I'd describe this as a fantasy-mystery.
We follow a freshly graduated assassin called Amastan, trying to solve the mystery of who killed one of the drum chiefs. Along the way he finds more bodies and is chased by jaani (some sort of angry souls/ghosts), who attack and possess people, drive them insane and eventually kill them.
I'd have liked a bit more info about the world and I found the characters a bit lacking. Altogether it was an ok solid read, but not very memorable.

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with an eARC.

The Perfect Assassin was, in my opinion, a perfect debut.
It had all the things I love in a fantasy book - original worldbuilding, in-depth characterisations, and magic. It also had something I love in any book - diversity and representation.
The only reason I didn't give this book five stars is that it took me a little while to get into - and that is probably just me - but once I did it was a truly enjoyable ride. The writing was sharp, effortlessly so, and at times the city of Ghadid felt real. I could feel the heat of the desert baking under the sun, feel that desperation for the rains to come (no small feat since I live in perpetually rainy England!). I could imagine myself bounding over rooftops and up the pylons and I could feel what Amastan, our main character, felt; his worries and anxieties about becoming an assassin, but also the joys and trepidations of him falling for someone and his terror at the murders happening around him.
The Perfect Assassin is, in essence, a murder mystery - people are being killed, and it is up to Amastan to figure out whodunnit. I admit to enjoying a good murder mystery every now and then, and so transplanting that into a fantasy setting was an instant recipe for success, one which Doore definitely delivered on.
We have Amastan, an assassin who doesn't want to be an assassin, in a city where the contracts assassins used to carry out have been banned - unfortunately, of course, things do not work out for him. However, he is not alone - he has Menna, a fellow assassin, and Yufit, a servant with a secret or two himself and who Amastan saves from the jaani, the unquieted spirit of the dead. I found Amastan to be a sympathetic and likeable main character, and I love that the author has stated he is asexual!
The representation was truly a high point for me, and I love that at no point did it feel forced - it simply was. And the desert setting, in an ancient city built on pylons above the sand with technology that was no longer really understood, was fascinating and unique, and I hope to uncover more of the city's secrets in later novels.

Actual rating 4.5

I'm gonna start this review by saying this: if you haven't already marked this book as to read, do it now. Go on. Do it.

OK. Good.

The Perfect Assassin is a fantasy novel, set in a city raised up above the sands on platforms, where water is an important commodity. This city is ruled by the Circle, the council of the leaders (drum chiefs) of the districts. In this city, there is also a family of assassins, who live in, if not harmony with the drum chiefs, then something approaching symbiosis.

Amastan is a newly minted member of the family, who realises, all of a sudden, that actually he doesn't really want to kill people. So when it's revealed that there is actually a ban on contracts, he's relieved. But then he and his 'cousin' stumble across the dead body of one of the drum chiefs, and suddenly Amastan is required to solve a murder, even as the mystery starts to thicken.

THE GOOD

1) It's gay! It's so gay! Is anyone straight? (Yes, but let's leave that to the side for a moment.) The main character is gay, his 'cousin' (who gets significant page time) is a lesbian, and one of the drum chiefs is sapphic. And there is absolutely no homophobia.

2) The worldbuilding and description is so well done. You can picture everything about the city, and the world it's in. If there's one tiny tiny thing, it does seem like it's wholly isolated from the outside world (there are only a few mentions of one), but it is that way both geographically and politically within the book, so that really is something only tiny.

3) It's a well-paced mystery story. Yes, maybe I felt a couple of times Amastan could have done more investigating than he did, but I was never bored by the plot. And it did slowly come together in a very smooth way, one that makes you look back and think 'was this foreshadowing' in a kind of paranoid way. The romance was also integrated well into the storyline so it never felt like it was detracting from progress in the mystery.

4) I actually adored Amastan. I made a currently reading thread on Twitter, and half my tweets were just about how much I loved him. He was a combination of chaotic, functional and distinguished, and I don't even know how that's possible but he was. I also loved the rest of the characters, sure, but Amastan was by far and away my favourite.

5) That ending! There was no cliffhanger, not really, but it still left me desperate for the next book. It was intense and heartbreaking (and also if I say anymore this'll end up spoilery so I'll stop).

THE NOT-SO-GOOD (or, things I didn't like so much, this all sounds so negative and I don't mean it in that way)

1) About 75% in, it's really really intense (when they uncover the murderer's identity), and then the intensity just drops off a little. Just for a moment, because it gets more intense again by about 80%, but that moment was enough that I felt momentum was lost. That's probably the only reason why I chose to round down to four stars.

