Target 5

by Colin Forbes, Gino D'Achille (Illustrator)

" ...Urgent you penetrate icefield for possible rendezvous. Maximum risk must be accepted. Repeat. Must be accepted." In the weird world where huge ice islands rotate round the North Pole, Soviet submarines still prowl beneath the icecap. Top Russian oceanographer Michael Gorov, early believer in world peace, flees from his Soviet base to hand the West secrets which would neutralize the East's potential stranglehold. His escape route is across the grimmest terrain on earth - the empty wastes of the frozen Arctic. Keith Beaumont, Polar veteran, is sent to bring Gorov in to safety. Moscow sends master polar strategist, Colonel Igor Papanin to seize him first. Exposed to traitors and worsening weather, Beaumont struggles to outwit a whole Soviet fleet to save Gorov - to help him to reach the Western base. "Colin Forbes 'has no equal'" - "Sunday Mirror".

Genres: Thriller, Fiction, Adventure, Espionage

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1973

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

[Angelo Mifsud · Rating 5 out of 5]

All the elements of a cold war thriller. From the very first page you're plunged in a quagmire of intrigue and suspension which continued to the end.

[Nigel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thoroughly entertaining old fashioned Cold War novel set in Arctic. A Soviet oceanographer is planning to defect by travelling from a Soviet arctic base to a US one. Unfortunately the Soviets know he is leaving and are pulling out all of the stops to prevent the defection. A small rescue party are planning on sledging out to the US base in order to retrieve the defector and bring him back to the west. As the weather worsens the net tightens around the defector and a death defying chase across the frozen lands of the north as three sledgers aim for freedom. Who is the bigger enemy the Soviet security apparatus or the worsening conditions?
The characters in the story don’t really develop and the lead character is a larger than life adventurer who at times seems too good to be true and some of the dialogue feels a bit on the wooden side. But these do not stop it being a page turning read.

[Phil Ashman · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a younger man I read the Tweed series of books by Colin Forbes and was absolutely drawn in by them. No matter that the characters were paper thin and that Tweed could never quite decide if he wanted to be George Smiley all of the time or just some of it and that Marler always managed to take annual leave from The Day Of The Jackal to appear - these books were exciting. The earlier books in the series were definitely superior, towards the end when political enemies changed to single megalomaniacs the plots were recycled so much you only had to change names and faces. Even so the sense of excitement still remained. Having enjoyed the Tweed books so much I have attempted to collect all of Forbes’ books and deliberately held them back until I was older before reading the earlier, pre-Tweed stories. Fifteen years later Target 5 was the first story I came to and I thoroughly enjoyed it. A Cold War game of cat and mouse, hide and seek almost like The 39 Steps at times only on boats and Icebergs instead of the railway. The characters are still paper thin and the writing is obviously of its time, but it really doesn’t matter. The excitement I originally felt from Colin Forbes so many years ago is still there. I will need to eke out his remaining books on an “occasional treat” basis.

[Maud Van Keulen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Heel spannend!

[Devadas Lakshmanan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have a liking towards action novels set in exotic locations. This one is quite fast paced cold war thriller. Must read for this genre addicts.

[Mark Wharton · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit dated now but if a cold War battle of wits is your thing then go for it, just remember it was written 50 years ago and reflects the times.

[Estéfano J. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un libro que cumple bien, tiene partes tensas y de acción, buenas descripciones que te hacen sentir como la están pasando los personajes. 3,5

[a n n i k a · Rating 4 out of 5]

Von Anfang bis Ende hin spannend

[Diana · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my first Colin Forbes novel. I read it a long time ago now, but it must have been very good because I went on a Colin Forbes kick for several years after reading it.

[Glenn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, after reading the book again, went from 5 stars to 3... just didn’t live up to the first read... it was slow in places and the characters were hard to like...

[Ronald · Rating 4 out of 5]

read some time between 5-24-75 & 12-31-1975