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November Man #3
The Shattered Eye
Nonsensical data spewed out by an American intelligence computer prompts Section R to send the November Man to France, where he uncovers a terrorist organization that has tampered with the United States intelligence network.
293 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1982
29 people are currently reading
179 people want to read
About the author
Bill Granger
41 books43 followersaka Joe Gash, Bill Griffith
Bill Granger, was a newspaperman turned novelist whose fiction alternated between international spy thrillers and police procedurals set on the gritty streets of Chicago.
Usually under his own name but sometimes under the pseudonym Joe Gash or Bill Griffiths, Mr. Granger wrote 25 novels, many of which evoked the rougher environs of Chicago and included colorful characters with names like Slim Dingo, Tony Rolls and Jesus X Mohammed.
Mr. Granger’s favorite, and perhaps best-known, book was “Public Murders” (1980), in which the city is in an uproar as a rapist-murderer strikes again and again. Public and political pressure exacts an emotional toll on the tough, foulmouthed detectives investigating the crimes. Public Murders won an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America in 1981.
Two years before that, Mr. Granger’s first spy novel, The November Man,caused something of an international stir. It involved a plot to assassinate a relative of Queen Elizabeth by blowing up a boat. Later that year, Lord Louis Mountbatten, the queen’s cousin, was killed on his fishing boat when a bomb set by the Irish Republican Army exploded.
Mr. Granger always thought of himself as more of a reporter than an author. “I can’t think of a day without newspapering in it,” he said in a 2003 interview. In his nearly 40 years in journalism, he had reported for United Press International, The Chicago Sun-Times, The Chicago Tribune and The Chicago Daily Herald. He covered the sectarian violence in Northern Ireland and wrote a series based on interviews with a veteran who had witnessed the My Lai massacre during the Vietnam War.
Granger had a stroke in January 2000, and ended his writing career. From 2002 to his death he lived in the Manteno Veterans Home; the immediate cause of death was a heart attack, although he had suffered a series of strokes since the 1990s. He is survived by wife Lori and son Alec.
Read more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2012/0...
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.
Bill Granger, was a newspaperman turned novelist whose fiction alternated between international spy thrillers and police procedurals set on the gritty streets of Chicago.
Usually under his own name but sometimes under the pseudonym Joe Gash or Bill Griffiths, Mr. Granger wrote 25 novels, many of which evoked the rougher environs of Chicago and included colorful characters with names like Slim Dingo, Tony Rolls and Jesus X Mohammed.
Mr. Granger’s favorite, and perhaps best-known, book was “Public Murders” (1980), in which the city is in an uproar as a rapist-murderer strikes again and again. Public and political pressure exacts an emotional toll on the tough, foulmouthed detectives investigating the crimes. Public Murders won an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America in 1981.
Two years before that, Mr. Granger’s first spy novel, The November Man,caused something of an international stir. It involved a plot to assassinate a relative of Queen Elizabeth by blowing up a boat. Later that year, Lord Louis Mountbatten, the queen’s cousin, was killed on his fishing boat when a bomb set by the Irish Republican Army exploded.
Mr. Granger always thought of himself as more of a reporter than an author. “I can’t think of a day without newspapering in it,” he said in a 2003 interview. In his nearly 40 years in journalism, he had reported for United Press International, The Chicago Sun-Times, The Chicago Tribune and The Chicago Daily Herald. He covered the sectarian violence in Northern Ireland and wrote a series based on interviews with a veteran who had witnessed the My Lai massacre during the Vietnam War.
Granger had a stroke in January 2000, and ended his writing career. From 2002 to his death he lived in the Manteno Veterans Home; the immediate cause of death was a heart attack, although he had suffered a series of strokes since the 1990s. He is survived by wife Lori and son Alec.
Read more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2012/0...
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
November 30, 2015
Three US agents die in Europe and Deveraux, ex CIA agent is lured back to find out why and who is behind it.
I read 51% of the book before I decided that enough was enough, this book was for me. The funny thing is that when I sat down to write this (very) short review, I just couldn’t figure out the books plot, so I actually had to google the book to find out what the hell it was about. Not a good sign…
Anyway I couldn’t finish the books, it is all me, the book is probably great if the right person reads it, I wasn’t the right person.