2) Yeah, that's it really.

Conclusion: read the book.

An artful murder mystery in a fantastical setting! Amastan is a thoughful protagonist, cautious and clever, neatly finding his way through a tangle of lies and secrets that are long-buried, but not dead. The desert platform-city of Ghadid is well-drawn and compelling in its politics and its magic.

I liked the world building in this story more than the story building. I do not usually read young adult novels and this one kept feeling like it would be aimed more toward that reading group even though I could not find anything to indicate that it falls within the YA genre. So I really liked the imagery of cities built on high stilts to protect the inhabitants from the scary things living in the sands below. That tension of having chase scenes moving across cities with the possibility of suddenly coming upon the actual edge of the city, with the dangers implied should someone take a step too far, was very well conceived and shown.

I have a hard time buying into the concept that a group of people, here they are assassins, can secretly exist within a population and nobody knows who they are or what they do. This group of characters have just finished years of secret training to become the assassins who are hired to remove troublesome individuals, but it's not murder. Right. The group is made up almost exclusively of family members, cousins, who are, cousins by blood and cousins by profession. No, just didn't work for me because there were too many instances when too many people knew too much. What I did find interesting were the thoughts of Amastan as he prepared himself for his first mission. Could he kill? Would he kill? What made the assignment a removal for the good of someone else but not a murder? And Amastan does dither on for a long time before he comes to any conclusion about this situation.

This wasn't the right book for me but I did enjoy some aspects of it. Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Tor/Forge for an eGalley of this book.

Hello, I will add this review to my Instagram, blog, and Goodreads on March 5th, 2019. The review will also be added to Amazon and Barnes and Noble on the publication date. The links to the reviews will be added when they are public, thank you.

Title: The Perfect Assassin
Author: K.A. Doore
Publication Date: March 19th, 2019
Rating: 4 stars
eARC provided by publisher through NetGalley

The Perfect Assassin follows Amastan who has  completed his training to become an assassin and now must try to figure out who the killer is that is hunting his own and if he has the courage to take a life with his own hands.

Amastan has doubts about his new position in the family business and I think that's why I like him. It makes him feel more realistic. He fights a lot of battles inside himself with right and wrong and it really makes you feel for him. The other characters, including Amastan, were well developed and their backgrounds were interesting. I enjoyed knowing what they did before they got into the business or what they still do. There is a relationship in this book between Amastan and another character but it isn't overbearing and I appreciate that. 

The plot is a murder mystery and the murderer, for me at least, wasn't obvious. The pace was on point and it kept me intrigued. Her world building is intricate and was refreshing to have a fantasy be in the desert because it doesn't happen often. I love the added bit of paranormal beings called the jaan. They really added to the suspense and were different than many other paranormal beings in other books. The writing is nothing short of phenomenal and I felt as I was there right in the action.  

Assassins are one thing that I love and this book didn't disappoint. I am so glad I was able to read it. If you love murder, vengeance, and assassins I would highly recommend this book!

This book was wonderful! Amastan has been training for years to finally become an assassin, but once he has passed the final test, he starts to wonder if he would actually be able to kill someone. Their land has also halted all "Contracts" that allow the assassins to work. And then the murders start, a number of influential people start being murdered and their bodies hidden so that their spirits cannot be peacefully laid to rest. Amastan, for a variety of reasons is the person who is chosen to figure out who the murderer is.

I absolutely adored this book and it's easy to say why. The world building was so complete. The descriptions of the world were crisp and easy to visualize. The characters were fully fleshed out, even for some of the more minor characters. This meant that as Amastan and his 'cousins' work their way through the world you feel as if the world is a living and breathing being. You can picture all of the people being particularly careful with their Baats towards the end of the hot season (leading to the rain that helps their home flourish). The power that the rulers hold makes sense and the system all makes sense.

I didn't find the murder mystery plot particularly compelling, I felt it was a little bit obvious who the murderer was going to be, but the world was rich enough that watching Amastan discover it was wholly worth it.

