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Dunn's Conundrum
It’s the mid-1980s and the cold war hasn’t thawed. The Library, a super-secret U.S. espionage agency is keeping an eye on the Russians and everybody else. A dozen elite intelligence experts relentlessly sift out classified information from everywhere. They know all the secrets except for one – which of the librarians is a traitor.
It’s up to Walt Coolidge, a librarian with a Sherlockian gift for analyzing people’s garbage, to uncover the mole and, if he fails, it could lead to nuclear Armageddon.
It’s up to Walt Coolidge, a librarian with a Sherlockian gift for analyzing people’s garbage, to uncover the mole and, if he fails, it could lead to nuclear Armageddon.
404 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1985
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
October 20, 2014
It took me three reads over thirty years to get the real point of this droll thriller. It is actually an important book, and I am trying to write a screenplay. If anyone knows if this has already been done, please advise.
This book has an important message for our times. Lee was incredibly prescient in what the unbridled NSA and rubberstamp FISA court would lead to. It displays the underside of human nature in a way rarely done properly. And when you figure out who "The Doctor" is, you begin to see the genius and importance of this message. A subtle masterpiece reflecting upon what the surveillance state does to us... on top of being enormously entertaining.
This book has an important message for our times. Lee was incredibly prescient in what the unbridled NSA and rubberstamp FISA court would lead to. It displays the underside of human nature in a way rarely done properly. And when you figure out who "The Doctor" is, you begin to see the genius and importance of this message. A subtle masterpiece reflecting upon what the surveillance state does to us... on top of being enormously entertaining.
July 6, 2017
"Coolidge's Condundrum" might've been a more apropos title, as the protagonist's name is Walter Coolidge.
Entertaining, some decent action scenes (though not as action-packed as the original hardcover book jacket or some professional critics made it out to be), good humour, juicy sex scenes, international intrigue, and some good cynical insights into the seedy nature of Beltway politics.
And also frighteningly prescient in foreseeing back in the mid-1980s how technology would enable the Federal government to become the almost Big Brother-ish surveillance state that we have today (I wonder if Mr. Snowden ever read this book?).
However, with all due respect to the deceased author (R.I.P.), his obvious left-wing agenda does much to dampen my enthusiasm for this novel; anti-military, anti-market, anti-gun, anti-individualism. And depicting the USSR and communism in general in such a benevolent light.
Mr. Lee liked to depict conservatives as mindless vicious warmongers, but was apparently forgetful of phrase "Pot, meet kettle." After all, Lee worked on LBJ's 1964 presidential campaign and was one of the brains behind the infamous "Daisy Girl" commercial which insinuated that the late, great Sen. Barry Goldwater was a vicious jingoist....yet it was LBJ who wound up escalating the Vietnam War and was ultimately responsible for the majority of our country's 58,000 deaths for whom the author sheds so many crocodile tears within the pages of the book.
And the author also seemed to conveniently forget that it was GOP President Nixon who got us out of Vietnam, de-escalating LBJ's legacy while simultaneously fighting the Vietnam War much more effectively from 1970-72 and coming much closer to actually *winning* that war than most left-wingers in academia and media are willing to acknowledge.
And for all of the efforts of the author (and protagonist Walter Coolidge and the fictitious Emersons peacenik group) to depict Reagan and other conservatives as hell-bent on nuclear war, it turns out that the Reagan Administration did a lot more to constructively engage the Soviet Union in arms reduction and thus reducing the scare of world nuclear annihilation (remember the INF Treaty, folks?).
Entertaining, yes, prescient in some ways, yes, but with a political agenda that should be taken with a grain on salt by those of us who are students of Cold War history.
--RANDOM STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS AND NOTEWORTHY PASSAGES:
--p. 10: "White Anglo-Saxon Catholic," eh?
"power without a constituency, which was a vaporous kind of power"
--p. 11: "He'd been in government long enough to appreciate competence." Haha!
--pp. 17-18: Wow, prescient; a fictitious forerunner of DHS and/or the Director of National Intelligence?
--p. 21: "....revival meetings in the War Room," haha, yikes.
"O.F.F." Operation Fontucky Freedom?!?!
--p. 48: Wow, an Eritrea reference, 9 years before it became an independent country!
--p. 52: "the Pink Palace in the Black Forest (before) or the Entropy Express (after)." Haha.
--p. 59: "Tice had come to know garbage trucks in approximately the way F-14 pilots knew MIG-23s." Interesting analogy.
--p. 61: "Swallow and Forget." No innuendo intended?
--p. 62: "Office of Fiscal Foolhardiness, Office of Foreign Failures, Office of Federal Fuckups," all priceless, but the author left out "Operation Fontucky Freedom!"
--p. 78: "Beebe was a breast man....Suck or die." Haha, a man after Seth Bailey's and Dan Webster's hearts!
--p. 96: "separatist tendencies among Albanian Yugoslavs." Holy shit, predating the real-life Kosovo crisis by a good 11-14 years!
--p. 138: Béarnaise sauce! 007 would be pleased!
--p. 149: "The tortoise was love; the hare was a whore."
--p. 176: "Coolidge had made garbage respectable, had turned it into an instrument of national policy." And present-day Federal law enforcement agencies certainly appreciate the value of trash runs.
--p. 182: M-60 tanks? Wasn't the M-1 Abrams MBT online by this time?
--p. 189: "mastication!"
--p. 193: Kalyanov = Vladimir Putin?
--p. 221: "bomber pilot in the missile age....obsolete??" Er, not really, author got that prediction wrong.
--p. 239: Aahh, the pre-PC days of the 1980s, when East Asians were still referred to as "Orientals."
--pp. 244-245: Oh snap, the PC Police and race-baiters would have a total shit-fit over this passage! 😮
--p. 250: "'The Soviet Union is finished; it's only a matter of time now. I give them five years tops...." Not too far off the mark, as it turns out.
--p. 263: Yurasov = Your Ass Off?
--p. 290: "'....titanium steel subs...These expensive Alpha-class boats are *still* noisy." Okay, but what about the Typhoon-class subs?
--p. 295: "'There is nothing sinful about precision of expression. They *are*, indisputably and beyond hope of redemption, stupid sons of bitches.'" Haha, roll that in your pipe and smoke it, holier-than-thou Bible-thumping puritans!
--p. 305: Ugh, anti-gun, anti-individualism, anti-market, anti-military all in one fell swoop.
CENTRAL CASTING: Joe Don Baker as Harry Dunn, Woody Allen as Davey Reed, Jim Belushi as Walter Coolidge, Anne Archer as Vera, James Remar as Beebe, Bob Beckel as Senator Garvey, Vincent Gardenia as Gardella
Entertaining, some decent action scenes (though not as action-packed as the original hardcover book jacket or some professional critics made it out to be), good humour, juicy sex scenes, international intrigue, and some good cynical insights into the seedy nature of Beltway politics.
And also frighteningly prescient in foreseeing back in the mid-1980s how technology would enable the Federal government to become the almost Big Brother-ish surveillance state that we have today (I wonder if Mr. Snowden ever read this book?).
However, with all due respect to the deceased author (R.I.P.), his obvious left-wing agenda does much to dampen my enthusiasm for this novel; anti-military, anti-market, anti-gun, anti-individualism. And depicting the USSR and communism in general in such a benevolent light.
Mr. Lee liked to depict conservatives as mindless vicious warmongers, but was apparently forgetful of phrase "Pot, meet kettle." After all, Lee worked on LBJ's 1964 presidential campaign and was one of the brains behind the infamous "Daisy Girl" commercial which insinuated that the late, great Sen. Barry Goldwater was a vicious jingoist....yet it was LBJ who wound up escalating the Vietnam War and was ultimately responsible for the majority of our country's 58,000 deaths for whom the author sheds so many crocodile tears within the pages of the book.
And the author also seemed to conveniently forget that it was GOP President Nixon who got us out of Vietnam, de-escalating LBJ's legacy while simultaneously fighting the Vietnam War much more effectively from 1970-72 and coming much closer to actually *winning* that war than most left-wingers in academia and media are willing to acknowledge.
And for all of the efforts of the author (and protagonist Walter Coolidge and the fictitious Emersons peacenik group) to depict Reagan and other conservatives as hell-bent on nuclear war, it turns out that the Reagan Administration did a lot more to constructively engage the Soviet Union in arms reduction and thus reducing the scare of world nuclear annihilation (remember the INF Treaty, folks?).
Entertaining, yes, prescient in some ways, yes, but with a political agenda that should be taken with a grain on salt by those of us who are students of Cold War history.
--RANDOM STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS AND NOTEWORTHY PASSAGES:
--p. 10: "White Anglo-Saxon Catholic," eh?
"power without a constituency, which was a vaporous kind of power"
--p. 11: "He'd been in government long enough to appreciate competence." Haha!
--pp. 17-18: Wow, prescient; a fictitious forerunner of DHS and/or the Director of National Intelligence?
--p. 21: "....revival meetings in the War Room," haha, yikes.
"O.F.F." Operation Fontucky Freedom?!?!
--p. 48: Wow, an Eritrea reference, 9 years before it became an independent country!
--p. 52: "the Pink Palace in the Black Forest (before) or the Entropy Express (after)." Haha.
--p. 59: "Tice had come to know garbage trucks in approximately the way F-14 pilots knew MIG-23s." Interesting analogy.
--p. 61: "Swallow and Forget." No innuendo intended?
--p. 62: "Office of Fiscal Foolhardiness, Office of Foreign Failures, Office of Federal Fuckups," all priceless, but the author left out "Operation Fontucky Freedom!"
--p. 78: "Beebe was a breast man....Suck or die." Haha, a man after Seth Bailey's and Dan Webster's hearts!
--p. 96: "separatist tendencies among Albanian Yugoslavs." Holy shit, predating the real-life Kosovo crisis by a good 11-14 years!
--p. 138: Béarnaise sauce! 007 would be pleased!
--p. 149: "The tortoise was love; the hare was a whore."
--p. 176: "Coolidge had made garbage respectable, had turned it into an instrument of national policy." And present-day Federal law enforcement agencies certainly appreciate the value of trash runs.
--p. 182: M-60 tanks? Wasn't the M-1 Abrams MBT online by this time?
--p. 189: "mastication!"
--p. 193: Kalyanov = Vladimir Putin?
--p. 221: "bomber pilot in the missile age....obsolete??" Er, not really, author got that prediction wrong.
--p. 239: Aahh, the pre-PC days of the 1980s, when East Asians were still referred to as "Orientals."
--pp. 244-245: Oh snap, the PC Police and race-baiters would have a total shit-fit over this passage! 😮
--p. 250: "'The Soviet Union is finished; it's only a matter of time now. I give them five years tops...." Not too far off the mark, as it turns out.
--p. 263: Yurasov = Your Ass Off?
--p. 290: "'....titanium steel subs...These expensive Alpha-class boats are *still* noisy." Okay, but what about the Typhoon-class subs?
--p. 295: "'There is nothing sinful about precision of expression. They *are*, indisputably and beyond hope of redemption, stupid sons of bitches.'" Haha, roll that in your pipe and smoke it, holier-than-thou Bible-thumping puritans!
--p. 305: Ugh, anti-gun, anti-individualism, anti-market, anti-military all in one fell swoop.
CENTRAL CASTING: Joe Don Baker as Harry Dunn, Woody Allen as Davey Reed, Jim Belushi as Walter Coolidge, Anne Archer as Vera, James Remar as Beebe, Bob Beckel as Senator Garvey, Vincent Gardenia as Gardella
February 6, 2015
Dunn’s Conundrum by Stan Lee
A conundrum is a puzzle, a mystery, a problem to be solved and I am real puzzle fiend - this is why I love mystery novels and spy and crime fiction. I like to work who did it. But here the character Dunn is trying work out just who is the Doctor? The spy in their midst? And there is a lovely twist on this we find at the end.
Now I really loved this book, my first 5 star of the year - and I don’t give them out lightly. It is right in my field of expertise and research - information and knowledge management and the contradictions and issues that are raised by them. The book eloquently shows that there is a tremendous difference between the two, and in the end, as knowledge is informed by intuition and leaps into the unknown that then demonstrates new linkages and understanding, it shows that you cannot just rely on information. Intuition, is also linked to that ‘gut’ feeling , and now that we know that humans have a mini brain in their stomachs, (see http://www.collective-evolution.com/2... and https://www.psychologytoday.com/artic...) we can be better sure that when our stomachs indicate we may be doing something wrong, then we may well be doing something wrong!
I was slightly confused when reading it as it did seem a little dated in parts and then getting to the end, I found out that not only did the author die in 1997 but that the book was written in 1985 (I found an original review of the book form 1984! https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-re...). Interesting how such scenarios, if well written, can stand the test of time. Update the technology a little and what might be the difference? I suspect that as time has moved on we actually empathise more with the scenario then they did then when such computer links seemed very implausible. After all the personal computer was in its infancy in 1984/5 and we certainly had yet thought of information management as a main business tool.
