The Cobra

by Frederick Forsyth

A WAR WITHOUT END

Cocaine is worth billions of dollars a year to the drug cartels who spread their evil seed across Western society. It causes incalculable misery, poverty and death. And slowly, gradually, its power is spreading...

A MAN ON A MISSION

Ex-CIA special ops, Paul Devereux, intellectual, dedicated and utterly ruthless, is given what seems like an impossible task: Stop the drug barons, whatever it costs. At his disposal, anything he wants - men, resources, money. He must assemble a team equal to the lawless men who control this deadly trade.

AN UNTHINKABLE SOLUTION

Up to now the drug cartels have had it their way. Up to now, the forces of law and order have played by the rules. That is about to change. Those rules no longer apply - and a dirty war is about to get a whole lot dirtier...

Genres: Fiction, Thriller, Crime, Espionage, Action, Mystery, Suspense

447 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Frederick Forsyth, CBE was a English author and occasional political commentator. He was best known for thrillers such as The Day of the Jackal, The Odessa File, The Fourth Protocol, The Dogs of War, The Devil's Alternative, The Fist of God, Icon, The Veteran, Avenger, The Afghan, and more recently, The Cobra and The Kill List.

The son of a furrier, he was born in Ashford, Kent, educated at Tonbridge School and later attended the University of Granada. He became one of the youngest pilots in the Royal Air Force at 19, where he served on National Service from 1956 to 1958. Becoming a journalist, he joined Reuters in 1961 and later the BBC in 1965, where he served as an assistant diplomatic correspondent. From July to September 1967, he served as a correspondent covering the Nigerian Civil War between the region of Biafra and Nigeria. He left the BBC in 1968 after controversy arose over his alleged bias towards the Biafran cause and accusations that he falsified segments of his reports. Returning to Biafra as a freelance reporter, Forsyth wrote his first book, The Biafra Story in 1969.

Forsyth decided to write a novel using similar research techniques to those used in journalism. His first full length novel, The Day of the Jackal, was published in 1971 and became an international bestseller and gained its author the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Novel. It was later made into a film of the same name.

Reviews

[Tony Johnston · Rating 1 out of 5]

Awful. I only read it because I had nothing else and I was duly disappointed.

My guess is that Mr Forsyth has had a few drinks one night and told his agreeable old chums "Bloody governments, no backbone! If they wanted to close the drug trade, they could do it! I could do it! Give me some guns and a budget of a couple of billion! I'd kill the lot of 'em!"

And so he's written up his idea into a page-turning thriller to show how he would do it. In summary, a rogue "Cobra" leading an unfettered SBS/SEAL/[Insert other acronyms] attack on the stupid evil Colombian Drug runners. And it's not really a plot spoiler to say they have some success. Because the book really is that simple. Shame that the world isn't but never mind.

Now my understanding is that you read Forsyth if you like to spend a few hours reading a fictional travel guide to that other world of spies, secrets and government agency acronyms. Usually, if you like French men called Jean-Yves to be womanising charmers who are not really trustworthy, Hispanic green berets called Cortez to die heroically and swarthy villains called Victor Ramon who do things like throw victims noses to rabid dogs you will not be disappointed.

Now, I'll admit that I haven't liked that stuff much since I was 12 but I could still see that, for the genre, this was appallingly done. I've read the Jackal and it was well-crafted plus by the standards of it's competition it felt alarmingly real. By contrast, this felt like it was bolted together with wet cardboard by a man with too much confidence in his own powers and not enough respect for his readers or reality.

[Jerome Otte · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cobra falls short and is disappointing.

The first half of the book isn't bad;the US and British prepare for their covert war against a powerful Colombian drug cartel. It's toward the second half of the book where things slip. Navy SEALs and British SBS soldiers intercept drug shipments on the high seas, and a Brazilian fighter pilot shoots down aircraft carrying cocaine. This happens a bunch of times, over and over again, and each scene is just a repeat of an earlier scene with no new twists or surprises. Meanwhile, law enforcement and intelligence go after various agents of the drug cartel and corrupt officials.

