The Janus Man

Tweed & Co. #4

by Colin Forbes

Der Janus-Mann - bk2066; Heyne Verlag; Colin Forbes; pocket_book; 1989

Genres: Thriller, Espionage, Fiction, Mystery, Fantasy, Action

464 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1987

About the author

Raymond Harold Sawkins was a British novelist, who mainly published under the pseudonym Colin Forbes, but also as Richard Raine, Jay Bernard and Harold English. He only published three of his first books under his own name.Sawkins wrote over 40 books, mostly as Colin Forbes. He was most famous for his long-running series of thriller novels in which the principal character is Tweed, Deputy Director of the Secret Intelligence Service.

Sawkins attended The Lower School of John Lyon in Harrow, London. At the age of 16 he started work as a sub-editor with a magazine and book publishing company. He served with the British Army in North Africa and the Middle East during World War II. Before his demobilization he was attached to the Army Newspaper Unit in Rome. On his return to civilian life he joined a publishing and printing company, commuting to London for 20 years, until he became successful enough to be a full-time novelist.

Sawkins was married to a Scots-Canadian, Jane Robertson (born 31 March 1925, died 1993). Together they had one daughter, Janet.Sawkins died of a heart attack on August 23, 2006.

Sawkins was often quoted as personally visiting every location he features in his books to aid the authenticity of the writing. As a result, there is detailed description of the places where the action in his books takes place.

Fury (1995) was inspired by the courage of his wife before she died, and he set it apart from his other novels “because of the strong emotion and sense of loss that runs through it”.

Just one of Forbes' novels was made into a film: Avalanche Express, directed by Mark Robson and starring Lee Marvin and Robert Shaw, which was released in 1979 to generally poor reviews.

Reviews

[Igor Ljubuncic · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is another proper spy book. And it starts by stating the obvious. There's a traitor in the MI6, and now we follow a bunch of characters around, trying to figure out who among it is. You know the players, you know what they do, and you suspect every action. As typical of the genre of that type, there's a lot of geo-hopping, something that James Bond established in the previous decades, so you need at least a dozen exotic yet weird locations to support the plot. This was before you could go on Google Maps and see what gives for yourself.

We will also get to see the charming Tweed character in several other books. All in all, laid-back rainy Sunday kind of thriller book, the modern day equivallent of Poirot's mysteries. Wossname. You get the idea.

There was a man named Tweed,
Double agents he set to mislead,
About face,
National disgrace,
For hunting spies was his creed.

Cheers,
Comrade Igor McTrustyface

[Mick Scrimshaw · Rating 3 out of 5]

A really good old fashioned cold war thriller. Took me right back to the mid eighties and was especially weird as it had some genuine real life political characters from the time, although reading it knowing what we know now made it strange at times and the author was clearly caught up in the fear of the time and clearly nails his colours to the mast of which side of the east-west divide he was a part of. I’m not sure history quite views Gorbachev in the way Forbes did at the time.

For me it was personally interesting as at about the time the book was written, I lived in Kings Lynn where part of the book was set and I stayed in the hotel that the main character Tweed stayed in. I also made a trip to Scandinavia and went on the hydrofoil between Copenhagen and Malmo also mentioned. Until recently I hadn’t read any Colin Forbes books since the eighties so it really was a blast from the past and I enjoyed the book more because of that.

I have always like Colin Forbes’s cold war books featuring Tweed and his team although I don’t always find them brilliant and think he sometimes explains things and characters too much and spells out the same thing again and again which can me monotonous at times. The ending in this one was particularly weak and came as a bit of an anti climax.

[Jack Sakalauskas · Rating 4 out of 5]

'Janus Man' is the fourth in a series of 'Tweed and Co.' It's another cold war plot of spy versus spy. This is the first time I've seen Spymaster Tweed come out from behind his desk and work in the field. A man with a cold heart, he can also show weakness. The author has a substantial knowledge of the geographical landscape of his story. He's as good as a road map.
I find his character descriptions a bit too much. Each character mentioned is followed by a complete paragraph for a description, right down to the color of socks. It is obvious he has a fascination for women's legs.
it's a good story, not much of a suspenseful ending with a few threads left dangling.

[James Oliver · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good Cold War Thriller

A book written in the mid eighties very atmospheric of the diversion between the two Germanise, l have issues with a few things in this book, such as the expats English hanging out in Germany in the summer months. Good read.

