Robert Cormier was an American novelist who was known for his deeply pessimistic novels for young adults. In most of them, the protagonists are defeated in the end. Cormier began writing when he was very young; however, it was when he became a journalist that his writing career took off in earnest. He has won several prestigious awards.
Relevance of the Title
For a terrorist, the first assassination was a significant one. Sixteen year old Miro had planned for the bus driver to be his first killing but it goes all wrong when he finds that, that day it is Kate, the niece of the driver who is driving the bus. The terrorists need her to keep the children calm so they let her live as long as it is convenient for them. The leader of the terrorists is Artkin who was like a mentor to Miro. Artkin is shot by Inner Delta, the terrorism response team. Miro thinks that it was he who caused Artkin’s death. He realizes that Kate has been manipulating him to stay alive. So he shoots her. She is his first killing though not the first one to die in the attack.
