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13 reviews for:
The Deceiver: An explosive espionage thriller from the master storyteller
Frederick Forsyth
3.65 AVERAGE
13 reviews for:
The Deceiver: An explosive espionage thriller from the master storyteller
Frederick Forsyth
3.65 AVERAGE
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book is four short spy stories linked together and is positively enthralling! I was skeptical of the format at first but Forsyth pulls you in and gets you invested in each story anew and takes you on a wild ride from Berlin to a tiny Caribbean island. A recommended read for anyone interested in spy novels!
The book is a collection of 4 stories interrelated only due to the presence of main character. Each of the four stories starts with a new setting which takes time to build up and is the main problem that I felt while reading the book, but when you get past the initial pleasantries for each story, it intensifies and starts to feel more like a thriller.
Mr. Forsyth is one of my fave authors in his genre, besides Mr. Clancy of course. He's not relying too much on technology, but more to suspense, spy works, and his orientation is not to the Yankees, but to the Brits. That's why you'll find that in several of his novels he provide quite extensive description on the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), SAS (the best special force in the world next to Delta Force & Sayeret Matkal), Century House (now Vauxhall Cross) and Foreign Office politics, etc.
The Deceiver tells about a senior agent (the head of Deception, Disinformation and Psychological Operations (Dee Dee and PsyOps for short), Sam McCready. He's one of the main characters in Forsyth's books that I find not really interesting. Compared with the hotshots in "The Negotiator", "The Day of the Jackal" and "The Fist of God", McCready seems too...dull.
This book is consisted of four stories (It's basically a flashback of McCready's most successful operations as a spook): the dangerous hand over of a top secret military document from a Soviet spy IN East Germany, the suspected defector from the KGB which leads to mutual distrust between SIS & CIA, the cooperation between Qaddafi (yes, that Libyan dude) and IRA to attack US interests in Europe and an eventful governmental transition of a British former colony in the Caribbean started by the murder of the governor.
My fave is definitely the second story. Great twist at the end.
Overall, this is not my fave Forsyth book. Perhaps because the psyops thing (that supposed to be the center of this book) does not meet my expectation, who knows?
The Deceiver tells about a senior agent (the head of Deception, Disinformation and Psychological Operations (Dee Dee and PsyOps for short), Sam McCready. He's one of the main characters in Forsyth's books that I find not really interesting. Compared with the hotshots in "The Negotiator", "The Day of the Jackal" and "The Fist of God", McCready seems too...dull.
This book is consisted of four stories (It's basically a flashback of McCready's most successful operations as a spook): the dangerous hand over of a top secret military document from a Soviet spy IN East Germany, the suspected defector from the KGB which leads to mutual distrust between SIS & CIA, the cooperation between Qaddafi (yes, that Libyan dude) and IRA to attack US interests in Europe and an eventful governmental transition of a British former colony in the Caribbean started by the murder of the governor.
My fave is definitely the second story. Great twist at the end.
Overall, this is not my fave Forsyth book. Perhaps because the psyops thing (that supposed to be the center of this book) does not meet my expectation, who knows?
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Verzameling korte verhalen over een Britse geheim agent. Beetje wisselend niveau. Begon zeer vermakelijk, laatste twee verhalen vond ik vrij matig. Verder heeft Forsyth wel eens leukere karakters geschreven. Prima boek, heb me niet verveeld. Wel gewoon leuke actie enzo.
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
First spy novel. Really enjoyed reading it for the novelty of the genre, not the story necessarily. Would be interested in reading The Day of the Jackal.
The protagonist Sam McCready is an unconventional one. Details are sketchy as I read this a few years back. I do remember three separate plot lines being laid bare before a committee for one man's defense. Worth a read for the Cold War espionage plays.