There were some very interesting quotes that I would like to put in here as I found them amusing or illustrative or otherwise significant of the writing style or content:
‘Ives was a design-center American: hew was within all tolerances. Medium height, medium weight, not handsome, not ugly, a white Anglo-Saxon Catholic who didn’t practice but had a daughter doing time in an ashram.’
‘Dunn had considered hiring a novelist for the job. They were born undercover agents. Voyeurs, secretly making notes.’
‘Nobody knew everything, which cut off countless possibilities for cross-fertilisation. And prevented any kind of sensible control.’
‘We inevitably think of information, data, facts, as inherently good. An asset. Something positive in our lives... information gathering permitted the advance of civilisation....some information is clearly negative.....negative information is that which, immediately upon acquitting, causes the recipient to know less than he did before...that which subtracts from one’s store of knowledge ad wisdom...’
‘...You’re never going to understand the world. Know why? Because you’re ignoring everything that doesn’t fit.’
Now garbage is also interesting. Because, of course, what you thro away does say a lot about you. Especially today when we are urged to recycle so much. Although if you allow for a compost bin you will get a very limited view of what we eat. It also only works for single-occupancy households, not flats, as if you all share the same dustbins (UK word here) who know just who throw away the whiskey bottles? But in the scenario posited here in the book, they were monitoring single occupancy houses and presumably the servants had separate bins.
Now in our flats we have different bins. Blue, grey and green. The green covers the garden and also food waste that cannot be home composted including meat and bones. The Council takes this composts in their machines which go to very high heat and produce wonderful very strong material that you need to adjust 3 parts soil to 1 pat compost otherwise the plants will burn. The blue is for recycling and the grey for general rubbish. All 4 flats use the same bins so that would definitely confuse any Garbageman.
So this book is basically a Hawks Vs Doves story with political connivance and convenience thrown in. And as stated in the book, the Hawks in the US can always tell a good story to try and convince John Doe.
A conundrum is a puzzle, a mystery, a problem to be solved and I am real puzzle fiend - this is why I love mystery novels and spy and crime fiction. I like to work who did it. But here the character Dunn is trying work out just who is the Doctor? The spy in their midst? And there is a lovely twist on this we find at the end.
Now I really loved this book, my first 5 star of the year - and I don’t give them out lightly. It is right in my field of expertise and research - information and knowledge management and the contradictions and issues that are raised by them. The book eloquently shows that there is a tremendous difference between the two, and in the end, as knowledge is informed by intuition and leaps into the unknown that then demonstrates new linkages and understanding, it shows that you cannot just rely on information. Intuition, is also linked to that ‘gut’ feeling , and now that we know that humans have a mini brain in their stomachs, (see http://www.collective-evolution.com/2... and https://www.psychologytoday.com/artic...) we can be better sure that when our stomachs indicate we may be doing something wrong, then we may well be doing something wrong!
I was slightly confused when reading it as it did seem a little dated in parts and then getting to the end, I found out that not only did the author die in 1997 but that the book was written in 1985 (I found an original review of the book form 1984! https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-re...). Interesting how such scenarios, if well written, can stand the test of time. Update the technology a little and what might be the difference? I suspect that as time has moved on we actually empathise more with the scenario then they did then when such computer links seemed very implausible. After all the personal computer was in its infancy in 1984/5 and we certainly had yet thought of information management as a main business tool.
There were some very interesting quotes that I would like to put in here as I found them amusing or illustrative or otherwise significant of the writing style or content:
‘Ives was a design-center American: hew was within all tolerances. Medium height, medium weight, not handsome, not ugly, a white Anglo-Saxon Catholic who didn’t practice but had a daughter doing time in an ashram.’
‘Dunn had considered hiring a novelist for the job. They were born undercover agents. Voyeurs, secretly making notes.’
‘Nobody knew everything, which cut off countless possibilities for cross-fertilisation. And prevented any kind of sensible control.’
‘We inevitably think of information, data, facts, as inherently good. An asset. Something positive in our lives... information gathering permitted the advance of civilisation....some information is clearly negative.....negative information is that which, immediately upon acquitting, causes the recipient to know less than he did before...that which subtracts from one’s store of knowledge ad wisdom...’
‘...You’re never going to understand the world. Know why? Because you’re ignoring everything that doesn’t fit.’
