Mark Rubinstein, author of Assassins Lullaby, is a multi-faceted man. He has been a medic in the US Army attending to paratroopers in the 82nd Airborne and then served in the reserves for five years. (2022, p.235)

Prior to his stint in the Army he earned his bachelor’s degree in business administration from NYU. After his time in the military, he went to medical school, became a physician, and specialized in psychiatry.

He has been an expert witness in trials, hearing, depositions, and inquests and has penned and coauthored both fiction and non-fiction books and articles earning him numerous awards. (p.236)

He is featured with regularity in Psychology Today, Child, Crime Reads, the New York Journal of Books, and the Huffington Post.

There are a few central characters to this book, but the main character of this book is Eli Dagan. He does not always go by that name. He is a hired killer. He is crafty, clever, and stealthy because his life depends on it.

He has amassed a fortune from this business but decides to take on just one more job. 

A Russian man with a grudge has hired him to take out his opponent. Eli makes it a criterion of the job to never meet with his clients in person. However, he is doing it now with Gorlov.

It makes him nervous to do so but he does so anyway. Gorlov is a high-ranking man in the Russian mob. For this job Eli uses the name Aiden. However, showing his face is not the best decision he has ever made.

He realizes that this is not how he should be doing business but there was no alternative with this man. The target is a man by the name of Agapov. Aiden/Eli takes the job in exchange for a lot of cash if he happens to live long enough to cash out. 

Aiden has a few tricks of the trade that he believes might be able to take this man out without a trace. He enlists the help of a man he has had connections with for years to assist in this vein.

If he can pull this caper off it will be a near miracle. The sticking point is that executing this plan perfectly requires a face-to-face meeting with Agapov. Aiden meets with Agapov who also offers him a job to kill Gorlov. 

Aiden is supposed to meet up with a young woman who is new to the United States and friend her as part of this deal. He is not so keen on this as his heart was broken when his wife was killed. Since then he has been all work and no love.

Aiden is taking many risks that require lots of face-to-face interactions to bring this job to fruition. Is it too many risks?

 Too much face time? What about this woman? Can he manage to kill Agapov and leave no trace? What about Gorlov? 

Read it, enjoy it, I did!