Review of The Fifth Assassin by Brad Meltzer

I suggest anyone reading this to first read The Inner Circle. This book starts off a few months later from where The Inner Circle ended. The characters are the same. There's still the awful President Wallace, the wise old guy Tot, the enigma Clementine, and the evolving Beecher White. I say Beecher is evolving because he doesn't come off as baffled and clueless as he did in The Inner Circle. He's definitely finding his voice and strength the longer he is with the Culper Ring.

Once again, the Culper Ring is fighting against another secret society known as the Knights of the Golden Circle. They are an extremist, well-trained, religiously fanatical group of men who all feel they were the ones chosen for the ultimate mission of assassinating the President. Or at least to assist in assassinating the President. For the many who read The Inner Circle, President Wallace is a president very much worth assassinating. A murderer is on the loose killing in the exact same manner four presidents' have been assassinated. These recreations are down to the minute and possibly leading up to the fifth assassination against President Wallace. It is up to Beecher and the Culper Ring to find this assassin before it's too late since their job is to protect the presidency.

I enjoyed this novel a lot more than it's predecessor. The main characters are given more depth. The rest of the cast are still pretty thin, but with fast-paced thriller's, that isn't necessarily a bad thing. For me at least. It's especially interesting that Brad Meltzer incorporated the history of past assassinations into this modern adventure. I enjoyed learning more about John Wilkes Booth, Harvey Lee Oswald, Charles Guiteau, and Leon Czolgosz. These four solidified their moments in history by doing the unthinkable. All assuming they are chosen by God.

Overall, this book made me interested in the next book of the Beecher series. There are cliff hangers galore but I'm sure fans of Meltzer won't mind so long as the next book doesn't take too long to come out. I expect fans of Dan Brown and Steve Berry will need to add Brad Meltzer to their collection.