A former Mafia hit man allegedly carried out a contract assassination of a South American dictator based on the orders of the head of an American intelligence service. Following his arrest, he agrees to be a government witness in exchange for being included in the witness protection program as a citizen of a foreign country. Twenty years later, when he is in his 80’s, he agrees to relate his story to a writer, who plans a fictional account of what is related to him on numerous audio tapes as well as the notes he took during the interviews. He is convinced by the chief advisor of a powerful senator that the book should come out as non-fiction instead of a novel and that the assassin should come testify before a Senate hearing of the involvement of the former intelligence service head, who has now moved into a very high-level elected position. When the “witness-protected” former hit man, arrives in Washington for the hearings, he is assassinated. Within a few hours of his death, his assassin is also killed. The presumption is that each of the deaths is the result of Mafia contracts. Since the original hit man can no longer testify, the tapes and notes become a critical piece of evidence and very much a “hot-potato” for the novelist turned non-fiction writer, who is on the run from several groups who will not stop until they have the tapes. This was a reasonably good murder-mystery but a bit too convoluted and confusing for me. I give it a very luke-warm recommendation.[Book 29 of 2013 Target 50 (Jan-6; Feb-3; Mar-3; Apr-4; May-6; Jun-6; Jul-1)]
