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Chris Bradford's Bodyguard: Assassin is a tense action thriller for 11 year olds that sends teenage bodyguard Connor Reeves to guard a billionaire's son in Russia.
Connor works for Buddyguard, a secret organisation that trains teenagers to protect other children. Nobody suspects the kid hanging around with a rich boy is actually his bodyguard. That's the whole idea.
His new job is called Operation Snowstorm. Feliks Malkov is fifteen and very miserable. His dad Viktor is a Russian billionaire who's promised to clean up the country, which makes him the number-one enemy of the Bratva (the Russian mafia).
The catch? Connor's partner on this one is Jason. The two of them agree on nothing, and Connor being put in charge doesn't help one bit. Their arm-wrestling match at the start never gets settled either (they both say they won).
Before anyone gets near Russia there's a LOT of training. Knife survival with real blades. Gun defence with paintball pistols that sting like crazy. And a very surprising lesson from Charley, whose wheelchair armrests turn into batons!
Something feels off this time, though. Charley overhears the colonel saying a contract this big is worth risking a bodyguard or two. Even the instructors seem jumpy. Connor would rather not believe it, and you can feel him wobble.
It reads like an action film. The fights are broken down move by move, and you really feel the burn in Connor's arm during that arm wrestle. The team's teasing gives you a breather between the scary bits.
Connor's home life is a proper tug at the heart. His mum has multiple sclerosis and his work pays for her care. So a teary video call with his gran makes it very clear why he can't just say no.
The prologue is very violent. A mafia gang attacks a farmhouse and kills a family and their friends, then sets it on fire while a little girl hides in the cellar. Soon after, a bodyguard is stabbed in the street and a mafia boss snaps a man's wrist. Feliks's mum drowned the year before, and the coroner suspected suicide. There's some swearing too.
It sits at the very top of the shelf. If your reader gets upset by violence on the page, it's probably one to save for later. If they already love gritty spy stories, they'll be gripped.
This is the fifth Bodyguard book and it mentions earlier missions in passing, so it's best to start at the beginning. Bodyguard: Hostage is the first one, where Connor steps in to stop a mugging that turns out to be a test.
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