Nena Knight is an elite assassin who works for the Tribe – a highly organized business syndicate. She has a tragic past; traffickers stole her from her Ghanaian village as a child and sold her into captivity. After she escaped and roamed the streets alone, Noble and Delphine Knight took her in and trained her to become the deadly operative that she is now. However, her time with the Tribe has not been without it’s moral challenges. While she has had plenty of opportunities to exercise her motives to kill, some of those encounters have involved figures from her past that were never intended to be her target. And her upcoming mission is no different. It Ends with Knight by Yasmin Angoe is the conclusion to the Nena Knight trilogy in which Nena goes from team member to team leader. This time, the mission is based on politics and not termination. 

The first two titles in the Nena Knight trilogy are Her Name is Knight and They Come at Knight. I did not read them before starting It Ends with Knight. But I highly encourage readers to check them out before reading the final book. While I was able to catch up and follow along with Nena’s past and motivations, I wish I had met her story sooner. But I digress. 

Nena has been through it – and kind of still going through it at this point in her journey. Her former team leader and mentor is no longer in the picture, and Nena has taken his place. And imposter syndrome is in full effect. Nena never anticipated filling this role, yet she accepted nonetheless. And like her, her new team has their doubts about her suitability as well. Nevertheless, they have a new mission on their hands, and Nena is in charge. 

But this new directive involves facilitating and supervising negotiations between miners of Tanzania and their new leader Judah and the Tanzanian government. The land is full of valuable material that will be sold to corporations and used for electronics. And Judah is hell-bent on ensuring a fair deal for the people. But as capitalism goes, plenty of big wigs want in on the deal. And who seems to be the most suspicious and greedy is Francis Dubin. Plus, government regulation is unfortunately necessary in order to ensure the safety and economic well-being of the country. Since Nena is used to taking out targets and not playing politics, she is out of her element. And when a person from her horrific past unexpectedly becomes involved, that assassin part of her screams to exact revenge. It takes everything for Nena to practice restraint and ensure a successful first mission as team leader. 

Yasmin Angoe beautifully weaves in the complicated layers and components of politics that raise the stakes of Nena being successful in It Ends with Knight. Readers who have met Nena know her motivations and heartbreaking experiences from her past. But as someone who met Nena for the first time, I still felt her internal conflict and understood her angst in resisting taking out those who were responsible for her childhood trauma. I also recognized the discomfort Nena (and her subordinates) felt in approaching new territory – basically being babysitters instead of assassins. Overall, while it took me a while to get into the storyline, I enjoyed getting to know Nena and the Tribe, and their task at hand. Not to mention the ending made my jaw drop and my brain stunned. Cheers to an epic conclusion. 

Yasmin Angoe joins the Cantina Conversation guestlist to talk about wrapping up her debut series and what she has planned for the future. Keep an ear out for an upcoming episode of The Nerd Cantina Show podcast and preorder It Ends with Knight, available September 5.