It just goes on for almost 200 pages until the President decides to shut the operation down and then... that's basically it. There's no suspense or sense of looming danger, just intercepting this drug shipment and that drug shipment, with no real threat or danger posed to anyone other than the drug smugglers. The book really isn't much of a thriller at all.

Moreover, the book and lead character's name is "Cobra", but the story follows Cobra's deputy, a certain Cal Dexter and the ending is almost anti-climatic.It reads like a 500-page police report written by government employees trying to burnish their record.


Lots of factual errors . Like mention Goa in Karnataka .There is no Goa in Karnataka . Goa is a beach in Indian west coast. And it is not swampy. And there are no swamps in Karnataka. And the Ochoa brothers were not part of the Cali cocaine cartel, as the novel states. They were founders of the Medellin cartel along with Pablo Escobar and Carlos Lehder. It was the Rodriguez Orejuela brothers who founded and ran the Cali cartel. Also, Bogota is at 7,500 feet above sea level and is cool and often rainy, not scorchingly hot. Even on a sunny day, if you're in the shade it's not hot. The book says otherwise. And apparently Roosevelt Roads Naval Station still in operation.

There's a bunch of grammatical errors...(not really too bad, but annoying,) and some quite poor word choices. The development of the subject is childish and the characters totally unlikely. I about had enough when I read about a diplomat at the UN, belonging to the Puerto Rico mission. Puetor Rico?!Maybe they are in the same boat with Alaska and Hawaii?

Some other gems to make you barf:
-p.274, speaking of a drug lord who gets sliced & diced the author ends with ..."He had ever had only one daughter. and he had loved her very much."
-p.40 "It is not a threat, it is a warning. If the conditions are not met the project would simply fail, expensively and embarrassingly. These are they."
-p.27: "The housekeeper, the beaming Maisie, told the lad her employer was at church and gave him directions."

The plot is plain not believable. Everything goes right for the "good guys" and everything goes wrong for the "bad guy" drug cartels. Somehow the criminal mastermind drug cartels can never figure out what is going on, but they were smart enough to corner the entire world market?

[Sumit RK · Rating 3 out of 5]

When it comes to thrillers, Frederick Forsyth is right up there with the very best. Meticulous research, a compelling story line & unexpected twists & turns being the hallmarks of his writings. His every novel carries the same level of expectations as many of his previous great works.

In ‘The Cobra’ president of the United States declares an all-out war on the Colombian cocaine industry, recruits former CIA officials and with a $2 billion budget, total secrecy and control over a special military force. What follows is a thrilling adventure.

Forsyth’s fascinating research on the drug cartel's multi billion-dollar business, their operations, even the operations by naval & custom forces is unparalleled; the setting up of the entire secret operation has been brilliantly described.

When it comes to the execution part though, it starts of well but soon gets repetitive and the “The War on Drugs” feels completely one sided. The story raises your expectations but the endgame is disappointing and feels tame compared to the rest of the story.. None of the characters were memorable enough nor are their enough twists & turns to keep you hooked till the end.

Overall, the writing in "The Cobra" is really good and fans of military adventures may like it but the novel's plot is unconvincing. Not one of Forsyth’s best works..

[Dipanjan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The world does not call Mr. Fredrick Forsythe a master story-teller for nothing. I remember finishing "The Day Of The Jackal" in one night. I remember having left completely dumbs struck with "The Devil's Alternative" and I also remember gasping through the twists and turns in "The Negotiator".

Well, ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Forsythe has done it again with "The Cobra".

I must admit that I was purposely delaying this read as I found the name to be very tacky. I mean, it does sound like a C Class Hollywood Action flick. But that's as far as that goes.

"The Cobra" is an out-and-out intelligent book. It's about war against drugs. But this is a war which is carefully planned and systematically executed. The main protagonist of the story, Paul Deveraux, does not make even more than a couple of appearances. But he controls the reader with his mind like a skillful maestro. He makes his enemies dance like puppets on a string. And nothing, not even one incident is by co-incidence or a stroke of luck. Now THAT is the most amazing thing about the story. This story shows that intelligence is the ultimate power and can take down any amount of brawn like a hot knife through butter.

