Today I’m reviewing Tense Commandment by Frank Westworth. The Stoner Series Book 10.

Here’s the blurb.

Unconventional assassin JJ Stoner knows better than to accept a personal job from his violently volatile boss. But if your paymaster stalks the hallowed halls of Westminster, and if your girlfriend sells her body to a sordid clientele, and if you kill people for a living, well… sometimes you have to get your hands dirty.
Very dirty.

A witty mix of hardboiled humour and sinister manipulation. Recommended for readers who enjoy Walter Mosley, Derek Raymond and Don Winslow.

Tense Commandment is a self-contained short story which features characters from the Killing Sisters crime-thriller novels and the Stoner stories. It follows Nine Lies and introduces key characters from A Last Act Of Charity (and takes place quite a while before Charles III ascended, in case you were wondering). With an agile imagination, Tense Commandment can be enjoyed as a stand-alone story without reading the other books. Live dangerously!

Review

JJ Stoner has a special place in my heart I must admit. Tense Commandment is the tenth short story focusing on the events surrounding the witty assassin.

You can quite easily read the series as standalones but I very much believe the dark humour comes through so much clearer if you read them all.. It’s been a while since we’ve seen stoner but from the first page the smile was back on my face.. oh how I’ve missed him.

In this instalment we see the needs of Stoners employer and his more personal life clash a little. The Hardman has a target…but there’s an issue…Stoner isn’t the first to get there..

In typical Stoner style the fun, thought-provoking plot hits quick as we, along with Stoner try and figure out who is behind events and what does this mean for Stoner.. is someone setting him up? Are they after his girlfriend… or is it his employer whose being targeted? And how does he get out of this one with his arse intact?

It was great to see the character Stretch back in the action also… they are very much unconventional friends but boy they like to have some fun!

For fans of the series, it really is the best yet and just adds more depth to Stoner.

I’m not going to spoil the twists and turns but the ending did not disappoint at all.. and we are lucky enough to be given an extra short tale from the author. The short is called “AI”. I’m really not going to say much other than WOW. Westworth has only ever been known to me for one reason.. JJ Stoner.. AI just shows what skills the author really has at being able to take on another subject matter.. Westworth is the King of the short story!

5/5 Stars

To find our more head to Goodreads or Amazon!