Revenge of Odessa

by Frederick Forsyth, Tony Kent

Genres: Thriller

448 pages, Hardcover

Published October 23, 2025

About the author

Frederick Forsyth, CBE was a English author and occasional political commentator. He was best known for thrillers such as The Day of the Jackal, The Odessa File, The Fourth Protocol, The Dogs of War, The Devil's Alternative, The Fist of God, Icon, The Veteran, Avenger, The Afghan, and more recently, The Cobra and The Kill List.

The son of a furrier, he was born in Ashford, Kent, educated at Tonbridge School and later attended the University of Granada. He became one of the youngest pilots in the Royal Air Force at 19, where he served on National Service from 1956 to 1958. Becoming a journalist, he joined Reuters in 1961 and later the BBC in 1965, where he served as an assistant diplomatic correspondent. From July to September 1967, he served as a correspondent covering the Nigerian Civil War between the region of Biafra and Nigeria. He left the BBC in 1968 after controversy arose over his alleged bias towards the Biafran cause and accusations that he falsified segments of his reports. Returning to Biafra as a freelance reporter, Forsyth wrote his first book, The Biafra Story in 1969.

Forsyth decided to write a novel using similar research techniques to those used in journalism. His first full length novel, The Day of the Jackal, was published in 1971 and became an international bestseller and gained its author the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Novel. It was later made into a film of the same name.

Reviews

[Jane Watson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was okay and did improve in pace and excitement towards the end, but not as good as Frederick Forsythe, and I feel his name was used merely to attract readers who liked him and he had nothing to do with this book.

[bryan fothergill · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic read. A great follow up to The Odessa File. This book leaves you wanting more, and hopefully there will be.

[Simon Pitman · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant page turner and excellent sequel to The Odessa File

[David Vincent · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a somewhat belated follow-up to 'The Odessa File' which I read many years ago. The first book was a great read and quite believable. It was well written in the style of most of the other books Forsyth wrote in the latter years of the 20th Century. This one is not as good and the style is somewhat different from FF. It starts fairly slowly (two stars) and it is probably only in the second half that things get more interesting (four stars). I would be interested to know if the author (Tony Kent) had any contact with FF before the latter died.

So whilst I would recommend any FF original I probably wouldn't read another written in the name of.....

[Gary · Rating 5 out of 5]

A worthy sequel to the original.

[Graeme Whitton · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this disappointing. I really enjoyed the original which was sharply written and cracked along nicely. This was just a pale imitation.