This is written in typical style of Mr. Forsythe. It starts off at a gentle pace with high levels of informative planning and then sucks you into the labyrinth before you even realize it.

As usual, I won't reveal much about the story. This book is a must read for anyone who likes "intelligent" plots with less action and extremely high thinking.

Mr. Forsythe - welcome back. It's always a crazy ride with you in the pilot's seat.

[Girish · Rating 2 out of 5]

I generally think twice about picking up a Forsyth for the level of detailing on topics that go over my head (literally too, come to think of it..). What normally swings it in favor is the solid story.So, it came as a surprise that The Cobra is a weak story that is shockingly one sided.

Paul Devereux aka Cobra is called out of retirement to wipe out the billions of dollars worth cocaine 'industry'. Armed with a free license and a 2 billion budget, Cobra puts up a team to throttle the Colombian Cartel. Playing by the rules is the last thing on this team's mind.

Cobra's presence is felt in the details than filled on pages. A person who can hang up on the Chief of Staff. Cal Dexter as the second in command is the mainstay of the operation - cool, calculated and with a conscience. They put a plan in motion that involves fighter ships and mid-ocean grabs, mid-air attacks and Art of War level application of war strategy.

What doesn't work is everything goes as per plan! All the fearsome cartel and the Don could do is take it and play right into the hands of Cobra. Quite a few lucky breaks that were not factored in works as well.

The book was like watching a one-sided match between 2 teams you don't care about. Except for the detailing of the cocaine industry and some stunning detail of the mid-sea battles, the book is a damp squib.

[Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

Want to know how the cocaine industry works? Read The Cobra. Want suspense and/or character development? Look elsewhere. But getting to know how an industry whose end product wreaks nothing but havoc and sadness has some merit - and at least kept me reading.

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic! One of 2010s very best! Outstanding! 10 of 10 stars

[Atishay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Frederick Forsyth is one of the greatest thriller writers of our modern era and this latest work by the veteran reveals the work of a pure master.
In The Cobra, Forsyth takes on the cocaine industry eating away into the American and European societies. When the President Office of US decides to do away with the cocaine industry once and for all, the executives turn to Paul Deveraux, an ex-CIA veteran, to devise and implement a strategy that can carry out the operation. Deveraux, nicknamed The Cobra assembles a team of specialists, led by the notorious tunnel rat, Cal Dexter to execute the plan. The novel crackles along at a lightning pace as The Cobra and his team devise a brilliant strategy to take on the drug cartels and execute it ruthlessly.
Forsyth's novels are never short on research which makes them perfectly aligned to the modern world politics and parallel with the prominent figures. The Cobra is a typical Forsyth novel that way just like his earlier works. What little disappointment his fans might have had from The Afghan is likely to be compensated from this masterpiece. A compulsory must read for Forsyth fans.

[Stephen Franks · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Forsyth, but this is not my favourite title of his. The plot is well-founded: one man who has been provided with boundless powers to cut a hole in the US drugs traffic. Some meticulously researched background and a plausible plot - it had all the hallmarks of being another FF classic.

However, whilst enjoyable, I never really found myself believing everything that occurred and whilst inevitable, the ending was fairly flat in comparison to the rest of the book. There are some pretty awful villains and the scale of the (US especially) illicit drugs problem is well-documented.

Overall, a good beach read, but not FF's best work. It was like learning that a beloved rock star has just released a 'popular' Christmas single. Having said that, Forsyth has in the past set the bar pretty high so maybe he has been hung by his own petard on this occasion.

[Alfie Shuvro · Rating 4 out of 5]

পৃথিবীর সবচেয়ে বড়লোক কে ? বিল গেটস নাকি ওয়ারেন বাফেট? আপনি হয়ত ৫ লাখ টাকা ইনকাম করেন কিন্তু বিল গেটস বা ওয়ারেন বাফেটের কাছে কিন্তু আপনি ফেরীওয়ালার মতনই অনেকটা ।
কিন্তু এমন অনেক অজানা অনেক ধনী আছে যাদের কাছে বিল গেটসই ফেরিওয়ালার মতন!!!!!!!!! বিশ্বাস হল না??
তবে এবার বলি । পৃথিবীতে একটা শ্রেণী আছে । তাদের টাকার কাছে বিল গেটসের ইনকাম খুবই তুচ্ছ । এরা হচ্ছে মাদক ব্যবসায়ী । মূলত কোকেন ব্যবসায়ী। এদের আছে নিজস্ব গ্যাং দল। হাজার হাজার কর্মী । টাকা দিয়ে কিনে রাখে পৃথিবীর সব এয়ার পোর্ট কিংবা বন্দর।
কোকেন মূলত উৎপন্ন হয় দক্ষিণ আমেরিকার দক্ষিণ-পশ্চিম অঞ্চলের পাহাড়ে। প্রথম প্রথম মানুষ ক্ষুধা ভুলে থাকতে এবং কাজের উদ্দীপনা ধরে রাখতে কোকেন ব্যবহার করত।
কোকেন মূলত উৎপন্ন হয় কোকেন গাছের পাতা থেকে । ৩৭৫ কেজি পাতা থেকে মাত্র ১ কেজি কোকেন তৈরী হয় । আর মূলত এ কোকেন ব্যবসা মূলত নিয়ন্ত্রণ করে মূলত কলম্বিয়ান গ্যাংরা। পরে সেটা ট্রান্সফার করা হয় ইউরোপ-আমেরিকা তে । ১ কেজি আসল কোকেন কে বিভিন্ন রাসায়নিক পদার্থ মিশিয়ে ৬-৭ কেজি করে বিক্রি করা হয় । যার মানে ৬-৭ গুণ লাভ । উৎপন্ন স্থল হতে একজন মাদকসেবীর হাতে পৌঁছাতে প্রায় ২০ বার হাত বদল হয় তাই আসল হোতারা থাকে পর্দার আড়ালে । আর মাদকসেবীর হাতে পৌঁছানো পর্যন্ত দাম বেড়ে যায় কয়েকশ গুণ । তাই ঘুষ-টোষ দিয়ে ও লাভ থাকে অনেক ।
এই ধরনের ব্যবসায়ীরাই মূলত নিয়ন্ত্রণ করে পৃথিবী । অথচ এরা থাকে পর্দার আড়ালে । এদের কে কেন্দ্র করে অসাধারণ এক কাহিনী “ দ্য কোবরা “।
যদি আপনি পলিটিক্যাল থ্রিলার পড়তে পছন্দ করেন তবে আপনি বইয়ের পাতার সাথে বেড়িয়ে পড়তে পারেন এই মাদক রাজ্যে ।

[Susan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Started well, despite the constant lecturing tone lurking under the surface (don't do drugs kids, drugs are baaad!!!) Then at 7% enters Chuck Norris/Gary Stu/Paul Devereaux to singlehandedly beat down da eeevvvvlll terrorists/drug dealers/communists/atheists/you name it. We are treated to a lengthy and rather tiring infodump of his childhood/youth - superrich, nearly aristocratic, at the top of his class/learns languages on a yearly basis (I'm not exaggerating here), singlehandedly brought down the USSR (ok, not really but it's sort of presented like he did), masters Arabic in several different dialects...
I didn't get to the part where he looks like a Gap model and fucks everything that moves, because at this point I decided I don't have time for this shit and went to play Angry Birds instead.



I've read The Phantom of Manhattan (another steaming pile of shit) from the same author and couldn't get past 5% of The Day of the Jackal, is it just me or this guy is really undeserving of his fame?

[Pawel Rejdak · Rating 1 out of 5]

Disgusted and dissapointed. Badly...
Putting my hands on a paperback with a "Forsyth" on cover I was more than assured thats Master's imprint will be there, somewhere between the pages.
But I was very wrong.

From the forefront, I couldn't resist the feeling an Author forced himself to write this, and more - he had no idea how to do it.
Boredom, easily suspected twists, cold and flat dialogs finished with childish story brings only to a "bad writing" name.

Most powerful characters from a few of his latest books mixed together seems much more like an Marvel Avengers or Expendables part 17 (LOL) than a Goodread.

1 star.
If only I could give zero or at least a half - I would gladly do so.

