If you've been holding your breath for the past 32 years waiting for another book starring Nicholai Hel, the assassin extraordinaire who debuted in Trevanian's best-selling thriller, "Shibumi," you may now exhale.
"Satori" has arrived.
Of course, Trevanian – real name: Rodney Whitaker – died in 2005. And he didn't dictate "Satori" from beyond the grave. (Although if anybody could, it would be the mysterious, genre-hopping, pen-name-swapping author of "The Eiger Sanction" and "The Summer of Katya.")
So what gives?
There's a new assassin master in town. Don Winslow, author of "The Power of the Dog" and "The Death and Life of Bobby Z," has taken over Hel's helm. And with "Satori," he has written a doozy of a thriller.
As the book begins, it's 1951, and the 26-year-old Hel – "more Asian than Western" and possessing "confidence that often crossed the line into arrogance" – is finishing a three-year stint in solitary confinement. The American government needs his services, and it's willing to end prematurely his prison sentence for murder.
It's a simple deal, Hel's handler (an intelligence officer named Haverford) tells him: If Hel assassinates the Soviet commissioner to China, the Americans will set him free and turn their backs while he reaps revenge on the men who unjustly tortured him behind bars.
Why? In a word, geopolitics.
"'We have to drive a wedge between Beijing and Moscow,' Haverford concluded.
"'By assassinating this Voroshenin?' Nicholai asked. 'What good will that do?'
"'We'll hand the Russians sufficient evidence to blame the Chinese,' Haverford explained. 'The Chinese will, of course, know that they didn't do it, and conclude that the Soviets sacrificed one of their own in order to blame the Chinese and demand further concessions – perhaps permanent bases in Manchuria.'"
It's a cunning plan, Hel concedes – "Uncharacteristic of Americans, who reveled in the childlike game of checkers" – and he agrees to take part.
But while his cover story (he's a French arms dealer looking to sell weapons to the Chinese) gets him into Beijing, the assassination proves more complicated than he had hoped, and Hel finds himself fleeing for his life and uncertain who is enemies are. Once he arrives in war-torn Vietnam, the answer seems clear: Everybody is his enemy.
Not sold yet? What if Winslow throws in a towering kung fu expert, gun-toting bandits and car chases through Saigon's crowded streets? What's not to love, right?
"Satori" is the Japanese word for the sudden, clarifying moment of enlightenment Zen Buddhists seek through meditation. Reading Winslow's thriller might not yield anything that profound, but it's powerfully gratifying (and surprisingly moving).
Especially for "Shibumi" fans who have waited with a Buddha's patience for another installment.
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