Assassins is one of the best of the Noon spy novels. The series includes both classic private eye novels and other novels featuring Noon as a secret special agent who reports directly to the President himself via a special phone in Noon's office. Here, Noon is assigned to secretly protect an elder statesman on the way to Europe for historical negotiations. Finding that the politician has booked passage on the world's fastest cruise ship, Noon joins the voyage and proceeds to be on hand to secretly protect the politician. Along the way, however, Noon encounters a massive sumo wrestler, the world's sexiest woman, and others. This is a well -written, smoothly plotted novel that is easy to read and features Avallone at his best. ( )