[Reema · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked up this book after the amazing experience I had with The Kill List and was expecting a similar exciting roller coaster. Sadly, I was utterly disappointed. The Cobra is written in an almost immature manner, with a very anti climactic climax. The whole story sounds like a hastily put together tale from someone who did not want to write it in the first place, and couldn’t bother to think of a decent way to end it.

[Sandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good
The cocaine recipe - Loved that part
How the cocaine industry works
The torture methods

The Bad
Character development
Story development
Lose ends
Flat language

Overall - Not a very good book

There, I said it all.

[Adam Znasik · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fantastická kniha. Autor sa na staré kolená rozhodol, že všetkým vysvetlí, ako za 2 miliardy zničí celý drogový biznis. Je tam všetko, fajrvóly, veteráni rozviedok, mariňáci, zlí politici, všetky skratky, exkurzia po všetkých svetových krkahájoch. Strašná sprostosť. Dobre sa to čita.

[Ravi Sharma · Rating 1 out of 5]

He was my favorite author and when I read Devil's Alternative, I thought he was God.

But Cobra? Come on!

It just reads like a government paper that is against the government.

It is a one sided war which Cal Dexter wins with so much ease that you begin to wonder how come the drug world even exists. There is simply not a single scene in which the Drug World has the upper hand. The police, the drug world seem just a stupid bunch of fools who play into the hands of a smart ass, hard to believe character of Cal Dexter.

To be fair, the premise and the way it builds the novel seems interesting. But after the initial build up all you get to know is disappointment. You expect menace from drug lords who are like animals but it never comes up. It is like a cake walk for Cobra all the way.

It is clever, research based but that is all. Nothing beyond that.
No edge of the seat suspense. No nail biting climax. Just the awe of technology.

I am a writer and not an internationally famous one myself. But there is no doubt, this script would never have left my table.

Just goes to show that if you are successful, you even get something as respectable as New York Times to eat out of your hat. That is kind of scary!

Read this if you want to upgrade your one sided knowledge on stealth technology. Not for its literary merit.

[Angela · Rating 5 out of 5]

19th November 2023
4 Stars

The Cobra by Frederick Forsyth.
->This one's for you Glennie! 💗📖📚🙏

5th January 2019
Frederick Forsyth novels were a familiar fixture in our household when I was growing up, as both my parents loved his work. He was amongst the first ‘adult’ reads that I was drawn to at the time. So, my love affair with his books began, and over the years I have read everything he’s written- keeping up with any new release/s.
As my mother has been in and out of hospital quite a lot over the past year and a half, I am keeping her supplied with books to read, and buddy reading them with her, or reading them to her when she isn’t well enough to read for herself. We have gotten through quite a lot of books in this time and it has been wonderful to discuss each one with her as we read/finish. It has been a great bonding experience for us, and Mr. Forsyth is our current author of choice- and we have both really enjoyed revisiting all his books, again.
Mr. Forsyth has a great knack for writing wonderfully suspenseful and exciting read, there is always great tension, action, drama, some danger, intrigue, and lots more to hold your attention. I can always count on him to deliver an intriguing read.

[Vijai · Rating 3 out of 5]

Even the masters make mistakes or so I am to believe by this lack luster performance by Mr.Forsyth.

I am not saying it is bad, it just does not register even a blip on the Forsyth scale - an instrument of fiction writing awesomeness that all other action thriller writers will be measured by - this is the man who wrote Devil's alternative and the Fist of God for crying out loud.

I am a noob here and doling out details of the plot seems to be considered a cardinal sin here so I will keep it relevant to those who have read it - that part where Deveraux asks Cal to go somewhere to destroy something and Cal tastes it - now, why would he do that? that just illogical. Here's a man who went behind enemy lines (while negotiating something with someone) and escaped by a whisker to achieve Deveraux's master plan and suddenly he doubts the very man? does not add up at all.

All said and done, high marks for research and amazing application of some novel ideas. Bad marks for lack of character development.

May the Gods forgive this sin I have committed by criticizing one of their finest gifts to the world of fiction writing.

[Megan · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story was very detail orientated, nearly to the point of boredom. The idea was a good one, but I didn't care for the execution. So many things were said several times that I became very annoyed with them. I personally didn't care for this story and wouldn't recommend it.

