Children of Paranoia

July 11, 2011
In Shane's well-written if less than compelling debut, Joe, a 25-year-old soldier, considers himself one of the good guys in a mysterious war that most of the world doesn't even know exists. Joe's entire reason for being is committed to battling the enemy and following the war's strict set of rules: no killing innocent bystanders, no killing anyone under the age of 18. He's been a cold-blooded assassin for years, ruthlessly murdering whomever his handlers tell him to. But when he meets a young woman while on a mission in Montreal and falls in love, he begins to see the bloody conflictâand himselfâin a new light, and watches as the boundaries between good and bad blur into nonexistence. While the relentless pacing, frequent plot twists, and intimate narrative structure (in the form of a journal) keep the pages turning, the sheer unbelievability of the story's premise coupled with the complete lack of explanation regarding the conflict's shadowy beginning will leave readers anything but thrilled.

August 15, 2011

Joseph, a young assassin drafted into a longstanding shadow war in which loved ones are routinely killed for no apparent reason but revenge, falls in love with a Canadian girl and attempts to escape to a new life with her.

Joseph, the would-be hero and narrator of Shane's first novel, doesn't know what he's fighting for, only that if he doesn't do his job, the "evil" deeds committed by the other side won't be answered. Knives are preferred over guns. The best weapons are his bare hands, which he uses to choke a targeted woman to death outside her Brooklyn brownstone in the book's opening scene. Though the war has been going on for some time, most people seem to be unaware of it, even though high-school kids are instructed on their future roles. (You have to be 18 to become a soldier; no one under the age of 18 can be killed.) After he falls for Maria during a botched job in Montreal—they meet cute in front of a porno theater—he tells her what he does and breaks all kinds of other rules to be with her, especially after learning she's carrying his baby son. He also violates code to spend time with his two best friends and fellow killers, Michael and Jared. There are other assignments in the war, we learn. You can also work intelligence or be a "breeder" leading a domestic life to keep the ranks replenished. Credibility is not Shane's strong suit. There are too many question marks and unlikelihoods hanging over the plot, and over 17-year-old Maria. Give the author credit for sustaining the story as well as he does, and for devising a compelling finish. But he hasn't satisfactorily worked out his premise, one reason why the paranoia played up in the title is never felt on the page. Having introduced the rule that if you have a child before you turn 18, you have to turn it over to the other side, Shane does nothing with it. Maybe he's saving that for the sequel he sets up.

Senseless individuals carry out a senseless sort-of-secret war, with not a true hero or even a protester in sight.

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

April 15, 2011

The War has been going on forever, with the killings disguised as accidents; assassins follow orders without knowing why. Joseph, an assassin since age 18, has been sent off to a loathsome assignment for blowing his last task. Then he meets Maria, and suddenly he doesn't want just to kill. Intriguing premise for this dystopian thriller; let's see what debut author Shane, former counsel for a major international financial corporation, can do with it. Reasonably big publisher expectations.

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2011
Joseph is an assassin. His targets are supposed to be members of the other side in a war that has been raging for centuries. But after Joseph falls in love with a young woman, Maria, he begins to question the very foundation on which his life is built. Structurally, the book takes the form of a journal written by Joseph to Maria (which leads to some awkwardness in narrative voice). In addition, the story is perhaps too murky: readers may have a hard time grasping the nuances of the never-ending warand the meat of the story, Joseph's separation from his comrades and his own personal struggle for survival, doesn't get rolling until two-thirds of the way through (leaving the rest of the book feeling like prologues to the main drama). Still, Joseph is an intriguing character whose journey could remind readers of John Twelve Hawks' The Traveler (2005) and its sequels, which also feature an ancient war being fought in secret, although less murkily. This is a good novel, but with a little clarification, it could have been a lot better.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)