Assassin of Secrets

by Q.R. Markham

Mulholland Books presents...ASSASSIN OF SECRETS The Jonathan Chase, the United States' top operative. He will protect and serve his country at all costs. The the Zero Directorate, a shadowy organisation who are kidnapping, interrogating and murdering spies. He knows that they will come for him...but not if he finds them first. Chase is on the hunt. But the Directorate lies in wait, and the inescapable truth is that the closer he gets to stopping his enemies, the closer his enemies get to him.

Genres: Thriller, Fiction, Novels

288 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2011

About the author

Q.R. Markham is the author of the Jonathan Chase series of spy novels. The first, ASSASSIN OF SECRETS, was published by Mulholland Books/Little Brown in the US and Hodder & Stoughton in the UK on November 3, 2011; it was withdrawn on November 8, 2011, on plagiarism charges. The sequel, SPYSCRAPER, was set to appear in September of 2012. Q.R. Markham has been a parks department employee, laundry-truck driver, door-to-door knife salesman, telemarketer, rock ‘n’ roll bassist, literary scout, book-reviewer, small business owner, and consultant.

Reviews

[Pnyman · Rating 1 out of 5]

I felt like he hinted around at plagarism with a few quotes. The first is "Jack Kennedy had been an admirer of the writer Ian Fleming" and the second is "But never for an instant did Jonathan Chase believe himself to be anything like James Bond." I felt like he was speaking through these characters. He's still trying to explain his motives but he has offered no apology as of this time.

[Ryan Daley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just because it's stolen doesn't mean it's not good. Think back to that Kit Kat you shoplifted as a teen...

[Steev Hise · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't read spy novels, although as a kid i was a bit into Ian Fleming's Bond books. I only read this because I'd heard about the plagiarism scandal. I thought there wouldbe obvious signs of being a collage, some winking and hinting and meta stuff. But no, it was just straight bad genre fiction. Makes me glad I don't read spy novels if they're basically this kind of thing. Sexist, cliched, no realistic character development, implausible plot, regressive politics... is Le Carre and other leading lights of the genre this bad? I fear that they are.

[Neil · Rating 1 out of 5]

For those who missed all the other ratings of this book, I'll take my turn at pointing out that the author plagiarized (a lot of) content in this book from numerous other books. I found this out when I was about 70 pages in...Having read that first chunk rather quickly, I went online to see what else this guy had written only to see that, as it turns out, he hasn't written much at all...

...I did continue reading...in the end, however, this is basically a beach read - a quick read that doesn't really make you think much and, worse, doesn't have any surprises...IMO, the plot was shaky, the writing either nothing special or plagiarized (one website has taken a shot at documenting all such instances and from which books), the characters were not well-developed...

...To justify completing the book I committed to reading the books that the author plagiarized...And having read this book, I can say you'd be best served by skipping this one and going straight to those!

[Terry · Rating 1 out of 5]

Plagarized book.
No wonder it read as if 5 or more different people wrote it... They did!

Shame on you Mr. Markham.

http://www.edrants.com/q-r-markham-pl...


*Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free through Goodreads. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

[Dan]

Reading this book made me think of the old James Bond novels from my childhood. Although, I liked the book, I recently found out that this book was pulled by the publisher for plagiarism. Because of that, I will not review this book.

[B H · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reasonable semi-james-bondish thriller weakened by the ending and plot twist pivot into the ending - as if the author had to wrap things up and didn't know quite how to.

[Patrik Sampler]

Plagiarism, or chance? http://patriksampler.wordpress.com/20...