[Bettie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bettie's Books

[Xabi1990 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Leído en Junio de 2011.

Como me gusta el autor decidí leerle ... y coincido con Jose Luis, muy recomendable en su género. Pelin exagerado el protagonista pero se lee sin soltar ni un momento.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fast paced and we'll written. I enjoyed every minute I spent reading The Cobra.

[Vin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not the best Frederick Forsyth I have read in fact his others are far far better. He has set a such a high bar for himself, it must be hard to reach it each time. Nevertheless still a good read and better than the average thriller writers out there. I quickly finished this one.

[James Hartley · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good read packed with detail and authentic-sounding facts about the cocaine trade. The 'story' itself takes second place, characters a distant third.

[cool breeze · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an okay Forsyth thriller from 2010, but not a great one. The first half plods with technology and exposition. When the action finally arrives, it is often repetitive. Forsyth gives newly elected President Obama an undeserved, but mercifully brief, tongue bath, but this is somewhat balanced by him later depicting his chief of staff (a thinly disguised Rahm Emmanuel) as a villain. Forsyth’s research is as impressive as always, but the storytelling falls short of many of his previous novels. 3.4 stars.

[Alain DeWitt · Rating 1 out of 5]

Pitiful, just pitiful. How far Mr. Forsyth has come since 'The Dogs of War' and 'The Day of the Jackal'! I guess he must have needed money to pay for the upkeep of his yacht in Monaco and so he phoned in this lackluster thriller (which contains precious few thrills).

The story is about the decision by the US President to dismantle the Colombian cocaine cartels (well, cartel since in this putative future the cartels have been consolidadated into one supercartel) using unconventional means.

To do that he recruits Paul Deveraux, aka the Cobra. The Cobra recruits his top lieutenant, Cal Dexter. These two are pitted against Don Diego Esteban, cartel boss, and his cadre of lieutenants (an interchangeable smattering of Joses / Juans / Pedros Sanchez / Lopez / Rodriguez and all eminently forgettable).

Most glaring is the book's almost complete lack of characters and character development. There are four viewpoint characters (Deveraux, Dexter, the Don and MAJ Joao Mendoza, a Brazilian pilot recruited to conduct anti-surface warfare against the cartel). Each one gets between one and two pages of character development / biography and that's it. MAJ Mendoza's Blackburn Buccaneer fighter-bomber gets more pages of exposition than any of the main characters.

When you read a techno-thriller (Clancy, Bond, Coonts, etc.), you expect to have to compromise. You accept that in exchange for tight plotting and accurate technical detail, you must suffer boring, All-American cardboard cutouts for characters.

Here, Forsyth welshes on the bargain. The plotting is rather conventional with no twists or turns whatsoever. And you can forget about technical detail. A trip down memory lane with the vintage Buccaneer is all we get. (And the occasional error, such as Forsyth referring to Creech Air Force Base as AFB Creech. Those are his English roots showing. British air force bases begin with RAF.)

It's like the old joke about the restaurant: 'The food's not very good but at least the portions are small!'

[Jill Holmes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although this isn't my favorite book by the incredibly prolific Frederick Forsyth, I still recommend it because he tackles a subject few would dare. "The Cobra" is the code name of both a man and a project. A former CIA Special Ops master, Paul Devereaux is hauled out of retirement to eradicate the cocaine trade. Given carte blanche by the President and heavily assisted by the British and a Brazilian fighter pilot on a personal revenge crusade, the Cobra hires a former bounty hunter named Cal Dexter as his right hand. They pull together a $2-billion plan to crush the Colombian drug trade into the U.S. via the Caribbean and the trade to Europe through several West African ports. All of the above may seem like a "spoiler", but, in fact, it is how the plan comes together that makes this a great read. You can count on Forsyth to make the good guys really good and the bad guys truly evil. The story also makes you hope that fiction will someday become fact if only real-life heroes to run the ops and elect officials with some backbone will back them to the bitter end. Forsyth kindly provides the reader with a key to the characters and a list of the rather baffling list of acronyms, agencies, and abbreviations involved. The book is carefully crafted, and, despite the potentially bewildering array of characters, plot twists, data, and initials, Forsyth carries the reader all the way to the last period on the last page.

