The Falconer's Tale

Alan Craik #8

by Gordon Kent

An exhilarating new tale of modern espionage and international intrigue -- sure to appeal to the many fans of Tom Clancy, Dale Brown and Patrick Robinson. Jerry Piat has been on the run from the FBI for two years, but he's about to be made an offer he cannot refuse. Clyde Partlow an upper CIA executive needs him for a mission that involves a member of the Saudi ruling clique, a fearsome man who's been cheating his own associates out of their funding for terrorism against the West ,and using the money for his own personal profit. Piat's job is to entice former agent Digger Hackbutt into working for the CIA again. Hackbutt will use his exemplary skills as a falconer as bait for the Saudi aristocrat, which in turn will hatch a daring plan for blackmail. Meanwhile behind the scenes Alan Craik is highly suspicious of Clyde Partlow's intentions and sets about trying to find out exactly what is going on. With the bait set and Jerry Pitat about to be a free man for the frist time in years, everything is set for success. But the best laid plans seldom run smoothly and the ultimate disaster is just moments away.

Hardcover

First published September 4, 2007

About the author

Pseudonym of writers Kenneth M. Cameron with his son Christian Cameron.

Series:
* Alan Craik

Reviews

[juice · Rating 2 out of 5]

To be honest, I don't really know why I finished this book. It meandered along fairly plotlessly, and then it ended.

How do books like this get past editors?

[Len Holgate · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book marks the completion of the change of focus from "action" centred, carrier based, Alan Craik books to the more "Le Carre like" spy books. As such it may not be to everybody's taste as the pace and style are quite different to the early books.

I thought it was an excellent end to the series.

[Renee Griswell · Rating 1 out of 5]

This isn’t the book for me. It didn’t hold my interest and Ihad to force myself to continue reading.

[Henri Moreaux · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Falconer's Tale is the final book, so far, in the Alan Craik series, whilst it does however only involve him in a tertiary capacity the other characters of the series feature more centrally than usual, namely Jerry Piat, Mike Dukas and slimey Clyde Partlow. The main two characters of this story, is Edgar Hackbutt the ex-agent, oddball & falconer along with Jerry Piat the ex-intelligence operative, now small time criminal. These two characters are roped into what initially seems like a legitimate intelligence operation yet as the story unfolds it begins to look more and more shonky.

A lot of novels skip over the procedural aspects of an intelligence officer running an agent and there's good reason - the interactions between Piat and Hackbutt who he is brought back in to re-recruit as an agent are largely rather dull. The overriding bulk of the story is that of procedural minutiae interspersed with a pretty decent story line which could have quite easily been shortened by at least 100 pages.

[Tim Harding · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good character development and interesting story but moved pretty slow for some time. Stopped half way through when I lost interest then finished it and enjoyed it.