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Condition Black
Determined to find the person who gunned down his friend, a CIA agent, on a street in Greece, FBI agent Bill Erlich discovers clues that lead him to a run-down English manor and the fugitive son of a World War II hero. Reprint.
443 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 1991
17 people are currently reading
150 people want to read
About the author
Gerald Seymour
98 books288 followersGerald Seymour (born 25 November 1941 in Guildford, Surrey) is a British writer.
The son of two literary figures, he was educated at Kelly College at Tavistock in Devon and took a BA Hons degree in Modern History at University College London. Initially a journalist, he joined ITN in 1963, covering such topics as the Great Train Robbery, Vietnam, Ireland, the Munich Olympics massacre, Germany's Red Army, Italy's Red Brigades and Palestinian militant groups. His first book, Harry's Game, was published in 1975, and Seymour then became a full-time novelist, living in the West Country. In 1999, he featured in the Oscar-winning television film, One Day in September, which portrayed the Munich Olympics massacre.
Television adaptations have been made of his books Harry's Game, The Glory Boys, The Contract, Red Fox, Field Of Blood, A Line In The Sand and The Waiting Time.
The son of two literary figures, he was educated at Kelly College at Tavistock in Devon and took a BA Hons degree in Modern History at University College London. Initially a journalist, he joined ITN in 1963, covering such topics as the Great Train Robbery, Vietnam, Ireland, the Munich Olympics massacre, Germany's Red Army, Italy's Red Brigades and Palestinian militant groups. His first book, Harry's Game, was published in 1975, and Seymour then became a full-time novelist, living in the West Country. In 1999, he featured in the Oscar-winning television film, One Day in September, which portrayed the Munich Olympics massacre.
Television adaptations have been made of his books Harry's Game, The Glory Boys, The Contract, Red Fox, Field Of Blood, A Line In The Sand and The Waiting Time.
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
September 20, 2017
Really boring and badly written Couldnt finish it Stopped at page 117
October 27, 2015
26/10 - I'm not sure whether this book is for me. I find the writing very disjointed and choppy. Seymour has an abrupt style of writing that doesn't flow smoothly, which is putting me off. When a book has weird writing I feel the plot needs to grab pretty quickly, and securely. I'm not at all grabbed, so far. Will give Condition Black another few chapters' worth of chance before I make a final decision. To be continued...
27/10 - I read another 20 pages and I feel absolutely no desire to finish reading this. In fact I resent that the book took that half an hour from me, half an hour I could have spent reading something much more interesting. All the problems I mentioned before magnified by the fact that they go on for another 320 pages. On the back of the book the Chicago Tribune says
"I would class this book with the first-rate achievements of Graham Greene, Charles McCarry and Le Carré".
If that's true it doesn't auger well for my future enjoyment of Greene, Le Carré, or Forsyth (who is mentioned in a comment along similar lines from the Daily Mail). DNFd at page 40.
27/10 - I read another 20 pages and I feel absolutely no desire to finish reading this. In fact I resent that the book took that half an hour from me, half an hour I could have spent reading something much more interesting. All the problems I mentioned before magnified by the fact that they go on for another 320 pages. On the back of the book the Chicago Tribune says
"I would class this book with the first-rate achievements of Graham Greene, Charles McCarry and Le Carré".
If that's true it doesn't auger well for my future enjoyment of Greene, Le Carré, or Forsyth (who is mentioned in a comment along similar lines from the Daily Mail). DNFd at page 40.
August 19, 2017
Gerald Seymour has been writing thrillers for over 40 years, and 'Condition Black', from the first third of his career, is a good one. It hearkens back to a time where Iraq was still a viable country with nuclear ambitions and the British, always prominent in his novels, were right in the middle of things.
It's a tricky plot: an American agent is inadvertently killed while meeting with an Iraqi in the process of being assassinated by a hitman from his own country. The hitman is an ex-military Brit who is employed by the Iraqi government for that purpose. The American agent's friend, an FBI agent also, is incensed by the murder, gets himself assigned to investigate (even though it occurred in a foreign country) and the race is on to identify the shooter and bring him to justice. In the meantime, the shooter continues to wreak havoc on Iraq's enemies.
Complicating the story is Iraq's attempts to identify and recruit a specialist from Britain's most sophisticated technical team to enhance its nuclear program. The target is a brilliant, yet pathetic in many ways, scientist with money problems and a toxic home life. The hitman is engaged by the Iraqis to make the pitch and close the deal. The Israelis, though, have a mole on the existing Iraqi nuclear team that is monitoring the situation. The conclusion quickly occurs with a lot of violent action happening concurrently..
Seymour's writing style took awhile for me to get used to. He almost always narrates from multiple characters' perspectives, which really propels the book forward and provides a lot of depth to the characters and action. The flip side, though, is that he can change the perspective of the narrator to a different character and you may read a paragraph or two before you realize it. It's an interesting approach but I've come to appreciate its strengths.
Condition Black is a top-notch thriller that any spy/action aficionado will enjoy. It's well written, deftly plotted, and moves forward relentlessly. My only problem with it was the conclusion, which was a little bit tough to believe. Otherwise, highly recommended!
