The Shiro Project by David Khara (Consortium #2)

The Shiro Project is the second book in the Consortium thriller series by the French author David Khara. I have read the first book The Bleiberg Project a few months back, and when I saw the second one available at Netgalley, I promptly downloaded it, as I assumed it must be just as good as the one I’ve read before. And I was not wrong.

In The Bleiberg Project, we met Eytan Morg, the tall, bald and extremely focused assassin who is going after specific people: the WWII Nazis who escaped. If you’ve read the first book, then you already know just who Eytan Morg is and what’s his strange, sad and sinister past. When the story ended, I was hoping that he would feature in the second book as well, and my wish was granted.

Eytan is now the main character of The Shiro Project, who teams up with Elena, his nemesis. She is not only a ruthless assassin, but she is also made from the same cloth as he is (literally), although she doesn’t seem to have much of a conscience, which luckily Eytan is not lacking.

The Bleiberg Project was named after the Nazi scientist who was experimenting on concentration camp victim. The Shiro Project is named after a ruthless Japanese general Shiro Ishii who was in charge of the well known, feared and loathed Unit 731, which was not only developing all sorts of bioweapons for the Japanese but also experimented on humans just as bad as the WWII Nazis did with their prisoners. In fact, the first few chapters of the book are quite scary and gruesome, which make for a nerve-wracking reading.

Once we’re back in present, we follow Branislav Poborsky, a Czech journalist who witnesses the extinction of an entire village while on his way to visit his family in another village nearby. Just before he’s killed, Eytan comes to his rescue and tells him to go home and forget everything he’s seen.Now Eytan needs to find out who ordered the attack and why.

When Eytan’s friend Eli is kidnapped by the Consortium, he is forced to work together with Elena (another product of the infamous Bleiberg Project, who is now working for the Consortium) in finding and destroying the new group which has the weapons of mass destruction (an example of which he’s seen with Branislav just a few days before in the destroyed village)..

At first he is reluctant to work together with Elena (after all she is dead set to kill him), but eventually, they team up and seem to work quite well together. They even seem to click on another level, although nothing really comes to fruition on the romantic level.

The story is fast-paced, a chilling thriller that leaves you biting your nails. The pace doesn’t let up even for a moment, and you get to the end of the book before you realize it. This is not a book that can be read leisurely in small bits. Once you start reading it, you won’t want to let go, so make sure you have several hours free ahead of you to really enjoy the thriller that is The Shiro Project.

I mentioned before that I wished the enigma that is Eytan Morg to feature in this book as well – and feature he did. Here we learn lots more about him, about his past and his relationship with his friend Eli (I had a Forever moment when reading this part).

And just as we ignored his real age in the first book, we take it for granted here as well. Nobody is really surprised that is already 80 and looking no more than 35 or so. Of course, his long life comes with a price, but we overlook even that.

Overall The Shiro Project was a rewarding read, and I enjoyed it even more than The Bleiberg Project. The author has already written a third book in the series called The Morgenstern Project, which is probably the conclusion to the Consortium trilogy. I can’t wait for it to be translated into English as well, so I can grab a copy to read.