The Perfect Assassin is a very good debut. It follows Amastan’s journey from reluctant assassin in training to proper assassin. From the beginning, the reader is launched into this world filled with sand, poison, and…ghosts? There are a surprising number of ghosts (called jaani) in TPA. As I read, I began to grow increasingly worried I had found yet another Assassin book without any assassing. Amastan spends a great deal of time worrying about whether or not he could actually assass someone despite having spent all this time training. He’s much more inclined to spend time working with books (aren’t we all). When people start dying, Amastan finds himself (through a series of events) as the man charged with bringing down this assassin assassin. He eventually learns to accept his place as an assassin, and spoiler…kills someone.

There’s a lot of story here, and it’s difficult to review without giving plot points away. The Perfect Assassin is really a murder mystery wrapped in a middle-east inspired fantasy with a firm head-tilt toward romance because…what’s life without romance?

Observations: The prose is really tight. I like that. Descriptions are clear enough to tell the story without being overly florid. I wonder at the decision to stylize God as G-d. I understand the reason. However, to the best of my knowledge the reason to omit the vowel is prevent someone from using God’s name inappropriately. So every time a character said G-d, I wondered if they were just saying God or pronouncing it Gah-Duh. I also wondered if this was just the religious bent of the author. Either way, it took me out of the story.

Where TPA really shines is in worldbuilding. The magic system (healing with water) and jaani (ghosts) are pervasive and extremely cool. The world is well thought-out. It feels like Doore is describing a door in the world. It’s just a natural part of the world. It doesn’t consume the world. If that makes sense.

The relationships are all interesting and solid. Believable characters making consistent choices, you can’t really ask for more than that. Amastan’s sexual preference never feels like it’s a huge plot point. He’s interested in a man, things get complicated…ya know…as relationships do.

I had minor suspicions until a reasonable time when things came together so I felt like I was solving this mystery with Amastan.

In conclusion, the Perfect Assassin is interesting, well written, and a solid debut. Not only will I recommend it, but it will eventually find a place in my library. These are characters I’ll be spending time with again in the future.

This might just be one of my favourite books of the year and it seemed to hit me out of nowhere. I love assassin stories but this blew pretty much everything that came before out of the water. The plot was excellent and well paced. The world building was exquisite. The characters were unusual but engaging. Action, intrigue and a very satisfying ending. Highly recommend.

The Perfect Assassin by K.A. Doore. Training has been completed and now come the long years of assassination or not as the case may be. Contracts have been banned but people are still winding up dead. Who but the very newest are not under suspicion of going rogue?

The Perfect Assassin was a Perfect Read!

I was somewhat worried in the beginning, as assassins' stories in fantasy worlds are often rather amoral. In those books, killing isn't a problem for the assassin, who doesn't value human lives as we does, because of a particular upbringing. In "The Perfect Assassin", Amastan have been trained since fourteen years old to be an assassin. But a lot of this trade is about lurking in shadows and learning about the mark, to kill them discretely, after having checking that the contract was sane. Assassins kill those who would have been executed if their crimes would have been publicly revealed. Most of the times, those secret executions are a mercy for the family or entourage.
Furthermore, Amastan, who's just finished his formation, isn't sure about his calling. He's never killed before and isn't sure that he'd be able to. Killing isn't just a "thing" in the story, but a central considerations, developed with deep thought. Not to forget that assassins are so secret that most people think they don't exist at all, and would condemn their deeds if they did knew about them.

The narrative, as a fantasy story, is really excellent: excessively easy to read on, with an immediate immersion in this strange arid world, where towns are erected upon huge stilts, faraway from the dangerous sands, where demons roam at night, demons from dead people souls....

The world imagined unfurled slowly, in a very sensory way, the so hot days, the smells, the colors. 

I applaud the author who's stuck to the facts of this different world, where the water is so rare that people may die without it (and of course, never wash!)
Water is central is this book in a very clever and original way: its access is monitored by an ancien device, which work with a finite number of coins, which are given back by the machineries later on, only after the end of the dry season. Rain waters are toxic, and the only way to gain access to  good water, water from the mountains, is from this mysterious old devices from an another time. This water is vital for drinking but also for healers, who use it to cure their patients.

All these points are brilliantly woven in the book to make a fascinating story.

The characters are all interesting, with a very attaching main character, a sedate and timid boy, clever and shy, who's day job is being an historian. His relation with other people, and particularly one, are subtile and credible.

I could go on and on, raving on this book! 
Suffice it to say that this book was one of my best read of the year, and one of my best fantasy read ever.
I'll buy the paper book as soon as I can and will read the sequel as soon as it'd be published!