[Terry Halligan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the 4th Tweed & Co book by this extraordinary author that I have read so far and the first that I've read this year. It is easily the best of the bunch. It is long but I don't think it could have been edited shorter by very much without damaging the flow. The story is told with so much detail including toilet breaks for Bob Newman (Tweeds associate) when he is stuck on a boat. I really enjoyed reading this story and was very disappointed when it finished. Strongly recommended. Now for Tweed 5!

[C H · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad. Only my second Colin Forbes book, I was looking for something akin to John Le Carre. This was sufficiently rich with geographical and procedural detail and to hold my interest, without any of the characters being excessively macho, a common flaw I find in 70's and 80's books of this type. Tweed isn't as likeable as perhaps George Smiley, but he's not a complete arsehole either. Next up: Deadlock.

[Senthil Ram · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have seen this book in Library when I was a school student in late 80’s, some how the name catches my attention. Recently I remembered this name and started looking for this book in local library not found. Finally bought this book from their book store website. 80’s style spy / serial killer novel with all ingredients of 80’s thriller.

[Karl Øen · Rating 3 out of 5]

SPOILERS Exciting, fast paced and confusing,



but with a weak and unsatisfactory ending. Forbes used some of the plot tropes in The Stockholm Syndicate. In hindsight Forbes’ characterization of Gorbachev as a criminal mastermind is ridicolous.

[Abhishek Prakash · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh Boy..
A page turner. Once Tweed gets into his element, there is no stopping him and the pages keep on turning.

The original team is building up...Bob, Pete, Butler, Monica....Marler yet to be introduced....

[Stefan Salonen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Forbes / Tweed i hög form.

[Ingrid DJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written, a story that captures the reader.

[Bent Andreassen · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 minus.

[Kritanjay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun spy novel. Don’t remember much now except that i had a blast reading it. I probably distinctly remember parts of it but not the whole plot

[Suresh Vijendran · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this novel 30 years ago, it was a good read at that time. Now thinking about it, a good time pass.

[Nigel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Re-reading the Tweed an Co series at the moment and have now completed #4 Janus Man. In this book we are introduced to one of the characters who will become a mainstay of the series Paula Grey, although in Janus Man she is a peripheral character. We also see Newman start to take a much larger role in the work of SIS.
This time Tweed is trying to chase down and identify which of his newly appointed 4 section chiefs is really a double agent. As usual the plot moves through Europe, this time focussed mainly on Germany (both West and East) and for the first time we meet Khulman of the German police who becomes another regular in the series. There is the normal plethora of information and suspects who provide a vast amount of information and red herrings and Tweed works tirelessly to make sense of it all.
A big climax complete with chase across a desolated landscape and large (even James Bond-esque) explosion.
Next up Deadlock

[Uresh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tweed the boss

Excellent .another super duper from colin forbes. The series and characters are mind blowing. Please release another six books of the tweed series on kindle. Super thriller with suspense.worth reading.

[Kim Campbell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fast paced

This book takes you along at a heck of a pace. Even the bits that are supposedly slow aren't as you just want to keep reading until you get to the conclusion. Did I guess who it was? Well, yes I did. The clues are all there so it's really a matter of remembering them.

[Anggun · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting book. One of Colin's book I love.
A real thriller book and an unpredicted ending.

[Kate Parkinson · Rating 2 out of 5]

gritty but predictable

[Diana]

Who has read this. What's your review

[Jamie Robertson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good thriller, Colin Forbes set a high bar for quality thriller s.

[Peter Graham · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant. Keeps you guessing to the end.

[Amzon_Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

This Book Should…

.. be three times the price or more! It’s simply not at all conceivable that such a great piece of work can sell for so little!

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Avery enjoyable read

[Cosmin · Rating 3 out of 5]

decent book, same as the others from the series.

[Jānis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mixed thoughts.
“Detective thriller” part was good, not excellent, just average good.
“Spy Thriller” part was full of pre-iron curtain western clichés, too far from reality in every angle, like Bond movies, just without James and his gadgets. All significant discoveries in story are made not by hard work or knowledge, but gotten by lucky coincident.
Was really hard to finish this book, but I made it. 😊
Overall – better than weakest spy thrillers, but far from best - Daniel Silva Gabriel Allon series, Viktor Suvorov thrillers or Terry Heyes well written I’m pilgrim (not too realistic, but excellently written).