The Fraternity of the Stone by David Morrell

 

(pb; 1985: second book in the Abelard Sanction quadrilogy)

From the back cover

“Scalpel. A clandestine, government-sanctioned operation named for its purpose: precise surgical removal. Assassination.

“Drew Maclane was a star agent—until the day had to stop. He withdrew and for six years lived the life of a hermit in a monastery.

“But someone has tracked him down, leaving a trail of corpses. Someone who knows all about him—who will stop at nothing to kill him.”

 

Review

A superb, gripping and tautly spun follow-up to The Brotherhood of the Rose, Fraternity features a different protagonist (Drew MacLane), a government assassin who’s retreated into a Carthusian monastery after a botched double-target hit traumatizes him. MacLane, like Saul Grisman in Brotherhood, is a relatable (though distinctive from Grisman) character—that is, one worth rooting for as he tries to figure out who’s trying to kill and frame him and those close to him (his ex-lover, Arlene; his best friend and fellow Scalpel assassin, Jake).

Morrell’s strengths as an author are at the fore here: fully fleshed characters, memorable action scenes and their set-ups, and solid explanations, conspiracies and backstories that make up a read that lives up to the phrase thriller and all that it implies. Worth owning, this—followed by The League of Night and Fog.