A Talent for Killing, published in 2019, is a bit disjointed because it's really two books in one, combined and edited by Lee Goldberg decades later from the original manuscripts. The first story, originally published as Deadman's Game in 1976, tells the origin of John Kane, how he became an assassin for the CIA, had his memory wiped out by a suicide bombing in Vietnam, then was given a new identity and placed under surveillance by the Agency to ensure that no inconvenient memories come back to him. Though he has no memory of his assassin past, Kane naturally gravitates toward the same line of work and soon becomes a freelance hitman. The main plot involves Kane taking a contract to whack the killer of a rich man's son, which requires him to infiltrate the local mob and gain their confidence, while avoiding getting taken out by a renegade faction of his own Agency that has decided he is too much of a liability.
The second story was much better, as Kane has to do some detective work to find out who framed a dying man ten years ago for a hideous sexual murder of a child, track him down, infiltrate the military-industrial compound where he works and bring him to justice. This story was never published; it was supposed to have been the second book in a series but it was cancelled. Which is a shame, because Kane is a great character. He has the stoic, hardman personality of Parker, the efficient hitman skills of Quarry and the amnesia and Agency/'Nam backstory of Jason Bourne. I particularly liked how the Agency surveillance angle brought a 1970s paranoia and conspiracy vibe to the stories that you don't find in more conventional crime series like Parker and Quarry.
A Talent for Killing is not brilliant writing, and the two-part story doesn't always flow well, but it's an interesting and entertaining read for fans of 1970s-era hardboiled crime and spy fiction. Get a copy here.
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