Assassins (British Literature Series)

Rating:
Summary: Satirical review mainly touching on the style of Assassins.
Review: "Peter Salmon said" By: Peter Salmon

Peter Salmon said, "In Edward Hower's article 'Reviewing books', he explains how he doesn't trash books in his reviews, saying 'Not I. If I can't find at least something to like in a book's first twenty or thirty pages, I send it right back, so another reviewer can try it' (p.26). Unfortunately for me, and any other poor sap who bought Nicholas Mosley's Assassins, we can't just send the book back to the publisher. We bought it for the cover price of $12.95, and say to ourselves, 'Hey...they should've given me $12.95 just for reading the first chapter.' "

Peter Salmon said, "On the book's very first page, a title is given for all the comments from big-time books reviewers, 'Praise for Assassins'. Here they describe this book, 'thoroughly imagined', 'an adroitly organized political thriller', and 'a cocoon of dismay and terror'. It is not these descriptions that I disagree with. In fact the thrilling plot is what counteracts Mosley's childish style. Set in England during the mid-sixties, the daughter of Sir Simon Mann, England's Foreign Secretary, stumbles upon a young assassin. The assassin takes Mann's daughter, who interrupts his deadly plans, and locks her in an abandoned cottage away from her home. When let loose to be part of a grander plot, she hides her fateful knowledge, unaware of everyone's outcome."

Peter Salmon said, "Maybe you are wondering why each paragraph begins with 'Peter Salmon said'. It is my way of satirizing Mosley's monotonous and childlike style. What makes me want to pull my hair out is the fact that every quotation is begun with the word 'said'. I found three instances (and yes I did count) when he did not use 'said'. Along with this, for many characters, he did not give names. He simply regarded them as 'the man with...'. When these two styles are put together on the same page, it is twice as annoying than having just one."

Peter Salmon said, "If you think you may be interested in this book, I beg you to go to a bookstore and read page 52. If you can tolerate Mosley's style for that one page, then you are certainly one of a kind."