Now garbage is also interesting. Because, of course, what you thro away does say a lot about you. Especially today when we are urged to recycle so much. Although if you allow for a compost bin you will get a very limited view of what we eat. It also only works for single-occupancy households, not flats, as if you all share the same dustbins (UK word here) who know just who throw away the whiskey bottles? But in the scenario posited here in the book, they were monitoring single occupancy houses and presumably the servants had separate bins.
Now in our flats we have different bins. Blue, grey and green. The green covers the garden and also food waste that cannot be home composted including meat and bones. The Council takes this composts in their machines which go to very high heat and produce wonderful very strong material that you need to adjust 3 parts soil to 1 pat compost otherwise the plants will burn. The blue is for recycling and the grey for general rubbish. All 4 flats use the same bins so that would definitely confuse any Garbageman.
So this book is basically a Hawks Vs Doves story with political connivance and convenience thrown in. And as stated in the book, the Hawks in the US can always tell a good story to try and convince John Doe.
July 19, 2015
“Robert Ludlum with a sense of humor,” Detroit News
One of the Most Acclaimed Espionage Novels Ever Written… And Also One of the Funniest.
It’s the mid-1980s and the cold war hasn’t thawed. The Library, a super-secret U.S. espionage agency is keeping an eye on the Russians and everybody else. A dozen elite intelligence experts relentlessly sift out classified information from everywhere. They know all the secrets except for one – which of the librarians is a traitor.
It’s up to Walt Coolidge, a librarian with a Sherlockian gift for analyzing people’s garbage, to uncover the mole and, if he fails, it could lead to nuclear Armageddon.
“A book that administers charm and dismay in beautifully balanced proportions,” Los Angeles Times
“Tough, funny, quirky, bawdy, suspenseful. I defy any reader to guess where this story is going… I predict a long, hearty life for this novel.” Bestselling author John D. MacDonald writing for USA Today
“Deftly plotted and smoothly written, several cuts above the norm,” Cosmopolitan
“Sharp, fresh, beguiling, somewhere between ‘Dr. Strangelove’ fantasy and dead-on-target Washington reality,” Kirkus
“Highly entertaining, the plot is marvelously intricate, wild and still somehow plausible…a truly wonderful book” New York Daily News
About the AuthorA successful advertising copywriter known for DDB Worldwide’s notorious political commercial “Daisy,” Stan R. Lee was also the author of two bestselling, highly-acclaimed, and innovative thrillers. Lee started his career as a writer of suspense novels with Dunn’s Conundrum – a riveting espionage story about a covert US intelligence organization and the operatives who work there. Raising questions about technology, the dangers of information, and the individual right to privacy, Lee’s prophetic thriller was way ahead of its time…and is as powerful today as when it was first published. Lee’s second thriller The God Project, follows an advertising executive working as a political campaign aide for the President. When the exec is asked to investigate a top secret CIA project, his photographic memory becomes instrumental to identifying the villains and unraveling the plot. In addition to writing novels and working in advertising, Lee served in the army and the navy during the Korean War and worked as a design engineer and a technical writer. He also served as head copywriter for Lyndon Johnsons’ presidential campaign in 1964 and worked for Eugene McCarthy in 1968. He died in 1997.
April 23, 2015
At times the entire book seemed to be a conundrum. A somewhat jumbled riddle to start and at the point of giving it up (I rarely do) it became interesting. From interesting it went to hilarious, although also moments of just plain ridiculous at the inhuman like feats of valor. At some point there is finally a more complete understanding and at last the rise to the conclusion. Although overly complicated at times when finished a look back shows some prescience on the author’s part. Even in today’s (4/23/2015) news headline a major failure of a rocket test by a major power is a huge embarrassment, this statement is for real and not part of the book. Back to the book and thinking it over the whole scenario could have very well been within the realm of possibility given the time period, and as events in the world of today shape up it could conceivably apply to the current time period, just change some of the names. I cannot rate more than four stars because of the confusing aspects but this could be me. A reader often has to take a risk and maybe finish a book finding total satisfaction with the experience.
February 7, 2015
This is a political thriller that is scary that it is so realistic. It is written with a humorous slightly skewed perspective. It is based on the cold war type spy novel with the modern day NSA big brother combined. A good read with plenty of quirky characters. I liked it and will probably reread it to catch a few more of the nusances.
December 18, 2010
Entertaining spy-type story. Why do contempary fiction books have more sex than romances? Weird..
December 21, 2023
3.5 stars rounded up for a spy story that kept my interest, although it was a bit far fetched. The premise of this book is that there is a secret agency called The Library, a super secret agency of the US government composed of 12 people who constantly monitor all classified information from all US government departments. This book is set in the early 1980s and requires a stretch in the reader's imagination to accept the premise.
In the aftermath of 9-11-2001, it was revealed that the FBI and the CIA had intelligence that,if it had been shared, might have prevented the 9-11 catastrophe. The Department of Homeland Security was created in response to this revelation, and although the CIA and the FBI are not part of HS, they do share intelligence with them.
However, once you accept the premise, then the book reveals that there is one of the 12 who blows the whistle on a secret project with truly horrible implications. How this one person manages to deal with the immense weight of the US govt. to resolve this problem becomes a page turner. I recommend it to Dr. Strangelove fans.
This was a kindle unlimited 4 book set, but I am reviewing them individually.
In the aftermath of 9-11-2001, it was revealed that the FBI and the CIA had intelligence that,if it had been shared, might have prevented the 9-11 catastrophe. The Department of Homeland Security was created in response to this revelation, and although the CIA and the FBI are not part of HS, they do share intelligence with them.
However, once you accept the premise, then the book reveals that there is one of the 12 who blows the whistle on a secret project with truly horrible implications. How this one person manages to deal with the immense weight of the US govt. to resolve this problem becomes a page turner. I recommend it to Dr. Strangelove fans.
This was a kindle unlimited 4 book set, but I am reviewing them individually.
March 31, 2022
Recommended.
On the surface highly convoluted and confusing, which makes it seem overly long. But once the pieces are put together this is an intelligent story that expresses and communicates the character's and situations psychology very well.
On the surface highly convoluted and confusing, which makes it seem overly long. But once the pieces are put together this is an intelligent story that expresses and communicates the character's and situations psychology very well.
May 18, 2017
Tedious. Not funny.
January 12, 2015
This book is a fantastic and faithful display of the fear and insanity within Government during the height of the cold war. The story itself is imaginative, full of suspense, and highly entertaining. Having lived through the Cold War period, I find the most horrifying part of the story is that it could all very well be true. As an official of one of the agencies involved during the 80s, I can assure the reader that the actions taken, decisions made and callous regard for human life is an accurate reflection of Government at that time. I am awed by Lee's ability to so beautifully capture the angst of the time and provide a detailed description of the people involved in the process. The story is compelling, and quickly reaches a point where you have to keep reading. The hero is unlikely, but highly likeable. The uplifting part of the story is the element of love providing the basis of the hero's survival. Lee has brilliantly captured the forces at play and used them to create a memorable story. It's well worth your time to read it.
December 18, 2015
Another book recommended by a patron, another enjoyable readable first chapter. This book is by THE Stan Lee o f comic book fame (and I am a HUGE fangirl). It's sly, witty and uses words like circumlocutory. I am always happy when books include words I've never used let alone heard of. One point for me in the next trivia game. (oh c'mon -- go look it up, I'm not going to define it for you).
In describing an colleague of Dunn's Lee writes "You were for or you were against. Sober, Beebee looked like he'd make a mean drunk; drunk, he glided lightly around like a fifth of nitroglycerin." (p6)
I love this man. Really. I do.
Wish I had time to read the entire thing but the first chapter is def a good one.
In describing an colleague of Dunn's Lee writes "You were for or you were against. Sober, Beebee looked like he'd make a mean drunk; drunk, he glided lightly around like a fifth of nitroglycerin." (p6)
I love this man. Really. I do.
Wish I had time to read the entire thing but the first chapter is def a good one.
July 26, 2008
A lightweight Ludlum-ish tale with a bit more humor. I finished it in one sitting.
Want to read
February 22, 2010" Humorous thriller. Like Robert Ludlum on laughing gas."--GR description 2/2010.
November 20, 2012
My 2 year old nephew picked this book out for me at the used book shop. It was an entertaining spy type cold war thriller, but not super great.
August 20, 2013
Thought provoking from distance of 25 years and in light of current NSA debacles. Recommended by Seth Godin and worth a quick read.
August 11, 2014
reading this was like walking a twisted road. truly a mystery to me. i will read it again. and probably again. and finally i may figure it out.
March 25, 2015
This book is a great read!
May 2, 2017
One big Meh...
Boring and not amusing. Got 30% in and just couldn't continue. Not like me at all but I just had enough.
Boring and not amusing. Got 30% in and just couldn't continue. Not like me at all but I just had enough.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews