When Octavia Ling spots an ad for The Italian School for Assassins, she figures that it sounds like a crazy workout, better than pole dancing, and exactly the kind of nuttiness she craves for a birthday that ends in a zero.

Except, when "V" lands in Florence, the other assassin students seem...awfully serious about this whole execution thing. As in, V's roommate tells her, "If I catch you breaking into my locked weapons cache, I will eat you." And she ain't joking.

So V sneaks out for a drink with a hot young Italian guy named Dario.

V wakes up the in morning with a teeny hangover and a huge problem: someone killed her Scary White Female roommate and framed V for it.

Happy birthday, assassin school style.

"Scintillating...imaginative...V is a character who calls out for a series. At once Everywoman and Heroine...a marvellous comedy/adventure." Richard Quarry, author of Midnight Choir