ACID VANILLA

Full Name:	Alice Vandella
Codename:	Acid Vanilla
Nationality:	British
Organization:	APC
Occupation	Agent

Creator:	Matthew Hattersley
Time Span:	-

ABOUT THE SERIES

Acid Vanilla is an agent with APC.

If that sounds like an official government agency and she is an official operative with said agency, I have correctly misled you. It is decidedly not and she is definitely, absolutely not an operative.

APC stands for Annihilation Pest Control which was the name chosen by the owner and founder, Beowulf Caesar. He started the company to fulfill a need he saw for a reputable, reliable extermination business that would be manned by only the best men and women dedicated to handle any removal assignment with true professionalism and efficiency. Caesar is quite serious about that and as time goes by and the company prospers, he is able to sit proudly knowing that his customers come to him knowing he and his team will provide exactly the service they request.

That service is, as you have guessed, killing people.

Normally I would not be including in this compendium a hitman, or hitwoman as in this case, even if that person works for an organization, especially one that sounds like the commercial enterprise like its name was supposed to. But the activities of its best assassin, calling her like she thinks of herself, touch more than a few times on targets that would qualify her for membership had she been working for a government and not a private enterprise.

Acid Vanilla is not the real name of this person, which will come as no surprise to anyone. She started life as Alice Vandella. If you looked at her juvenile rap sheet you would see not a hardened criminal but a dangerous psychotic who needed being put away after a horrific murder. You would be mistaken there, though. Horrific yes but murder no but then the law is not always justice and Vandella got sent to youth prison at age 15 for killing someone in self defense and unfortunately learned that to stay alive and reasonably safe she had to learn how to kill again.

Which made her, at age 18, exactly the kind of person that Caesar (not his real name, either, I am sure) was looking for and so a new career is "chosen" and a new name taken and Acid Vanilla is born.

BOOKS

Number of Books:	9
First Appearance:	2020
Last Appearance:	2023


1			The Watcher Written by Matthew Hattersley Copyright: 2020 Wanting a vacation, Acid Vanilla is not thrilled to be given a last-minute mission to take out a hacker in Paris. When she is about to pull the trigger, the female hacker reveals a fact that causes Vanilla to hold the shot. Now both women are on the run and Vanilla must take on her former associates to stay alive.

2			Seven Bullets Written by Matthew Hattersley Copyright: 2020 Acid Vanilla's career with APC is over but her work is far from done as she goes after former colleagues to get revenge. The latest on her list is in Hanoi and getting him is going to be a major problem since he is working for a shadowy organization there - and he is the only man Vanilla has ever loved.

3			The Hunt Written by Matthew Hattersley Copyright: 2021 When she awoke in the plane, it was over the Indian Ocean. She is forced to parachute out of it to an island below where she will meet several other people who, like her, have been kidnapped. They are the prey for sick trophy hunters who plan to stalk all of them in a game to the death.

4			Sister Death Written by Matthew Hattersley Copyright: 2021 Acid Vanilla is trying to drown her memories in London when an old acquaintance asks her for help. His nephew has stolen from a Spanish crime boss and is now the target of a former colleague of Vanilla, Sister Death. Vanilla reluctantly agrees to track down the young man which will turn out far more complicated than expected.

5			Exit Wounds Written by Matthew Hattersley Copyright: 2021 There is only one man left on Acid Vanilla's list of people who have to die: Beowulf Caesar. Then on a trip to Iran to smoke him out, she is ensnared when the airport she is in is taken over by ISIS. The only way to get out is to join forces with the very man she came to kill.

6			Never Say Die Written by Matthew Hattersley Copyright: 2022 Acid Vanilla and Spook are taking a much needed vacation - heading to the mountains of western Montana. Trouble, though, is heading there after them. When Vanilla ends up in the middle of a major squabble between a bike gang and the sheriff department, things get very serious when Spook goes missing!

7			I Am A Killer Written by Matthew Hattersley Copyright: 2022 Acid Vanilla has given up her old life and started an agency with her friend, Spook Horowitz, helping people in trouble who have no one else to turn to. A woman asks them to find her father and what began as a missing person case soon becomes something far darker as the missing man had been a part of the London underworld and looking for him can be dangerous to both him and Vanilla.

8			White Heat Written by Matthew Hattersley Copyright: 2023 This "is the first book in the new Annihilation Pest Control series – a prequel series in the hugely popular Acid Vanilla universe". He's an elite killer who prides himself on being cold, calm and calculating. If he’s to survive the week he’d better stay that way… Spitfire Creosote is being sent to New York to take out a defecting Russian gangster. It’s a standard job and he’s glad of the work. Even when he’s told his organization’s new recruit, Acid Vanilla is to accompany him on the job he doesn’t worry. She’s strong-willed and a loose cannon. But she’s been well-trained. It’s not until the boss explains what else he wants Spitfire to do that the mission becomes more complicated than he’d ever imagined. With his volatile new colleague in tow, a shadowy figure blocking his every move and the mark growing more elusive by the hour he realizes it’s also more deadly."

9			Bad Blood Written by Matthew Hattersley Copyright: 2023 "Her deadliest enemy is her own past… Ex-assassin, Acid Vanilla, is struggling to cope after the brutal murder of her friend at the hands of Darius Duke. Knowing that Darius is still at large troubles her a great deal. Knowing he could be her brother troubles her even more. As she grapples with this harrowing truth, her already strained relationship with her friend, Spook, reaches breaking point. Determined to fight by Acid's side against the ever-looming threat Spook wants to be trained in the deadly arts. But that way lies danger and Acid can’t risk losing another friend…"

NOVELLAS AND SHORT STORIES

Number of Stories:	1
First Appearance:	2020
Last Appearance:	2020


1			Making A Killer Written by Matthew Hattersley Copyright: 2020 Alice Vandella is a young girl who had to do a very violent thing to stay live. Now she is sent as punishment to a facility full of dangerous people and she is determined to keep her head down and not make waves. Unfortunately, Ella, the most deadly of those in the place, wants to cause trouble and Vandella decides that to survive, she again has to fight. And win! This a prequel that explains how Alice Vandella is turned into Acid Vanilla.

MY COMMENTS

I started reading this series because I thought, erroniously, that she was a government assassin. Once I figured out that she was not, it was too late; I was into the character and wanted to know more about what happened to her. Of course, just because I read and enjoyed the series does not mean she belonged in the compendium but when I looked at who she was going after in the adventures, I realized that they earned her membership.

The bloodshed is a bit over the top -- in a series about a paid assassin, who would have thought it? -- but as a reader I just moved on. The main character, Acid Vanilla, shakes off being shot or beaten way too easily, unless she has super powers we are not told about.

And the head of the organization she works/worked for makes the cardinal mistake that has been a major pet peeve of mine for several decades: he tells the most deadly person he personally knows, and likely the most dangerous assassin in the world, that they have stepped out of line and therefore must die. And then is annoyed as heck that the assassin is now after him! Mind you, it is a pet peeve but I still love it. Illogical, I know.

I enjoyed the first couple of adventures and gave it a 'B'. The next couple caused me to upgrade it to a 'B+' and now it is an 'A-' and I know that the storyline has not come to an end because I own a couple more which I plan to get to. And I hope the author is out there writing more.

GRADE

My Grade: A-

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