About The Mediocre Assassin's Handbook

Written by Tamara Sheehan

Print Information:
172 pages / 45500 words / 5x8 trade paperback
ISBN: 978-1-60370-689-6, 1-60370-689-5

eBook Information:
106 pages / 45500 words
Available file types - html, lit, pdf, prc
ISBN: 978-1-60370-690-2, 1-60370-690-9

Genre: Action Adventure

Age Range: 16 and up.

Hyabusa Jao's life is in a slump, and the quality of his work is slipping. It wouldn't be such a bad thing if Jao was in any other business, but he's an
assassin, and quality kinda matters. Since the death of his lover, the heart has kind of gone out of Jao's work and now his boss, the sadistic
Kazematsuri, wants a favor from him. There's a new opium dealer muscling in on the local scene and the old drug lord, Aso, is getting worried about
the safety of his sons.

Masahiro's old enough to look after himself but Ryo's stil la kid and he needs protection. Enter Jao. Too bad for Jao he's not much of a babysitter, and too bad Ryo's brother is damn good looking, because pretty soon Jao's got to keep Masahiro out of trouble too. Can Jao keep it together, or will he be shown up as a mediocre assassin?

Sample

The weak sunlight is cutting through the shutters when Jao wakes the next morning. He doesn’t wake because he wants to. He wakes because someone is pounding on his door and it rattles in the frame every time the fist strikes wood.

Jao groans. Normally he runs at night, wakes just as the fish merchants are rolling out their wares and the fires are being it in the streets. Last night was no exception.

Two things Jao knows: no one he wants to talk to would knock on his door and no one who wants to talk to him would come to visit early in the morning. Whoever is knocking is either his landlady, a client, or bad news.

“Hyabusa? Hey, Hyabusa Jao?”

It’s Ao Gosuke, a man so slimy you can almost see the trail he leaves wherever he’s been. Can’t miss that nasally, whining voice. Jao pulls the covers back over his head.

“Go away.”

Now Gosuke knows Jao’s in, he starts talking. “Hey, Jao, I heard about last night. That’s some crazyass shit, man. Everybody heard about it.”

Everybody?

As a general rule, assassins like to work quietly. It’s more convenient for everyone. So if everybody heard about last night, there’s going to be a problem and the day’s going to get a lot worse than too little sleep and Gosuke’s greasy face first thing in the morning. Jao starts listening.

“Poor little thing that got taken down to Heron House, eh? Heard she was engaged and well, you know how it is with girls, eh? Dunno if there’ll be a marriage now, eh?”

Well, everybody on Muromachi Street saw that happen. Jao relaxes a little. Then Gosuke says, “Good thing she’s handy with a knife, eh?”
Jao sits up in bed.

“What did you hear, Gosuke?”

Gosuke’s triumphant little laugh from the other side of the door is more like a wheeze.

“Well, it looks like the girl’s papa is a steel merchant and needed to know blades to deal in them. Seems he doesn’t have a son, so he passed all his knowledge on to his daughter.”

Jao thinks about the blow to the samurai’s back, a good strike, right between the ribs and through to the heart, not an easy way to kill someone. He should have suspected something.

Jao swears softly to himself and Gosuke chuckles on the far side of the door. “What happened?”

“She killed Tanizaki’s lover, eh? The one he kept at Heron House. Did a good job of it too. Nice and neat. But that’s not it.”

Here it comes, Jao thinks, waiting.

“She said someone came into the room and assassinated Tanizaki. She got a good look at your face, Jao.”