worthy set of adversaries. Most of the story then shifts to London where Victor, unwillingly working with the Bratva goons to keep them in his control, gets caught in a web of mystery, intrigue, crime, and conspiracy filled with treachery, action, chaos, and paranoia. Though Victor is disinterested in the mob boss’s dwindling organization being targeted by powerful forces, he agrees to help find and protect his adult daughter only because the Russian’s dead wife had been nice to the assassin many years ago. Disappointed at the Bratva leader(and middle-man for the Russian intelligence) for not putting up any competent traps for him, Victor disables the Russian’s brute goons in fun scenes and finds out his former broker needs help. Normally Victor would have avoided such interactions and be on guard, but an opportunity to kill a treacherous former associate was too enticing to pass up.

The real story in this book starts with Victor being jobless, without getting any assassination contracts from his brokers in a long time, and bored enough to face a meeting with his old Russian employer who’d betrayed him previously in the first book. Wood’s intricate skill of handling a perfect anti-hero whose many humane flaws and strengths bring together a protagonist who’s not exactly a role model but a character who gets the respect, awe, and amazement from the readers of gritty, grim, and seriously smart action thrillers. Tom Wood spins a wickedly twisted and brilliantly fun tale in Better Off Dead, with his anonymous, amoral, and sociopathic protagonist – Victor the assassin, which left me breathless and desperately addicted to his work.

Tom wood victor the assassin series