Publication Date: June 21, 2022
In every life, there lurks catastrophe.
So believes Eli Dagan, a thirty-nine-year-old man whose traumatic past led to his service as an assassin for the Mossad. He now lives in New York City, where under various assumed names he’s a contract killer.
Anton Gorlov, the head of the Brooklyn-based Odessa mafia, has a new and challenging assignment for Eli. Gorlov wants to leave the country permanently, so all loose ends must be eliminated. He’s willing to pay $1 million for a task divided into two parts. The job involves extreme measures along with unprecedented danger for Eli, who has lived a ghostly existence over the last ten years.
Is accepting Gorlov’s offer a subliminal death wish? Or is it a way to reclaim part of his damaged soul?
For the first time since his pregnant wife and parents were killed by a suicide bomber years earlier, Eli Dagan faces challenges that will reconnect him with his blighted past and may yet offer hope for a new and better life.
Eli Dagan’s special skill set makes him an important commodity for those needing his services. When he accepts a job to take out a rival Russian mob boss, little does he realize that this assignment will push him to the limit. Author Mark Rubinstein delivers an action-packed thriller in Assassin’s Lullaby.
On the surface, this may appear to be merely a story featuring an assassin for hire. However, the theme of good vs. evil is very much apparent. The stage is set to raise doubt about Dagan as a “bad” character, especially when compared to the Russian mobsters.
Dagan wasn’t born an assassin; events from the past shaped him into his current-day role. Will this be the assignment that ends his life, or will he be able to put the past to rest and finally move on? There’s no shortage of bad guys ready to take him out. When faced with hope for a fresh start, Dagan learns an important lesson.
The author’s smooth writing style brings the action to the forefront, especially as Dagan is forced to use defensive tactics to escape the clutches of danger. From start to finish, this is one thriller you won’t want to miss.
Assassin’s Lullaby tells the story of a flawed man seeking redemption, but he may not get a second chance.
Mark Rubinstein was born in Brooklyn, New York. He dreamed of playing baseball for the Brooklyn Dodgers since his all-time hero was the Dodgers’ first baseman Gil Hodges. Rubinstein played high school baseball and ran track. His love of sports led him to read sports fiction, and soon he became a voracious reader, developing an enduring love for all kinds of novels.
He graduated from New York University with a degree in business administration. He then served in the army and ended up as a field medic tending to paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne Division. He was so taken with these experiences that after his discharge, he re-entered NYU as a premed student.
He entered medical school at the State University of New York’s Downstate Medical Center. As a medical student, he developed an interest in psychiatry, discovering in that specialty the same thing he realized in reading fiction: every patient has a compelling story to tell. He became a board-certified psychiatrist practicing in New York City.
In addition to running his private practice he developed an interest in forensic psychiatry because the drama and conflict of the cases and courtrooms tapped into his personality style. He also taught psychiatric residents, interns, psychologists, and social workers at New York Presbyterian Hospital and became a clinical assistant professor at Cornell University’s medical school.
Before turning to fiction, Rubinstein coauthored five medical self-help books: The First Encounter: The Beginnings in Psychotherapy (Jason Aronson); The Complete Book of Cosmetic Facial Surgery (Simon and Schuster); New Choices: the Latest Options in Treating Breast Cancer (Dodd Mead); Heartplan: A Complete Program for Total Fitness of Heart & Mind (McGraw-Hill), and The Growing Years: A Guide to Your Child’s Emotional Development from Birth to Adolescence (Atheneum).
Rubinstein lives in Connecticut with his wife and as many dogs as she will allow in the house. He still practices psychiatry and is busily writing more novels. Mad Dog House, his first novel, was named a Finalist for the 2012 ForeWord Reviews Book of the Year Award (Thriller & Suspense) and The Foot Soldier won the Silver award for Fiction at the 2014 Benjamin Franklin Awards.
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