I had never read any books by this author, and I did not realize that they are part of a series. I bought the book simply because it was at Costco.Nevertheless, I understood the main plot of the book, but really I know nothing of the back story. For the most part, I felt that the book was an incomprehensible mess. A member of a conspiracy is attempting to recreate the four assassinations of US presidents, Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley, and Kennedy. This conspiracy has something to do with playing

I didn't enjoy this book as much as The Inner Circle. Just when things were getting exciting, there would a couple too many flashbacks. Book would slow down and when it built back up, here come the flashbacks again.

Except for authors with whom I'm intimately acquainted, I check out what reviewers think of most books before I commit to reading (that's especially true if I have to shell out bucks to get them, but even when I find freebies, I do a bit of homework). So it was with this one; I think I've read at least one of his other books, but I remember nothing about it, not even the title.What I found when checking the reviews came as a surprise: of the 29 who had reviewed it at Amazon.com at the time I loo...

The Good: This series isn't my normal type of thing, but the books keep dragging me in. This time, a serial killer is going around assassinating priests, in the same style as past presidential assassinations. The history of it was intensely fascinating. We see these past presidential deaths first-hand in the book, which is newer to most than it really should be. We're usually taught about Kennedy and Lincoln but often American educations neglect details from the assassinations of Garfield and Mc...

I have read all of Mr Meltzer's books and this one and the Inner Circle are some of his worst. That's not to say that they are not good novels. Just the characters are nowhere near as interesting and compelling as the characters in his other books. Ironic that this is the first time he has had a character in more than one book. Secret Societies. There have been so many novels in recent years, since *cough* *cough* DaVinci Code *cough* *cough*, that this genre is really worn out. It's sad to see

Well...as you may have noticed I added this to my Spy-Fi shelf. This as close as I've seen recently to that genre I miss. With the under-current of conspiracy and the inlay/overlay of historic spy rings etc. it moves into science fantasy/Spy-Fi territory.And (he said opening a sentence incorrectly) this one is somewhat better (in my humble opinion of course) than the first. Beecher frustrated me very, very badly in the first book. He's one of those geniuses who also manages to be so slow and thi...

“. . .suddenly the bullet dropped out through my fingers and fell, breaking the solemn silence of the room with its clatter, into an empty basin that was standing beneath. There it lay upon the white china, a little black mass no bigger that the end of my finger—dull, motionless and harmless, yet the cause of such mighty changes in the world’s history as we may perhaps never realize.”Those are the words of Dr. Edward Curtis, the physician who performed the autopsy of President Abraham Lincoln.Ev...

Brad Meltzer often gets lumped in with the cheesy thrillers that Dan Brown et al write. Normally, I don't think this is a very fair comparison, as I think Meltzer brings a level of depth and research to his books that make them several cuts above the cheesiest thrillers. They are still light fast-paced thrillers, but definitely on the intelligent end of the spectrum. Unfortunately, I didn't think that was the case with his latest, THE FIFTH ASSASSIN. I actually found the whole book kind of a mes...

Meltzer's latest novel layers history, politics, and murder into a masterful tale that grabs the reader from the opening pages and does not let go until well after closing the back dust cover. Picking up where 'The Inner Circle' left off, Meltzer posits more conspiracy deep inside the US Government, this time a long-standing secret society in which all four presidential assassins belonged. When murders that replicate these four historical assassinations begin, no one is safe. The society is not

Volume 2 of the Culper Ring series is actually hard to rate. I give it three stars if one reads it as a continuation of the first novel in the series. If I was rating the novel as a stand alone book I would have to rate it only 2 stars. As a stand alone the novel lacks sufficient back story on the key characters to give the reader a complete picture of what is going on. As I noted in my review of the first volume in the series, the entire series should be read as a whole and in order. Still, I r...

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 Culp...

There really needs to be a 10 star option for this book. “Some funerals are filled with questions. Others are filled with answers. This one was filled with secrets.”The first line of the prologue pulled me headlong into Brad Meltzer’s latest conspiracy “The Fifth Assassin.” When you sit down to start reading, make sure the chair has a comfortable cushion because you’ll find yourself unable to put the book down and get anything done. It’s that good a read.Meltzer’s protagonist Beecher White, who

The avalanche of terrible writing and poorly conceived character names continues! When asked "Why? Why are you reading a second Brad Meltzer novel?"My response was, "for the good of humanity."Moral outrage should be the response to this book, for part of a Rain Forest gave its life to produce this travesty of print and insult to human imagination. What Meltzer has done with this work, and the projects he does with the "History Channel" should be condemned as a war crime. If American History was

A thrilling continuation of the Culper Ring series. I think the best part about this series (which actually doesn't exactly have anything to do with the books ha!) is that I was able to be in DC while I was listening to this one. I could literally picture what was going on (having lived in DC as well) and I really appreciated the details that helped me visualize what was going on. As we saw in book 1, no many people are who they say they are and Meltzer keeps you guessing about who is who and wh...

What if all four of the U.S. Presidents who were assassinated while in office was actually part of some sinister conspiracy --- a plot that has existed for nearly 150 years?This is the amazing premise of Brad Meltzer’s latest novel --- THE FIFTH ASSASSIN. What makes this brilliantly conceived novel jump out of the readers hands is the fact that the action within is even more exciting than the premise it is built on.The assassins in question – John Wilkes Booth, Charles Guiteau, Leon Czolgoz and

A complete waste of time. It makes James Bond stories look like works of utter genius and depth. I made myself finish it as punishment for buying it and to remind me never to buy another book by him.