Genre

THRILLER, MATURE AUDIENCE, DRAMA

Brief

An American treasure hunter in the jungles of Bolivia sees the village he’s staying in destroyed and his lover brutally murdered. When a mysterious government employee offers him the chance for revenge against the billionaire drug traffickers responsible for her death, the man accepts. He’s sent on an assassination mission to cut the head off the snake of the operation. Following his success, he finds himself in a new line of work as an assassin working outside of international law.

Overall Rating

GOOD

Point of View

FIRST PERSON

Narrative Elements

Authors Writing Style: FAIR

Characterization: GOOD

Commerciality: GOOD

Franchise Potential: EXCELLENT

Pace: EXCELLLENT

Premise: GOOD

Structure: FAIR

Theme: FAIR

Accuracy of Book Profile

An American treasure hunter in the jungles of Bolivia sees the village he’s staying in destroyed and his lover brutally murdered. When a mysterious government employee offers him the chance for revenge against the billionaire drug traffickers responsible for her death, the man accepts. He’s sent on an assassination mission to cut the head off the snake of the operation. Following his success, he finds himself in a new line of work as an assassin working outside of international law.

Draw of Story

The pace of the book is excellent. It starts on an exciting note with an assassination in the flash-forward prologue, and the intrigue is immediately established as to how the protagonist came to be pulling the trigger. Additional characters with complex ties to one another are quickly introduced, so the pace keeps galloping along with a fuller narrative to accompany it. The sense of an international drug conspiracy is intriguing, and any audience would be immediately drawn along for the ride. We want to know how everyone is connected and how their warring motivations will play out.

Possible Drawbacks

Though the flash-forward prologue is an exciting start to the story, the first few chapters are arguably just as interesting. This potentially renders the prologue an unnecessary teaser, especially because it could be confusing to readers. It’s not clear this is happening in the future for a few chapters, until Chance flashes back to his earlier memories in Bolivia with Cristina. Even then, it’s not entirely clear that the assassination hasn’t happened yet until Taylor gives Chance his assignment around 75 pages into the book. The “security problem” with supply that J. Edward, Breckenridge, and Zoto discuss could be taken to be the assassination itself, as Dueñas isn’t mentioned after the prologue until page 53. Telling the story in a linear way, and maybe even beginning with Chance’s past in the country, might be clearer. Trust the central premise and all its machinations to draw in the reader without needing a teaser.

Use of Special Effects

THE STORY RELIES A LITTLE BIT ON SPECIAL EFFECTS

Primary Hook of Story

The Bolivian setting is a great hook, as it’s not a country that features predominately in American films. From La Paz to tropical jungles, there is no shortage of cinematic backdrops to explore onscreen. Chance spends a good deal of time with the citizens of the country, too, and anything to further explore these people and how they live through an authentic lens would be perfect. There’s also the sense that this is just the beginning for Chance, so the potential for follow-up sequels is exciting.

Fanbase Potential

As an action movie with some elements of a political thriller, it’s easy to see this drawing a wide audience. This is a genre that’s often successful, and the mystery of the conspiracy here would intrigue most audiences.

Awards Potential

Due to the genre, the project is unlikely to have traditional awards potential. If it were based on a true story, there would be a higher possibility for it to.

Envisioned Budget

MEDIUM BUDGET

Similar Films/TV Series

THE ACCOUNTANT, THE CONSTANT GARDENER, JACK RYAN, WITHOUT REMORSE, SIX, THE NOVEMBER MAN

What’s New About the Story

The most original element to this story is two-fold: the Bolivian setting, and the fact that the author has their own experience with the material. Anything that can be done to use the author’s experience with this world and the setting to an even greater extent will only push this further. What’s on the page is engaging and a fun read, but it also doesn’t do much to distinguish itself from other conspiracy action media. The best way to combat this would be to focus more on Chance’s transformation into an “outlaw traveler.”

Lead Characters

Chance has an incredibly interesting backstory that’s unique and compelling, and it’s also informed by the author’s own experience. Unfortunately, this doesn’t feature in the book itself, and it’s only mentioned in passing when Chance thinks briefly about what he used to do. He’s a literal treasure hunter, not an assassin, and showcasing more of his transformation from one to the other would make him so much more interesting. He seems to fall into his new job so easily, and it’s a shame to not get to see him actually searching for gold, or how that factors into him being equipped to kill a man. Maybe he struggles with the morality of it, or maybe he wants to leave South America entirely after what happens to Cristina. Seeing him fight to overcome issues such as these would make him a more well-rounded character who stands out from the pack.

Uniqueness of Story

As mentioned, the freshest element to the story is the setting, and it’s not otherwise standing out. Building up the character of Chance more, and focusing on what makes him unique, could absolutely change that. He has the bones to be an action hero like an audience has never seen, in a region of the world rarely shown onscreen. Tapping more into his natural sense of adventure and what sets him apart would make this a rare gem.

Possible Formats

Film: Studio, Streaming TV Series: Cable, Limited Run / Mini-Series, Streaming

Analyst Recommendation

CONSIDER

Justification

Overall this novel offers a quickly paced and very enjoyable read, and for that reason alone it’s worth consideration. Though it’s not very unique in its current form, the bones for it to be are present, they just need to be built upon. Regardless, similar action and/or thriller features are released every year, and there is always an appetite for them. It’s very easy to see this as a fully-fledged series following Chance around the world. Besides what’s been mentioned above, the biggest changes that could be made specifically focus around the treatment of female characters and the Bolivian people. Besides LeDeaux, nearly every other female character is a love interest, a sex worker, or a victim — or a combination of two of the three. There’s a good deal of violence against women in the book, and often extreme, brutal violence. For instance, Cristina is murdered, does she also need to be repeatedly raped? Killing off female characters so that male characters have something to do, like revenge, is a bit of a cliche. It also might not be necessary to the narrative, as Chance isn’t specifically hunting down her killer. Additionally, Bolivians are often discussed as though they’re simple and less advanced than their American counterparts. This leads to Chance feeling somewhat like a “white savior” sort of character in this space. A potentially interesting fix could be if he were Bolivian American, versus being such a white tourist in this land. It might be worth exploring what’s gained by having him be a white man, and how he could be better integrated into this world.