Assassin's Wall

Alexandra “Lexi” Peters comes to Paris to discuss engineering, but an innocent-looking sculpture in the Gare de Lyon train station turns out to have sinister implications. Now she must thwart a plot to kill people in this SF thriller that has some great concepts but can’t quite pull them together. Debut novelist Dubin makes it difficult to get close to her characters, using a narrative that constantly tells readers what Lexi and her unlikely multinational band of psychic heroes are thinking. The off-putting style is compounded by the titular assassins being portrayed as Arab terrorists. This plot point is given purpose in the second half of the book, but creates an uncomfortable vibe of stereotyping until it’s clarified. There are some strong moral quandaries, but they’re blunted by a forced, incomplete ending and the overenthusiastic inclusion of all the cool sci-fi toys Dubin clearly admires but isn’t yet able to use to their fullest extent. [em](BookLife) [/em]