It Ends with Knight is a combustible and intense continuation of this fantastic series featuring one of the strongest female protagonists in the genre. Yasmin Angoe hits all the right notes, once again delivering emotion and exhilaration throughout a twisting and deep story.
After the death of her mentor, Nena steps up to lead the Tribe’s Dispatch and Network departments. It’s a different and more complicated role than being an assassin, requiring more political savvy and forethought than she’s had to demonstrate before. But there’s no time to ease into it as she’s thrust into a volatile negotiation for mining rights in a small African town where no one can be trusted and an individual from Nena’s traumatic past surfaces. After explosions, assassinations and kidnappings occur, she will need to put her anger and old fears behind her and fall back on her elite skillset to save the day.
Nena is incredibly relatable, no small feat given most of us aren’t elite assassins and/or members of a rich and powerful family. But we can understand the self-doubt she has as she takes on a new role with bigger responsibilities, wondering if she’s qualified and can live up to the lofty expectations of others. And many of us can relate with her ongoing struggle to overcome past trauma. These things make her vulnerable and human, resulting in readers rooting extra hard for her to be successful because we know those feelings of inadequacy and pain from our own life experiences. So when she stands up to someone dismissing and underestimating her or she eliminates a bad guy who desperately had it coming, it’s that much sweeter because of her journey, our ability to connect to her as a person and our wish that she find peace and happiness.
Beyond Nena’s general awesomeness and ability to overcome adversity, It Ends with Knight features an intricate cast of characters and a strong storyline with excellent buildup that explodes in well crafted action sequences at the right moment. It keeps you guessing on the motivations of each key player and how far they might go to get what they want. It’s compelling stuff from start to finish with the outcome highly uncertain and no character safe from harm or death. Just how thriller fans like it!
If this is indeed the end of the Nena Knight series, it finishes with a bang. We should all be thankful to Yasmin Angoe for bringing this strong, powerful, and capable Black woman into our lives for the past few years. She’s a tremendous character that enriched the thriller genre and will be greatly missed. But I will have my fingers crossed in hope that she returns in the future. Because I choose to believe in the adage “never say never.“
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