This book is never short on surprises. The words breathed life into the story, allowing me to clearly depict each scene in my mind. I rooted for the protagonist since page one. The explosive plot kept my heart pounding. I highly, highly, highly recommend.

The setting in this book is amazing - probably the best bit of the whole book. The world KA Doore's built is a very imaginative take on a desert land setting. It's a setting we're seeing more and more of these days so it was great to read one that felt very original and unique. The city sits atop massive platforms that gave the city a rusty, slightly futuristic feel. The setting was both very old and falling apart, yet very innovative - like the moving cities of Phillip Reeve's MORTAL ENGINES. The city sits above an aquifer, with pumps to gain the water. The water supply is so important (as it rightly should be given the location).

The jaan angle felt very fresh too. I haven't come across jaan/souls that need quieting else they run riot before. The way this idea was bound into the story added an urgency to the MCs goal.

Amastan had very clear goals throughout. It was a little hard, at first, to care about finding the murderer - as the reward was bringing back assassin contracts, but once the jaan became a real threat, I was very invested in him succeeding.

He worked towards them with efficiency - no unnecessary circuitous plot deviations. Every scene had a purpose that built up the story,  increasing the stakes, tension or pacing. It became so intense that by 60% through I thought I was approaching the climax. It then levelled out, building more slowly. This was both good (I could catch my breath) but also meant it felt a little flat afterwards.

The central romance didn't feel like a romance, but more like a friendship. I didn't think there was a spark or any heat between the two characters. This made it hard to fully believe the decisions they made near the end, which probably contributed to the ending feeling flat after the initial build up..

The Perfect Assassin is the first book I’ve read by K.A. Doore, and I’m absolutely blown away. While the bright color caught my attention when browsing, it was the description and publisher (gotta love Tor) that really sold me here. And I couldn’t have been happier with my decision. If you’re looking for a new fantasy author to follow from the start, then you should look into this novel.
The world is set in a city with limited access to water – thus water is a precious commodity. In this same city there is a family of assassins, though they’re of a higher class than you’d expect. They are the Ghadid. They serve a higher power – keeping the city functioning at all costs. They train and work in secret, which one would expect. But there’s one major twist you wouldn’t expect of an assassin (read below my spoiler warning for more on that).
K.A. Doore’s bio describes The Perfect Assassin as ‘ an adventure fantasy about queer assassins who save the day’ and honestly? I couldn’t imagine a more perfect and concise description if I tried.
I was immediately drawn into The Perfect Assassin and I even ended up finishing it all in one sitting. I just couldn’t put it down. I love the world that Doore built. The characters are interesting and complex, and the situations they’re in were intriguing.
What really caught my attention was how conflicting some of the methodology the assassin family used. For example, one would expect that an assassin would have the greatest chance of success in getting away if the crime went unnoticed for an extended period of time. But in this city the assassins have to be sure that the bodies are found within hours (less than three, to my understanding) of the assassination. There’s a reason for that, and once it is made clear I was able to fully understand the reasoning behind it.
Then there’s the assassin in training that doesn’t want to kill people. Amastan is a brilliant young man, and he clearly wanted more for his life than he had. Maybe that’s why he agreed to the assassin training? It doesn’t change the fact that Amastan wasn’t sure that he wanted to kill anybody – regardless of how much they may or may not deserve it.
There’s more to the plot than all of that of course, but I really don’t want to spoil it all for you. I just really adored how different and unique the assassins are in this series (I’m so glad that it’s going to be a series).
Amastan was a really fascinating character. Getting to be inside his head right from the beginning, we knew all of his fears right away, and yet again and again and again we see him face those very fears. It’s impossible not to respect somebody after all of that. That he always tries to do what is right – even at great cost to himself, mind you – and he quickly became a character I supported and really liked.
The way the plot unfolded was brilliantly done. It really kept me on my toes the whole time I was reading. And while I was able to predict a couple of the larger twists at the end, I’m actually okay with that. For one thing it let me mentally and emotionally prepare for it, and for another it just made sense to have everything play out like that.
I’m actually a bit sad that I read this as an ARC, in an odd way. The book isn’t even out yet, but I desperately want to start reading the sequel. I guess that’s the price you pay though, huh? On a happy note, The Impossible Contract has already been already to Doore’s listing, and it’s supposedly due out in October 2019. I’ll take it!

Review

Murder mystery with gay assassins and ghosts in the desert. I'm sorry, why aren't you already reading this book? 