It's a tricky plot: an American agent is inadvertently killed while meeting with an Iraqi in the process of being assassinated by a hitman from his own country. The hitman is an ex-military Brit who is employed by the Iraqi government for that purpose. The American agent's friend, an FBI agent also, is incensed by the murder, gets himself assigned to investigate (even though it occurred in a foreign country) and the race is on to identify the shooter and bring him to justice. In the meantime, the shooter continues to wreak havoc on Iraq's enemies.
Complicating the story is Iraq's attempts to identify and recruit a specialist from Britain's most sophisticated technical team to enhance its nuclear program. The target is a brilliant, yet pathetic in many ways, scientist with money problems and a toxic home life. The hitman is engaged by the Iraqis to make the pitch and close the deal. The Israelis, though, have a mole on the existing Iraqi nuclear team that is monitoring the situation. The conclusion quickly occurs with a lot of violent action happening concurrently..
Seymour's writing style took awhile for me to get used to. He almost always narrates from multiple characters' perspectives, which really propels the book forward and provides a lot of depth to the characters and action. The flip side, though, is that he can change the perspective of the narrator to a different character and you may read a paragraph or two before you realize it. It's an interesting approach but I've come to appreciate its strengths.
Condition Black is a top-notch thriller that any spy/action aficionado will enjoy. It's well written, deftly plotted, and moves forward relentlessly. My only problem with it was the conclusion, which was a little bit tough to believe. Otherwise, highly recommended!
October 1, 2014
Too technical in parts for me. Bored, then hooked, then bored again, then another bit of excitement would emerge and I'd keep going.
October 14, 2017
Here's a really well written book showing the flaws in Whitehall's old boys methodology of handling an active shooter and spy suspect. A good insight into the differences in the way the US and Brits handle situations. The little angry underpaid government nuke scientist who gets passed over until he becomes a target for the Iraqi WMD program. Excellent characters, I love his hit-man, Colt. The kid from the British sticks who rebelled against Daddy, still loves Mommy and has sold his soul to a Colonel in Iraq. The side story of the scientist's wife is well done including her pent up sexual frustrations, guilt and ability to clam up in the end. The semi-rogue FBI man is a bit of a bumbler and not as good a shot as I would want one of my "finest" to be. I guess sometimes we get our man and then... sometimes we don't. Enjoy it, this writer is up there with LeCarre in understanding the psych, double-cross and intrigue of the spy world even today.
September 16, 2019
Another sizzling espionage thriller from Gerald Seymour! This one is set in Athens, Iraq and, mostly, in England. It involves assassinations, the hunting of a killer and the attempted recruitment of a nuclear scientist by a Middle Eastern power with nuclear ambitions. Set in about 1989/1990, it features Saddam Hussein’s Iraq as the ‘rogue state’, though he is never mentioned by name, being referred to throughout as the Chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council, a title so laborious to type that Mr Seymour must have saved it in ‘Quick parts’ (see the ‘Insert’ tab in MS Word) to save time and prevent himself from going nuts!
The cast of characters includes Bill Erlich, an FBI agent on a mission to avenge his friend, the assassin, ‘Colt’ (what a great name for a man who makes his living with a gun in his hand), Mossad (Israeli Intelligence) agents, an Iraqi colonel, a British scientist, Frederick Bissett, and various supporting characters who make the story all the more believable.
Seymour often uses fairly brief sentences, though not as brief as some other authors I could mention, who write (it seems) for 10 year-olds. He intersperses these with natural-sounding dialogue and short sections of deeply explanatory nuclear science, which I didn’t fully understand but they gave you the sense of the value of the ‘asset’ who was the target of the recruitment. The story builds slowly, with enough action and plot development to keep you continuously interested. Each chapter is broken down into sections, a separate one for each character. This is fine but a criticism is that it is not always obvious until you get well into the first paragraph of a new section which character he is describing. This is not a problem, it just means you may have to re-read a few lines once you’ve got your head around it.
A little bit of the action comes across as unrealistic, but artistic licence has to be permitted. I won’t give away the story but I can tell you that this is an exciting read and another in the same vein as the other greats: Le Carré, Forsyth, Deighton. I loved it.
The cast of characters includes Bill Erlich, an FBI agent on a mission to avenge his friend, the assassin, ‘Colt’ (what a great name for a man who makes his living with a gun in his hand), Mossad (Israeli Intelligence) agents, an Iraqi colonel, a British scientist, Frederick Bissett, and various supporting characters who make the story all the more believable.
Seymour often uses fairly brief sentences, though not as brief as some other authors I could mention, who write (it seems) for 10 year-olds. He intersperses these with natural-sounding dialogue and short sections of deeply explanatory nuclear science, which I didn’t fully understand but they gave you the sense of the value of the ‘asset’ who was the target of the recruitment. The story builds slowly, with enough action and plot development to keep you continuously interested. Each chapter is broken down into sections, a separate one for each character. This is fine but a criticism is that it is not always obvious until you get well into the first paragraph of a new section which character he is describing. This is not a problem, it just means you may have to re-read a few lines once you’ve got your head around it.
