A Wanted Woman

February 3, 2014
Bestseller Dickey (Resurrecting Midnight) enters thriller territory with a tangled tale about a female contract killer known as MX-401 by her employers, and otherwise as Reaper because of her killer father, Old Man Reaper, who rigorously trained her when she was a teen. In Trinidad, where her assignment is to take out a government official, Reaper infiltrates the Laventille Killers—the gang that runs the island, led by War Machine and his wife, Karleen Ramjit. So fair she’s called Goldie, despite her black parents, Reaper is able to pass as a New Zealander, in which guise she seduces Karleen’s brother, King Killer, to gain access to her target. When things go awry, Reaper finds herself trapped in the islands, an expendable pawn in a conflict between warring gangs. Readers should be prepared for a surfeit of sex and violence, as this woman of a thousand faces tries to extricate herself from her predicament. Agent: Sara Camilli, Sara Camilli Agency.

A contract killer with Caribbean roots is hunted by a ruthless gang of Trinidadian thugs.Known by several aliases, the young woman aptly nicknamed Reaper plies her trade with the arsenal and martial arts tool kit of an ultraviolent video game. Schooled in her trade by her father, Old Man Reaper, a native of Barbados, Reaper has made a decent living carrying out the grim directives of the Barbarians, the shadowy organization she works for, whose official business is "collections." Now, however, she has not only bungled a job (in her bosses' view), but is wanted by the LKs, the depraved Cosa Nostra of Trinidad. Sent to murder a Trini-Indian politician, Reaper, adept at mimicry and disguise, adopts the persona of a sexy New Zealander in order to infiltrate the LKs, who are guarding the politico. But an LK orgy throws her off stride, and she's forced to execute the target in public, in a bank, with plenty of collateral victims, witnesses and security-cam footage. With grudging help from the Barbarians, Reaper escapes to Barbados, where she swelters in a safe house, broke-her paychecks have been held up. There, she meets-by coincidence (or maybe not)-another of the elder Reaper's daughters. This half sister, also an assassin for hire, helps Reaper with her money problems by throwing some freelance work her way. Mindful that Trinidad is not that far away, and unsure whether the Barbarians are going to help her, pay her or terminate her employment with utmost finality, Reaper rides a Ducati around Barbados, wreaking havoc and soaking up Bajan parlance and local color. Much murder, mayhem and torture ensues, no gruesome detail spared.The gratuitous and graphic depictions of violence will put many readers off what could have been a stylish thriller if Dickey had concentrated on his flair for dialogue and ear for speech patterns of all stripes. COPYRIGHT(1) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

April 1, 2014
The best-selling Dickey turns in another fine performance with this story of an assassin-for-hire who, after a job goes haywire, goes into hiding until she can find a way to deal with the powerful crime organization that is now out for her blood. The assassin, who gives herself various names but is known professionally as MX-401, is a splendidly designed character, a woman who is as beautiful as she is deadly, with a dark past and an uncertain future. The foreign localethe book is set in and around Barbadosgives the story an exotic, romantic feel. Readers familiar with Dickey's previous books won't be surprised to find an intensely dramatic, sexually explicit story about personal exploration and redemption. Not your typical thriller about a hired killer, but an immensely readable, hard-to-put-down tale.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)

November 1, 2013

Best-selling author Dickey has written another thrilling story of murder and romance, this time involving assassins in Barbados.

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.