Writing

TPA is written in third person limited from Amastan's perspective, with short chapters. The writing style itself is very clear and easy to read. As opposed to many fantasy novels which are written more formally (and can be a bit cumbersome) the narrative and dialogue feels more modern. I prefer this because it made the whole experience easier and I barely noticed it while reading.

It isn't flowery and the descriptions are mostly short and clear while still being very immersive, evoking a sense of smell, and touch as well as visuals. I found the first chapter however, was written in a very melodramatic way with a lot of very short sentences and with a lot of repetition but after that she used those techniques for emphasis sparingly.

The few occasions were scenes were very detailed and extravagant was used to show subtle changed in Amastan and his emotional state. At tense/exciting moment the sentences became shorter and more choppy and when he is with the love interest the descriptions are more extravagant.

The world G-d was also censored. I'm not sure why, it felt strange to me because I don't think people would get offended by seeing the word.

Plot

It was a pretty straight forward murder mystery plot. A killer is on the loose, and the Jaan (which I imagine is a mix between a ghost and a Jinni) of the victims are causing havoc in the city. The story had a fast even pace and was never slowed down even at lulls in the actions since most scenes were short. The story overall was very satisfying and exciting. 

Characters

Amastan was great, I found him very endearing from the beginning. I didn't find him very compelling at first since he lacked motivation but his character development was very satisfying. I liked how his asexuality was explicitly stated as was a part of him but did not define him. Considering it was a murder mystery story, Amastan wasn't the brightest spark, not the next Poirot I'm afraid.

Menna who is Amastan's fellow assassin (called cousins because they're all from the same extended family) was great, she was fun and a bit sassy at times. I also enjoyed how she changed through the story. It was subtle but I liked how the story effortlessly handled her growth.

Tamella who is Amatan's teacher was great (all the characters are great) I often didn't agree with her but she was well written. I really enjoyed reading her family dynamic. Her husband Barag, who is Amastan's boss was the best. He had many lines which were basically 'Amastan, I wish you would do a better job...at your job.'

Yufit was interesting and I liked what his presence brought out in Amastan.

World

Walled desert city in fantasy Sahara is literally my favorite setting so I can't be unbiased. Most of the world building, from the clothes to the government and beliefs were woven into the story and the exposition dumps (when they occurred) were short and relevant. There wasn't a lot of world building beyond what was necessary to the story. I was never confused or for wanting more but if you like a lot of (superfluous) world building in your fantasy you might want to readjust your expectations. But there were details about things I actually wanted to know like how the government worked and where the water came from and generally things about how the city could survive and thrive in the middle of the desert.

I really enjoyed the mythology and fantasy elements which was had Jaan (which reminded me of Jinn), Guul (Jaan but worse), Sajaam (ancient giant demons who live in the desert but didn't appear in the story.)

One of my favorite parts was how diverse everyone was. Besides the main character many of the side characters were in same sex relations or were explicitly bisexual. No one ever made a big deal about it. Women were shown to have equal place in this society; many women had positions of power and many of the assassins were women as well. The Drum Chiefs were polygamous, some had both husbands and wives.   

The desert is apparently super haunted which means the caravan drivers are probably the most bad ass people in this world- Think about it. 

Overall, it was glorious, please read/buy it immediately.

I love fantasy. It's such a wonderful escape from the mundanity of our world. It's a balm to the anxious soul.
And what I love even more than fantasy, is fantasy that does something new. And this is it!

It comes with the genre that we expect certain clichés and tropes. Fantasy is often set in a medieval Western world. It often appears appallingly whitewashed. It (used to) feature mainly men and males. It was a price many of us readers were willing to pay, to disappear to worlds with magic and wonder and cities that float in the sky.
This book is so good because it brings all the magic and wonder, and even practically a floating city (it 'floats' above the sands) but is set in an Middle Eastern world. Thank you! Its immediately 100pc more interesting!
The book sweeps us to a fantasy middle east, conjuring images of hot sands and unrelenting baking heat, the desperation for water, and a city that uses water as currency.
Add to that a not often used cultural background, full of myth about souls leaving our bodies, the sand devil's, the clothing, a soft and haunting hint of lgbt romance, and then add assassins and intrigue.... Well! It's a cracker of a book.
I could practically taste the date wine as I read it, and feel the wind grinding sand under my face wrap. This is the mark of quality.
In fact, I'd say, what's not to love? It's well worth every penny, and every hour.
I read it in one sitting, and would happily and eagerly read a sequel.