Thank you Netgalley for providing me with a free copy for an honest review!
Review also posted on And Now for Something Completely Different and It's a Mad Mad World
I read 51% of the book before I decided that enough was enough, this book was for me. The funny thing is that when I sat down to write this (very) short review, I just couldn’t figure out the books plot, so I actually had to google the book to find out what the hell it was about. Not a good sign…
Anyway I couldn’t finish the books, it is all me, the book is probably great if the right person reads it, I wasn’t the right person.
Thank you Netgalley for providing me with a free copy for an honest review!
Review also posted on And Now for Something Completely Different and It's a Mad Mad World
January 3, 2015
This is the third novel in Bill Granger's November man series. It features a complex espionage plot, machinations by the Soviet Union to destabilize Western Europe and uncouple it from American support and November man again coming to the rescue to figure out what is afoot and help to set things right. Deverereaux does not appear this time until half way through the book.
R Section agent William Manning is dispatched to Paris to re-establish a relationship with a French woman Jeanne with whom he had a love affair in the late 1960s during the period of the incipient revolution and the student riots. Jeanne was a leftist student that William fell in love with but did not tell her the extent of his feelings for her. Just as well since, at the behest of his masters, he betrayed Jeanne and her colleagues to the police. He was then sent to Southeast Asia where he encountered Deverereaux who was posted in Vietnam. William poured out his heart to Devereaux one night while drunk.
It is now the 1980s, Francois Mitterand, socialist, has been elected President of France. Jeanne works for the Mitterand government but doubles as a spy for the Red Company who are a Soviet fifth column. William's task is to reconnect with Jeanne and find out what is afoot in the Mitterand govt. He falls in love with her again but this time it ends badly for him when he is murdered by forces unknown.
Back in Washington R Section is alight with speculation about strange manoueverings of Soviet forces according to their computer TinkerToy. TinkerToy has been fed false info by a mole inside R Section but it takes a while for this to be discovered. Meanwhile in Moscow war games being played on their supercomputer are manipulated to indicate that the US will not intervene in the face of the assassination of Mitterand and the movement of Warsaw Pact forces into Western Europe.
Devereraux is sent to Paris to investigate Manning's murder and ascertain the motives that led to his killing. Deverereaux connects with Jeanne, explains his connection to Manning and enlists her help to thwart those intent on destabilizing France and the rest of Europe. Working together they thwart the Soviet plot.
Some have described this as one of the weaker November Man novels. I found it enthralling. Granger's firm mastery of the espionage novel is again evident.
R Section agent William Manning is dispatched to Paris to re-establish a relationship with a French woman Jeanne with whom he had a love affair in the late 1960s during the period of the incipient revolution and the student riots. Jeanne was a leftist student that William fell in love with but did not tell her the extent of his feelings for her. Just as well since, at the behest of his masters, he betrayed Jeanne and her colleagues to the police. He was then sent to Southeast Asia where he encountered Deverereaux who was posted in Vietnam. William poured out his heart to Devereaux one night while drunk.
It is now the 1980s, Francois Mitterand, socialist, has been elected President of France. Jeanne works for the Mitterand government but doubles as a spy for the Red Company who are a Soviet fifth column. William's task is to reconnect with Jeanne and find out what is afoot in the Mitterand govt. He falls in love with her again but this time it ends badly for him when he is murdered by forces unknown.
Back in Washington R Section is alight with speculation about strange manoueverings of Soviet forces according to their computer TinkerToy. TinkerToy has been fed false info by a mole inside R Section but it takes a while for this to be discovered. Meanwhile in Moscow war games being played on their supercomputer are manipulated to indicate that the US will not intervene in the face of the assassination of Mitterand and the movement of Warsaw Pact forces into Western Europe.
Devereraux is sent to Paris to investigate Manning's murder and ascertain the motives that led to his killing. Deverereaux connects with Jeanne, explains his connection to Manning and enlists her help to thwart those intent on destabilizing France and the rest of Europe. Working together they thwart the Soviet plot.
Some have described this as one of the weaker November Man novels. I found it enthralling. Granger's firm mastery of the espionage novel is again evident.
October 3, 2021
Here we find the third book in the November Man series. It isn’t so much about Deveraux this time around. It is how people will want to believe computers before humans, written in 1984, the year of the Apple Macintosh.
Deveraux only figures into a small subset of chapters. More chapters focus on Manning, the R Section man in Paris. As usual, the actual core conspiracy isn’t known until late into the book. It is that unknown that helps drive the plot forward. A lot of twists make for an engaging read.
Some of the computer portions gloss over how early networks actually operated. Taps on mini-computers not connected to a proto-internet is a bit of a stretch. I did like the points about how humans can become dependent on the decision making ability of the machines, so much so that they begin to doubt reality. This is nearly sci-fi in thinking in 1984.
I hope the next book has more Deveraux on the page. I come for the plot twists and his ability to turn the tide on his adversaries. In this book, he felt more like a side character than the person in the series title.
Deveraux only figures into a small subset of chapters. More chapters focus on Manning, the R Section man in Paris. As usual, the actual core conspiracy isn’t known until late into the book. It is that unknown that helps drive the plot forward. A lot of twists make for an engaging read.
Some of the computer portions gloss over how early networks actually operated. Taps on mini-computers not connected to a proto-internet is a bit of a stretch. I did like the points about how humans can become dependent on the decision making ability of the machines, so much so that they begin to doubt reality. This is nearly sci-fi in thinking in 1984.
I hope the next book has more Deveraux on the page. I come for the plot twists and his ability to turn the tide on his adversaries. In this book, he felt more like a side character than the person in the series title.
May 22, 2015
This third November Man novel is absolutely brilliant! While it is a complex and riveting story laced with spying, foreign intrigue, romance, betrayal, and heroism, it also features Tinkertoy and Naya, the U.S. and Russian computers, respectively, in the age (early 1980's) when computers were just starting to come into their own. I had a hard time putting this one down!
September 8, 2015
I loved the book with its fast paced storyline.
January 14, 2022
Interesting read, The Shattered Eye 👁.
You talk about some real deep cover shit happening. This book 📖 has it all.
If I'm understanding this correctly, the United States & Russia have this computer 🖥 system where each can enter war scenarios and get a prediction on how the others will respond.
But what if both systems have been given wrong data?
Who has hacked the system & to what extent is all this leading to.
WWIII, surely not. Right?
Well this is what Shattered Eye is about.
It makes you think, this is some real shit. This book 📖 was written in "82", but its still relevant today, & kind of scary.
Espionage, murder, Betrayal all the ingredients for a best seller.
I'm in!!!
Can't Wait for the next book in the November Man Series.
This one was a favorite.
Don't sleep on it.
Onward to my next adventure, The British Cross. Catchy title, huh?
You already know I'm going to give you my take on it.
But in the meantime, Happy Reading 📚!!!!
Ciao💋
You talk about some real deep cover shit happening. This book 📖 has it all.
If I'm understanding this correctly, the United States & Russia have this computer 🖥 system where each can enter war scenarios and get a prediction on how the others will respond.
But what if both systems have been given wrong data?
Who has hacked the system & to what extent is all this leading to.
WWIII, surely not. Right?
Well this is what Shattered Eye is about.
It makes you think, this is some real shit. This book 📖 was written in "82", but its still relevant today, & kind of scary.
Espionage, murder, Betrayal all the ingredients for a best seller.
I'm in!!!
Can't Wait for the next book in the November Man Series.
This one was a favorite.
Don't sleep on it.
Onward to my next adventure, The British Cross. Catchy title, huh?
You already know I'm going to give you my take on it.
But in the meantime, Happy Reading 📚!!!!
Ciao💋
May 20, 2017
Very slow start but a great finish
July 2, 2025
Disappointing, OK at best! November Man basically doesn't even appear until 1/3 into the book . This story was hard to follow and / or keep my attention. I found myself skimming pages.
March 5, 2020
It took some doing to get me into the story of this third novel in the series. Maybe it was me but I didn't feel compelled to read every chance I had. It ended well but this one comes nowhere near the brilliance of the first novel 'The November Man',sometimes titled as Codename: November. I look forward to British Cross in a couple of months.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews