Cover Story

Tweed & Co. #3

by Colin Forbes

'Adam Procane has to be stopped...'

It was the last message his wife ever sent, and even as he read it, foreign correspondent Bob Newman knew she was dead. The killers had sent a film of her murder to London with the warning - tell other people to keep away from Procane...

Procane, a top Washington official, is about to defect. With the Presidental election two months away, it's the last thing the Americans want. Trouble is, until they know exactly who he is, they can do nothing to stop him.

In London, Tweed of SIS watches and waits. Four highly suspect Americans have already passed through en route to Scandinavia - the Deputy Head of the CIA, the National Security Adviser and his wife, and the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces. Any one of them could be Procane.

Meanwhile Newman has slipped off to Finland, bent on revenge. It's time for Tweed to act. To get back into the field. To stop Newman and find Procane - before he - or she- takes vital secrets to the East....

Genres: Thriller, Fiction, Espionage

Paperback

First published September 1, 1986

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

[Uresh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super duper

What a book!!!!!! End is terrific and with suspense. Tweed series is one of the best thriller series. Things move very fast and interesting. Give more books like cell.no mercy.etc on kindle.

[Shameem · Rating 3 out of 5]

Colin Forbes is hands down my favorite mystery novelist! This wasn’t my favorite book of his, though. (For reference, The Greek Key & The Sisterhood are two of my favorite books, period).

The big draw for me is Tweed and his whole team (Paula, Marler, Newman, Butler, Nield, and Monica. Cover Story doesn’t integrate the whole team as some of the other novels do, so I think that is what was missing for me.

I will admit the book picked up considerably by page 220 because Butler and Nield finally came on the scene. That gave things a bit more of the familiar dynamic I’ve come to love so much.

What held me in, however, is the phenomenal job Forbes did with keeping the mystery a mystery until literally the last couple of pages. Normally, I am able to fashion a decent theory as to the truth at least by the time I’m half way through the story. But this time I truly had absolutely no clue until the end. I was totally stumped and never would have guessed what was really going on.

That was pretty incredible and definitely what kept me glued even though I wasn’t as excited about the book initially as I usually am.

[Masum Billah · Rating 4 out of 5]

What A Great Spy Hunting Story
রিগ্যান যখন দ্বিতীয় বারের মত প্রেসিডেন্ট নির্বাচনে দাড়াচ্ছেন ঠিক তখন নিরাপত্তা বিভাগের এক উচ্চপদস্থ কর্মকর্তা আমেরিকা থেকে রাশিয়া পালিয়ে যাচ্ছে। আমেরিকা - ইউরোপের জন্য যা একটা বিশাল সংকট বয়ে আনতে পারে। তাকে থামাতে ইউএস আর ব্রিটেনের সিক্রেট সার্বিস পাগল হয়ে উঠল। তার ছদ্দ নাম এ্যাডাম প্রোকেন অথচ আসল পরিচয় কেউ জানেনা। ব্রিটিশ সাংবাদিক নিউম্যানের স্ত্রী সাংবাদিক এ্যালেক্সি কিছু একটা তদন্ত করতে গিয়ে মারা পড়ে। নিউম্যান এই হত্যাকাণ্ডের তদন্ত করতে একাই ছুটে যায়
ফিনল্যান্ডে। এদিকে এস্তোনিয়ায় রাশিয়ার সিক্রেট সার্বিস গ্রুর সদস্যরা একের পর এক মারা পড়তে থাকে। কে যেন তাদের শ্বাসরোধ করে হত্যা করছে। এ বিষয় নিয়ে রাশিয়ার মাথা খারাপ অবস্থা। এদিকে একে একে চারজন মার্কিন কর্মকর্তা এসেছেন লন্ডনে, লন্ডন থেকে নরওয়ে সেখান থেকে ফিনল্যান্ডে সবাই জড়ো হলেন। এদের মধ্যেই কি আছে এ্যাডাম প্রোকেন? কিন্তু আপনি যা ভাবছেন তা একদমই ঠিক না। আসল টুইস্টা আছে সবার শেষে। জাস্ট অসাম একটা স্পাই থ্রিলার।
রেটিং ৪/৫

[Kevin Cross · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was an avid reader of Colin Forbes's Tweed novels in my early twenties so thirty years on it was like visiting an old friend. I did wonder if I would find this book a bit old hat and now not to my taste but happily not a bit of it. Although the world has moved on (or at times when reading this full circle) I was reminded why I loved these novels so much in the first place. The characters are well drawn yes somehow deliberately opaque. Newman at this stage is a compelling, tortured soul, somewhat of a loose cannon but perhaps not as much as you would think but best of all are the scenes involving Tweed and his ever reliable secretary Monica. Great stuff

[Terry Halligan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cover Story, the Tweed and Co spy thriller by the late Colin Forbes, I think was the best book that I have read by him. It features Tweed himself as the main protagonist and a number of different countries. ( I read that the author liked to visit all the countries that he set his books in). The main story is basically a chase to discover the name of a possible traitor who is believed to be contemplating giving his services and secrets to the Russians. As this book is set in the 1980's and President Reagan was seeking re-election news of such a traitor could jeopardise the result. I was very impressed with this story.

[KARTHIK B · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vintage Forbes!!
hahhahahahhahahah!! Guess Whose Recommendation / review, made me pick up this book!!! Former House Speaker, NEWT GINGRICH!!! heheheh!!!!!

With 40 years of reading 100s of Mystrey books, and 1os on Cold war, I generally can guess the end / trend in most cases!!

This one was a stunner even for me!! 1 page just changes everything!! Vintage TWEED!!!!

Colin Forbes, Desmond Bagley, Maclean are different Era in Thrillers!!

Helped me to work the 6 hr road journey this week for business travel!

[Abi Raman · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book mainly focus the guy named Adam procane, whether he made to Russia or not. This book is absolute page turner, though it has many character to remind, author define each other whenever he had chance, which helps to keep hooked to the character. I personally learnt many spy stuff from this book, and more about European countries. Despite the book excites me with tension and twist throughout the reading, it's climax haven't worked for me well.

[Ryan Barretto · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thriller full of intrigue that makes you guess till the end of the book.

The atmospheric setting of Europe and England in the 80s is really well done. The main character Tweed is fascinating and each of the other characters in the story has more than one layer.

The suspense has been well done throughout the book and I enjoyed reading it.

[Cecilia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mysterierna med Tweed är alltid bra och detta bar jag inte i närheten att lista ut. Dock märker man att det är en av de tidigare böckerna på hans sätt att skriva. Bra underhållning när man mest vill klura på en gåta.

[Kim Campbell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loopholes?

Of course there are loopholes. This is fiction, there are always loopholes or things that don't add up. But if used cleverly they can be almost seem irrelevant. It's something that Colin Forbes did so well in his early Tweed books.

[Frederick Tan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A proper espionage story.

[Dunu Patrick]

Thanks

[Ian Higgs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent story again, with some nice twists. I am really enjoying re-reading this series. If you only like books with gratuitous sex and violence then these are not the books for you.

[James Watson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well structured

Great read
Thoroughly enjoyable with good tension and great descriptions. Fast moving AND EASILY FOLLOWED. WELL DESCRIBED CHARACTRS AND PLSCES

[Amzon_Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb, Top Class!

They simply do not write them like this anymore.

If you want top quality, and at a bargain - buy it - now!

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Published in 1985, this takes us from our current lukewarm war with Russia back to the real Cold War. The secret services grapevine has picked up news that “Adam Procane” is about to defect, this could be bigger than Kim Philby’s defection. Adam Procane, whoever he might be is thought to be a top American Official, this could scupper Reagan’s hopes of re-election. The GRU in the Soviet Union is rubbing its hands in anxious anticipation. Tweed of the British SIS, is keen to have Procane stopped before he (or could it be she?) crosses into the Soviet Union. In Estonia four GRU officers have been murdered mysteriously, could it be connected. Four highly suspected top Americans head for Scandinavia: the Deputy head of the CIA, the National Security adviser, his wife and the Chief of Staff of the Amed Forces. Anyone of them might be Procane. All the agents now need to wait until someone makes a move.

This is a classic Cold War spy thriller. Everybody is following everyone else or trying to give their tails the slip.

“Here’s a fiver. My wife has a detective following me in the cab behind. When we hit a traffic jam I’m getting out – you keep the change, OK?”
“OK, sir!”

The driver stared at Newman in his rear view mirror and winked. It was a situation he was not unfamiliar with.

Newman is the joker in the pack, he is not in the secret services, he is a journalist, he is desperate to avenge the murder of his wife, murdered by a rogue GRU officer in Tallinn. He needs to find some way of getting to Tallinn, not an easy task in the mid eighties when those westerners allowed into Tallinn, to outward appearances a model Soviet City, had to wait weeks for a visa and undergo various checks from the Russian secret services.

Tweed has a Europe-wide network of informers and assistants including some rather implausibly attractive and capable women. Tweed ‘s codename of “Brown Seal” reminds me of the Dom Joly sketches with various secret agents having animal names in Trigger Happy TV.

Like all good thrillers there is a twist in the tale, but I won’t spoil it for you.

[Phil Ashman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cover Story was the first Tweed book I read. I came across the series as a young man when I read the blurb on the back of Rhinoceros, a much later book in the series, which had just come out. It interested me enough to want to read it but decided to start at the start. By mistake I asked for Cover Story for Christmas, not realising that it was third, rather than first in the series. I got at least twenty books for Christmas that year, but I can still remember, late on Christmas Day having a few minutes to start one of them. I picked up Cover Story and I was immediately gripped. Not only was my love affair with the Tweed series ignited, this was the point where I changed from a casual to an avid reader. The Tweed books are not the greatest ever written but they are exciting. The Cold War era stories are particularly so. The first six Tweed books have been made available on Audible so I have spent the last few days listening to Cover Story and re-living my youth. Absolutely loved it.

[Nigel · Rating 3 out of 5]

A really good espionage thriller. The action moves along at a good pace taking in many different countries, although the focus is Sweden, Finland and Estonia. Tweed is trying to track down a possible high ranking US defector (code named Adam Procane) and no one it seems knows who he is. As several possible contenders travel to Sweden and Finland the tension mounts, can Tweed stop the defector?
As I have come to expect from Colin Forbes, the characters are good and the plot lines are strewn with red herrings and false clues to keep you guessing right up to the end. It is always stated that Colin used to travel to the locations and his writing shows this up. As the action moves along the streets of various cities the realism of actual knowledge shines through.
All in all exactly what I was looking for in a Colin Forbes novel

[Srimanth Guntupalli · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is by far the best book to be involved in a character that takes you through the whole of Europe and makes you feel that you have actually been there. The amazing description given of the people and of the places pinpointed even to the extent of the traffic rules of a country is truly an art of writing amidst the fictional chase for a person. Maybe I have been talking too much about the descriptions itself and that is not the whole thing of the book by the way. It is really a good and enjoyable for all the fiction lovers and moreover I don't like to degrade the suspense anymore...

[Manoj · Rating 3 out of 5]

Adam Procane... The emphasis right from the beginning about stopping a certain Adam Procane is brought about in a very interesting manner.With the brutal murder of his wife Alexis, Bob Newman sets out on his own to take on whoever was responsible for his wife's death....Procane, a top Washington official, is about to defect. With the Presidential election two months away, it's the last thing the Americans want.As the story moves on four of the top American move towards Finland and any of them could be Procane.The ending is brought about very beautifully with the huge twist given to the story.

[TheIron Paw · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was ok. A decent but not great spy story with several interesting twists. I may well try another of the Tweed series (why do I always come in in the middle of a series?). A decent summer read by the pool - or winter by the fireplace.

[Patrick Parker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another Outstanding Read

Once more, Colin Forbes takes the reader on a fascinating journey throughout Scandinavia with a tale of conspiracy and misleading truths.
The final twist is so clever, it will catch out anyone who reads this book. It certainly did me!

[Susanne Bartel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Found this book in our holiday house, and it turned out to be a real page turner. Great plot with a surprising end, and quite a lot of interesting details about the agents' life during the cold war.

[Kirti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un-put-downable!

[James Findley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good grief! I picked this up in a bookstore. It is 35 years since it was written and it hasn't worn well. Comic book characters and a superficial plot.

[Ingrid · Rating 2 out of 5]

Actually didn't finish it, couldn't get into it.

[Bill Forgeard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read during High School, along with various other Colin Forbes thrillers.