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Alan "Mac" McQueen #4
Counter Attack
Australia's super-spy, Alan McQueen, has been lured out of retirement. Any dreams Mac has a of a cozy office job are shattered when he's dispatched to Singapore to oversee a covert mission. When things go disastrously wrong, he not only has to defend his reputation in Australia but also stay out of jail in Vietnam. From the leafy suburbs of Singapore to the mean streets of Saigon, from the political infighting of Canberra to the old killing fields of Northern Cambodia, Mac has to use all his cunning and a few unusual alliances to get to the bottom of a conspiracy that could throw the world into a thermo-nuclear showdown. When nothing is what it seems, and death is only one mistake away, Mac finds himself both hunter and hunted as he pursues a truth that could save millions of lives.
474 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 7, 2010
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
October 27, 2011
When it comes to writing military intelligence, covert operation styled thrillers there have been some particularly well known authors over the years. Tom Clancy, Robert Ludlum, Ian Fleming and Len Deighton come to mind immediately. Until Mark Abernethy created Alan (Mac) McQueen, there have been fewer options to choose from set in this part of the world, seen from an Australian perspective. Mac is our super-spy, the covert operative who knows everyone, works in our geographical region, is fearless in pursuit of the goal of whatever operation he's sent on, and frighteningly able to land himself in extremely deep water at just about every outing.
COUNTER ATTACK finds him dispatched to Singapore to oversee just such a covert mission. Which goes pear-shaped. Which takes Mac from there to Saigon, and onto the former killing fields of Cambodia, all the while dodging the bad guys, and the good guys (they are somehow interchangeable yet again). Along the way he meets up with new allies, some old compatriots and uses every ounce of his nous, guile, guts and glory to avoid yet another world-wide crisis.
The fourth in the Alan McQueen series, these books are exactly what the covers are trying to tell potential readers. Big action, loud explosions, much rushing about, Mac-jep (well everyone-jep really), adrenaline fuelled, maniacal action, badder than bad baddies and a resolution by the skin of the world's teeth. We're talking thrillers here - we're definitely not talking nuanced and considered psychological analysis, although Mac isn't just an Energiser Bunny about everything. He has a wife, children, people he cares about, people he feels guilty about, people who can make him doubt himself, feel responsible. He is, however, refreshingly bullet-proof for a man of his age.
Aside from the character of Mac who is not just a man's man, he's dangerously close to a bit of a SNAG sometimes, part of the attraction of these books is that the action does take place in our region. The settings are moving around from book to book, throughout Asia, backwards and forwards out of Canberra - the politics, the military, the relationships with our immediate neighbours are woven into the action in the books in what feels like a a very realistic manner. There's a fair bit of tongue in cheek dialogue along the way, as well as quite a bit of blokey talk which personally I found quite realistic, but which could provide an unexpected tone for anybody who thinks that Australian's under pressure are all going to sound like Crocodile Dundee....
I've always been a fan of the Mac series. Whilst they are exactly what they promise to be - big, bold, loud, mad, bad and slightly out of control, there's a little bit more than that. There are some nice little human touches, there's more than just Mac in the character line up and then there's the localised settings which are the icing on the cake. Even with the reoccurring character set, you wouldn't have to have read the earlier books in the series to dive into COUNTER ATTACK. But summer's on the way and these are perfect lazy summer day reads - so why not catch up with Mac in the earlier books and really get an idea of where he's coming from?
COUNTER ATTACK finds him dispatched to Singapore to oversee just such a covert mission. Which goes pear-shaped. Which takes Mac from there to Saigon, and onto the former killing fields of Cambodia, all the while dodging the bad guys, and the good guys (they are somehow interchangeable yet again). Along the way he meets up with new allies, some old compatriots and uses every ounce of his nous, guile, guts and glory to avoid yet another world-wide crisis.
The fourth in the Alan McQueen series, these books are exactly what the covers are trying to tell potential readers. Big action, loud explosions, much rushing about, Mac-jep (well everyone-jep really), adrenaline fuelled, maniacal action, badder than bad baddies and a resolution by the skin of the world's teeth. We're talking thrillers here - we're definitely not talking nuanced and considered psychological analysis, although Mac isn't just an Energiser Bunny about everything. He has a wife, children, people he cares about, people he feels guilty about, people who can make him doubt himself, feel responsible. He is, however, refreshingly bullet-proof for a man of his age.
Aside from the character of Mac who is not just a man's man, he's dangerously close to a bit of a SNAG sometimes, part of the attraction of these books is that the action does take place in our region. The settings are moving around from book to book, throughout Asia, backwards and forwards out of Canberra - the politics, the military, the relationships with our immediate neighbours are woven into the action in the books in what feels like a a very realistic manner. There's a fair bit of tongue in cheek dialogue along the way, as well as quite a bit of blokey talk which personally I found quite realistic, but which could provide an unexpected tone for anybody who thinks that Australian's under pressure are all going to sound like Crocodile Dundee....
I've always been a fan of the Mac series. Whilst they are exactly what they promise to be - big, bold, loud, mad, bad and slightly out of control, there's a little bit more than that. There are some nice little human touches, there's more than just Mac in the character line up and then there's the localised settings which are the icing on the cake. Even with the reoccurring character set, you wouldn't have to have read the earlier books in the series to dive into COUNTER ATTACK. But summer's on the way and these are perfect lazy summer day reads - so why not catch up with Mac in the earlier books and really get an idea of where he's coming from?
May 30, 2021
Really good read about an Aussie Intelligence (oxymoronic I know, but there ya go) operative sent to South East Asia to investigate an embassy official who's behaving erratically. The whole thing gets extremely complicated and involved with the Chinese, Americans, Israelis, and Koreans taking a part in the proceedings.
Extremely well researched and written, this is a must read book for any fan of Lee Child, Robert Ludlum, or even Ian Fleming.
Extremely well researched and written, this is a must read book for any fan of Lee Child, Robert Ludlum, or even Ian Fleming.
July 30, 2017
So real! Brilliant read
October 11, 2021
Loved this full on action novel. Will be reading more from Mark Abernethy.
March 5, 2013
To be frank, this book is terrible.
Where to begin... well the actual writing does very little for me, phrases such as "Mac punched the Chinaman in the nuts" really belong more in a teenagers book (if anywhere) than a 'serious' adult novel.
The last Mark Abernethy novel I read the main character checked his Casio G-Shock 64 thousand times and it was immensely detracting from the storyline I almost felt like I was reading an advertising brochure it was mentioned so much. By page 136 in this book though not once had the Casio G-Shock been raised or looked at and I thought there was a chance that despite the story being utterly boring that it might just get better, maybe. Then lo and behold on page 137 the G-Shock came out, followed by another two sightings, then is disappeared for until the last quarter of the book where it was looked at no less than 12 times. Do I really need to be told 15 times what brand of watch the character is using? I vastly prefer books which just mention it once to build the character and then say 'watch' unless some change takes place.
The last book also used annoying abbreviations such as Singers (Singapore), Honkers (Hong Kong) and Bangers (Bangkok) but just to increase the level of poor quality writing in this instalment the usage of such was mixed, so one sentence may use the slang Singers but then the proper name Bangkok, whereas another would say Singapore & Honkers et cetera. It's as if the author just couldn't decide whether to use slang terms or not and the resulting impression is that of bad writing.
Following up on the bad slang usage there was the authors inability to decide what to call the Australian Secret Intelligence Service throughout the book it is referred to as ASIS, Australian SIS, Aussie SIS and The Firm. Once again, all interchangeably with some sentences & paragraphs using two different terms.
In one section of the book a bank called Banque Nationale is mentioned, then the following sentence refers to an organisation called BNP. If someone didn't know BNP is the abbreviation for Banque Nationale de Paris they might be confused as to what is going on and what the sudden BNP abbreviation refers too. I also couldn't help but think Banque Nationale de Paris merged with Banque de Paris et des Pays-Bas (Paribis) in 2000 and became BNP Paribis; this book was written/set in 2011 more than a decade after the merger so asides from confusing abbreviation usage, it's also using the wrong name of the bank.
In addition to the above, there is also technical errors in the book. Such as in one scene a character raises his shirt to reveal a Desert Eagle pistol, then reaches down and pulls out his Browning pistol. The Desert Eagle is made by Magnum Research, Browning makes the Hi-Power these are two completely different pistols - if you're going to write a book involving guns one should at least know the type of gun one of their primary characters is using, or just refer to the thing by it's name, or brand, not try to be fancy and use both, especially when you have it wrong.
Even if you can put up with all that, the story really was just boring, unrealistic and not worth reading.
Where to begin... well the actual writing does very little for me, phrases such as "Mac punched the Chinaman in the nuts" really belong more in a teenagers book (if anywhere) than a 'serious' adult novel.
The last Mark Abernethy novel I read the main character checked his Casio G-Shock 64 thousand times and it was immensely detracting from the storyline I almost felt like I was reading an advertising brochure it was mentioned so much. By page 136 in this book though not once had the Casio G-Shock been raised or looked at and I thought there was a chance that despite the story being utterly boring that it might just get better, maybe. Then lo and behold on page 137 the G-Shock came out, followed by another two sightings, then is disappeared for until the last quarter of the book where it was looked at no less than 12 times. Do I really need to be told 15 times what brand of watch the character is using? I vastly prefer books which just mention it once to build the character and then say 'watch' unless some change takes place.
The last book also used annoying abbreviations such as Singers (Singapore), Honkers (Hong Kong) and Bangers (Bangkok) but just to increase the level of poor quality writing in this instalment the usage of such was mixed, so one sentence may use the slang Singers but then the proper name Bangkok, whereas another would say Singapore & Honkers et cetera. It's as if the author just couldn't decide whether to use slang terms or not and the resulting impression is that of bad writing.
Following up on the bad slang usage there was the authors inability to decide what to call the Australian Secret Intelligence Service throughout the book it is referred to as ASIS, Australian SIS, Aussie SIS and The Firm. Once again, all interchangeably with some sentences & paragraphs using two different terms.
In one section of the book a bank called Banque Nationale is mentioned, then the following sentence refers to an organisation called BNP. If someone didn't know BNP is the abbreviation for Banque Nationale de Paris they might be confused as to what is going on and what the sudden BNP abbreviation refers too. I also couldn't help but think Banque Nationale de Paris merged with Banque de Paris et des Pays-Bas (Paribis) in 2000 and became BNP Paribis; this book was written/set in 2011 more than a decade after the merger so asides from confusing abbreviation usage, it's also using the wrong name of the bank.
In addition to the above, there is also technical errors in the book. Such as in one scene a character raises his shirt to reveal a Desert Eagle pistol, then reaches down and pulls out his Browning pistol. The Desert Eagle is made by Magnum Research, Browning makes the Hi-Power these are two completely different pistols - if you're going to write a book involving guns one should at least know the type of gun one of their primary characters is using, or just refer to the thing by it's name, or brand, not try to be fancy and use both, especially when you have it wrong.
Even if you can put up with all that, the story really was just boring, unrealistic and not worth reading.
August 16, 2014
I am sure there must have been a story within this 420 page novel, but I couldn't concentrate for long enough to find it because I kept getting distracted with writing like, "‘Yeah, wait,’ said Matt, holding his hand up as the Cantonese bubbled out of the speakers. ‘He’s saying that he found out two days ago that an AESA-defeat prototype system is being brought to Queensland for beta testing – Raytheon and US Department of Defense are going to test it in the Aussie desert. Totally top secret: USEO.’ ‘Shit!’ said Mac. When a project was stamped ‘US Eyes Only’, the problem became political. ‘It gets better,’ said Johnson."
"If it gets better, then I'll keep reading," I thought to myself. And then I started to wonder if some Leslie-Nielsen-esque character was going to barge onto the set to announce in a loud voice, "I had to COME IN FROM THE COLD because I left my FULL METAL JACKET at HOME ALONE!!!!!!" Now that would have been so bad that it was good. Instead this novel is just bad. I abandoned it at the end of the fourth chapter.
"If it gets better, then I'll keep reading," I thought to myself. And then I started to wonder if some Leslie-Nielsen-esque character was going to barge onto the set to announce in a loud voice, "I had to COME IN FROM THE COLD because I left my FULL METAL JACKET at HOME ALONE!!!!!!" Now that would have been so bad that it was good. Instead this novel is just bad. I abandoned it at the end of the fourth chapter.
March 5, 2015
My experience with this book is akin to eavesdropping on 2 person's private conversation.
There is no context, no perspective and having to work really hard in connecting the scattered pieces of information so as to try and form some understanding.
Well I guess this may work for some readers, but I read for leisure and entertainment. While I am not adverse to complex plots or twists kind of storyline, they should flow smoothly, and lead the reader along comprehensively.
Also I do not think its possible for readers to enjoy this book as much unless you read all 4 of Mark's books in sequence, which I did.
Boy am I glad its over!
There is no context, no perspective and having to work really hard in connecting the scattered pieces of information so as to try and form some understanding.
Well I guess this may work for some readers, but I read for leisure and entertainment. While I am not adverse to complex plots or twists kind of storyline, they should flow smoothly, and lead the reader along comprehensively.
Also I do not think its possible for readers to enjoy this book as much unless you read all 4 of Mark's books in sequence, which I did.
Boy am I glad its over!
December 18, 2011
I like Mark Abernethy's work because as an Australian I enjoy reading espionage thrillers with Australian characters set in our region. 'Counter Attack' is fast paced and action-packed, sometimes too much for my taste. My main problem is that I really cannot get to like the main character in Mark's books. Others may not feel the same way, but it makes it difficult for me to enjoy reading them.
Also, I know authors don't design covers, but seriously who would run around in the tropical heat of South East Asia wearing a heavy full length raincoat?
Also, I know authors don't design covers, but seriously who would run around in the tropical heat of South East Asia wearing a heavy full length raincoat?
April 2, 2012
À long boring yawn....
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June 10, 2016great book, as cover suggests as good as lee child, tom Clancy and Robert Ludlum. awesome storyline. this is no 4 in the series, pity I didn't start at no 1. but that's where I am heading now.
Read
March 26, 2018"Ripping yarn" - just a bit too ripping - felt like telling author to take a chill pill at times as he jammed so much action into the book it got a bit too much - however still a reasonable read,,
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews