Book Review: The Venom Protocols by John Murray McKay

    The Venom Protocols by John Murray McKay is a fast-paced novel about a female assassin. From his work, you can see that McKay is influenced by Marvel Comics, which he says that he loves in his GoodReads profile. 

    Charlotte Corday is hiding out in Hawaii, running from her past as a hitwoman for the mafia in New York. When a well-dressed man shows up to demand that she complete one last mission, the reader drops into her disorienting past. From her first (albeit involuntary kill) to her attempt to flee from the wicked men trying to control her, Charlie checks every box for a badass heroine. She's funny. She's dangerous. (Basically, she's as if Venom--from the Marvel movie--mixed with Jason Bourne. It's a wild but fascinating combo.)

    My first gripe with the book is that McKay calls cookies biscuits. Or at least, that's what I assumed--and Aarika confirmed. One character bakes these "biscuits" badly, which is a running joke in the book. Petty, I know, but...Americans have argued about this topic with the rest of the world for years. (Also, because I'm an American from the south, reading a book set in America, I assumed he was talking about the kind of biscuits you have with gravy. Especially when they came out as hard as baseballs, which was reminiscent of when I was learning to make them.)  

    The second gripe is that the characters could use a little more fleshing out. While Charlotte serves as the perfect comic book hero, she doesn't exactly have the depth that a novel requires. She's taking in by Peter and Richard for no other reason than "She's family." She has sparse memories about being involved in laboratory experiments and sees visions of female assassins whose legacy she shares (The visions were, without a doubt, the coolest part of the book.), but she never fully understands this sisterhood. A sisterhood, which includes a brief side story about a Russian "sister," who is called to come help take her out. 

    Peter and Richard serve as a hilarious supporting cast who provide guns for the Mafiosos through their unassuming hair salon, but we don't know much more about them than that they're gay and ex-military. With that in mind, I don't usually laugh out loud while I'm reading and McKay's dialogue between these two made me laugh so hard that people looked at me weirdly. 

    Vince, the liaison between Charlie and the mafia, sticks his neck out for her. However, he seems to serve only as the vehicle to get Charlie from one place to the next in the story as he always shows up at precisely the right moment. 

    However, I understood that McKay's breathtakingly fast action required this. He gave them each their own speech pattern, and he described them. But any more than that would've slowed the story. So, while I prefer character driven fiction, I do appreciate McKay's dedication to speed. The book reads like a blur, which is pretty cool. 

    All in all, the book was a solid read. If you like strong female leads, you'll like it. If you like books that don't get bogged down in details, you'll like it. I personally give it three stars because it is an enjoyable story, and I will be keeping an eye out for McKay's future works.

   Reader's Guide

  Sexual Content: 3 out of 5

  Violence: 5 out of 5

  Language: 5 out of 5 

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Jayna Gerhart is the co-host of the Two Bluestockings Podcast. She is an avid reader, full-time student, and full-time mom of four. She likes books of all genres, drinking wine or coffee, and discussing symbolism in literature. She can usually be found with a baby on her hip and a book in her hand.