Blood of the Assassin

Blood of the Assassin - By Russell Blake


Author’s Notes





Blood of the Assassin is the fifth installment in the Assassin series, consisting of King of Swords, Night of the Assassin, Revenge of the Assassin, Return of the Assassin, and now, Blood of the Assassin. The series chronicles the exploits of El Rey, also known by his professional moniker “The King of Swords,” who is the most lethal and notorious cartel assassin in Latin America – now retired after a series of misadventures culminating in his being forced to work for CISEN, the Mexican intelligence agency.

Blood of the Assassin can be read as the fifth in the series, or as a stand-alone. It was written so that if it’s the first Russell Blake book you’ve ever read, it’s coherent and complete, while if you’ve followed the Assassin novels to this point, it offers another El Rey adventure that is, perhaps, among the most satisfying. If you’ve read the others, skip the background paragraph that follows. If this is your first experience with the Assassin tomes, read on.

Blood of the Assassin finds El Rey waiting for his next CISEN assignment. The world thinks he’s dead, which is just as well, as his former employer, Don Aranas, the leader of the Sinaloa cartel (one of the most powerful criminal syndicates in the world), is testy about his final contract having ended in failure and has put a ten-million-dollar price on El Rey’s head as retribution. Captain Romero Cruz, the chief of the Federal Police anti-cartel task force, and the man who ultimately captured the super-assassin and put him behind bars, has been told that the killer received a full presidential pardon for his past crimes, so El Rey is now a free man whose sins have been expunged. Cruz’s number two man, Lieutenant Briones, who was instrumental in the assassin’s capture and who took a bullet from El Rey’s gun, is also a key player in Blood of the Assassin, as is Dinah, Captain Cruz’s young wife (and the daughter of El Rey’s former facilitator, who died at his hands).

Blood of the Assassin picks up a few months after Return of the Assassin left off.

It has been one of my favorite in the series to write, and I hope that you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed penning it.





Blood of the Assassin is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents, other than those clearly in the public domain, are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, either living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.