[Carl Alves · Rating 2 out of 5]

The premise of Cobra is that the president of the United States has decided that he wants to eliminate Cocaine trade in the United States. The laughable part about that is that the president is described as a black man whose father is from Kenya and his mother is a white woman from Kansas. Hmm…I wonder who they could be referring to. The laughable part is that this is the premise despite the fact that the Obama administration is incredibly soft on drug crimes. At any rate, he assigns the task of crushing Cocaine trafficking to a ruthless CIA agent nicknamed the Cobra. He will do anything to gain his result. He opts to attack Cocaine trafficking at see, but his end game is to get the gangs and the cartels to fight each other to the death.

I thought the premise of this novel was interesting, but that was about all that I liked about it. My biggest complaint is that the narration was done with this third person omniscient viewpoint that was so detached that it felt often times like I was reading an essay instead of a fiction novel. Even worse is that the novel is completely devoid of any tension. Everything goes exactly as planned and there is never any threat to the Cobra or Cal Dexter, his main operative. It is only until the very end, where there is any possible danger. Therefore, there was little to no intrigue in this novel either. I would advise skipping this novel.

Carl Alves – author of Blood Street

[Efka · Rating 4 out of 5]

Forsyth'as, labiausiai žinomas dėl savo superhito "Šakalo diena", yra atradęs gerą nišą: daugiau niekas nerašo tokio stiliaus trilerių. Skaitant Forsyth'ą, neretai galima pamiršt, kad skaitai knygą ir įsivaizduoti, kad skaitai kokio nors žinių portalo ar Wikipedijos straipsnį. Trumpai, aiškiai, lengvai, su daug smulkmenų ir techninių detalių, nepersistengiant kurti veikėjų profilius ar motyvacijas. Bet tame ir yra visas jo žavumas - nei vieną sekundę nekyla mintis, kad vyksta kažkas nerealaus, holivudiško, etc etc. Visi veiksmai, operacijos, taktikos aprašomos taip, kad eiliniam piliečiui atrodo, kad viskas taip ir vyksta. Žodžiu, lengva, greitai skaitoma knyga, nekelianti sau užduočių būti išskirtine, netradicine ar pateikiančia naują perspektyvą.

Tiesa, turiu ir kritikos. Dažniausiai šio autoriaus romanuose "geriečiams" per daug lengvai ir paprastai viskas einasi. Jokių kliūčių, viskas pagal planus, be išimčių ir ekscesų. O konkrečiai ši knyga užsidirbo labai riebų minusą dėl pabaigos. Man sunku patikėti, kad pagrindinis personažas - visiškai atsidavęs, super-profesionalus ultra-patriotas staiga dėl vienintelės smulkmenos, t.y., nelaiku sustabdytos operacijos, galėjo tapti visišku renegadu, atsisakyti visų savo vertybių ir sudaryti sandėrį su pagrindiniu savo priešu.

Kaip visada, kai realus pažymys turėtų būt kažkur per vidurį žvaigždučių, suteikiu benefit of doubt, tad žvaigždės - 4, nors dešimtbalėje būtų 7.

[Eric Wright · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shocked by the death of a young man through a drug overdose, the president of the US determines to do something to eradicate the scourge of cocaine. He calls together a high-powered group and asks what can be done. A radical and relentless operative, Paul Devereaux, former leader of Special Ops of the CIA is called in and tasked with the destruction of the cartels. This man, the Cobra, demands time and resources and ultimate authority to do whatever it takes. He is given these powers, reluctantly.

So begins a secret war, having reclassified the drug cartels as terrorist targets.

The Cobra hatches a detailed and audacious plan to intercept all cocaine shipments and thus create an interal war between different factions of the drug culture.

It is a fascinating story, full of remarkable detail that makes one believe that the defeat of the cartels is possible. Will it work? Will the democratic governments of countries involved hinder its fulfillment?

Although Forsyth writes in a more description and narrative way than I usually enjoy, I liked this book.