A little bit of the action comes across as unrealistic, but artistic licence has to be permitted. I won’t give away the story but I can tell you that this is an exciting read and another in the same vein as the other greats: Le Carré, Forsyth, Deighton. I loved it.
January 25, 2014
An excellent example of Gerald Seymour's writing, this is a well plotted thriller with some strong characterisation. As is usual with Seymour's books, events do not run smoothly and the climax and ending is not what the reader might expect. Most of the characters have flaws, and these affect events.
Seymour's style is to write in short episodes, jumping between events and characters. He develops several story threads and builds his stories by interleaving these threads. 'Condition Black' certainly continues this technique. The reader has to keep track of the various threads, which is a good reason not to put any Seymour book aside for too long. That's usually not an issue - Seymour is a highly skilled writer of political thrillers, so his novels certainly grab and keep my attention.
This book maintains his very high standard.
Seymour's style is to write in short episodes, jumping between events and characters. He develops several story threads and builds his stories by interleaving these threads. 'Condition Black' certainly continues this technique. The reader has to keep track of the various threads, which is a good reason not to put any Seymour book aside for too long. That's usually not an issue - Seymour is a highly skilled writer of political thrillers, so his novels certainly grab and keep my attention.
This book maintains his very high standard.
May 13, 2017
I had read Harry's Game and thought that it was suberp. I was very impressed so much so that I started to buy more used Seymour books here and there. This is the first that I have read from the pile, and while it is not as good as Harry's Game, it is still effective in terms of both storytelling and characters. Some people complain about the disjointed structure of the book but this is what makes the story effective: You see what's happening from several point of views and angles that the big picture is spread in front of you with all its brutal coldness. Characters are not your ordinary superman heroes; they are flawed, they make critical mistakes which drive things to unpredictable edges. Nonetheless you still like them even the Colt. If you like cold-war thrillers and Le Carre you will surely like this although it is set in a post-war era it is still built on its gist.
October 31, 2012
Really disappointing. Did not enjoy any of the characters. Disjointed somehow. Have read and enjoyed other Gerald Seymour books.
December 29, 2017
Seymour's writing style is quite choppy however it seemed especially so and a bit disjointed in this book. This combined with the slow way in which the plot unfolds lead to a rather boring read. It had the elements of what could have been a good cat and mouse chase however the execution just wasn't there. If you manage to persevere to the last 15-20% it does pick up winding to a reasonable conclusion but until then it's pretty dry and unrewarding to read.
June 11, 2017
Decent enough spy thriller. Not really thrilling, and believable plot. Characters are not supermen which makes a pleasant change although the characterisation is a little generalised eg American arrogance, gunshots behaviour, British stiff upper lip and old school tie, Isreali sneaky, efficient and deadly, Iraqi, scary yet fearful.
November 9, 2020
Really enjoyed it and I will be reading much more of this author. He writes very well and unfolds the story in a fascinating way. Even though it is about an earlier era, the operations and cooperations and non cooperations of the state, embassy and espionage worlds give insight into the difficulties in combating terrorism and the immediacy of operations and decisions. Also, the human emotions in these situations are real and ring true. Very good read.
October 9, 2023
Really great thriller with a lot of believable characters. The scientist with weakness who is desperate he tries to do the right thing and makes a hash of it. The FBI man who is obsessed with colt. And colt who is the adventurer and hard man.
September 4, 2019
It was an OK book, the plot was rather bland but overall quite readable. The story was ambitious but it started big and ended small - generally the inverse is preferable.
February 22, 2020
443 pages
November 19, 2022
What a thrilling read. Loved the characters, the storyline and the pace at which the tension builds.
July 30, 2016
I was surprised to discover this book was first published in 1991.
The stories of Iraq, determined to arm itself with nuclear warheads, young FBI agent Bill Erlich who has vowed to avenge the assassination of his close friend and Frederick Bissett, senior Scientific Officer at the Atomic weapons establishment who is desperate for monetary gain and public acclaim are skilfully and grippingly woven together.
The stories of Iraq, determined to arm itself with nuclear warheads, young FBI agent Bill Erlich who has vowed to avenge the assassination of his close friend and Frederick Bissett, senior Scientific Officer at the Atomic weapons establishment who is desperate for monetary gain and public acclaim are skilfully and grippingly woven together.
September 8, 2011
This is the second Gerald Seymour book that I've read. The first was 'Walking Dead'.
I really enjoy the way he creates the characters and has so many threads running through the story.
I enjoyed it
I really enjoy the way he creates the characters and has so many threads running through the story.
I enjoyed it
May 21, 2012
Not too bad but so many strands and subplots it became confusing at times.
March 11, 2014
He writes an involved, multi-level thriller. Not a hero-driven story which is good. Kept my attention.
February 27, 2015
Not my normal read Took a-while to get into To the point almost gave up But didn't. OK story line But felt the ending was short.
June 8, 2016
A cross between Le Carre's back room thriller and Child's action adventure. The British are very British and the Americans gung Ho!
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews