The Perfect Kill - Tapa dura

THE PERFECT KILL is not a book about Moawad or the Middle East. It's about the practice of assassination. It will draw on a dozen case studies from around the world, from a Mafia assassination in Queens to a gorgeous French assassin who slept with her victims before murdering them. It'll take a look at tribes in Burundi who assassinate as a matter of course, and put the question to the head of Italy's Red Brigades whether assassination works or not.

The book will avoid dry theory, letting the assassins themselves tell their stories - how they did it, what they expected to get out of an assassination, and what in fact they achieved. The assassinations that failed are as instructive as the ones that succeeded.

Much like the ART OF WAR, THE PERFECT KILL will serve as a cautionary tale that assassination rarely works. And at that it only stands a chance when the assassination is meticulously prepared. What it won't be is a handbook for fantasists and armchair warriors who believe that a broad campaign of assassination will permanently alter history in their favor. When the reader puts the book down, he'll wonder just how ready we are for a swim in this Hobbesian sewer.