When his child is killed in a terrorist bombing, med student-cum-Naval officer Huntington Winchester, a friend of the U.S. President, takes it upon himself to assemble an International vigilante team to stop the perpetrator, Abu Qasim, the brains behind Al Qaeda. But when a Russian member is poisoned, it becomes clear that there is a rat in this elite group. Coonts's hero Tommy Carmellini, returning for his third star turn, is sent to investigate the beautiful Marisa Petrou, supposedly Qasim's daughter, in an attempt to trap the jihad leader. As the perspective of the story shifts, and the assassinations pile up, Carmellini and his colleagues at the CIA can only hope to stop the terror before it is too late. A ripe blend of political topicality and classic espionage, THE ASSASSIN whizzes by in rush of pure energy.