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Jericho's War
Selected by The Sunday Times as one of the four top thrillers of the year, JERICHO'S WAR is the new paperback from 'the best thriller writer in the world' (Daily Telegraph) In a moment of nerve-shredding suspense that will affect many thousands of lives, a handful of men and women converge on a barren stretch of Yemeni desert. The mission is to take down a high-value player in the war against Al-Qaeda. It is the brainchild of an old, fat fool called Jericho. In his striped cricket blazer, never without a G&T, he is a sweating figure of fun among the ex-pats across the border in Muscat. Yet perhaps he is not quite as old, or foolish, or even fat as he appears. Nor as harmless... Welcome to Jericho's its weaponry is state-of-the-art, its brutality as timeless as the desert.
480 pages, Paperback
Published November 30, 2017
83 people are currently reading
171 people want to read
About the author
Gerald Seymour
98 books285 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 - 30 of 50 reviews
January 23, 2022
At the end of the day, and this gratified Jericho, it came down to the old ways – human intelligence, an inserted agent, a dead drop and a courier – and the electronics were left trailing in the wake.
Jericho is an MI6 spook of a cold war cast, operating out on an office above a travel agency in Muscat, Oman. He dresses in loud cricket blazers, shirts padded out to give the impression of a buffoon, as he gathers intelligence from airliner crews and whispers from agents in the field- a Brit jihadist known as Belcher, inducted into Islam while serving a sentence in an English jail and “turned”; a woman archaeologist working the dig sites of the Queen of Sheba in Yemen. The chatter is of a meeting between two High Value Targets, the Emir, a leader among Al-Kaeda Arabian Peninsula, and the Ghost, a bomb maker, with a design for a device to be implanted inside a “chosen one”, who will board a plane without rousing suspicion due to his ethnicity.
The Ghost had made it his business to know the names of all the fractures, basins and troughs in the seas of the mid-Atlantic. He knew the distance of each one from London’s Heathrow airport or Charles de Gaulle outside Paris, or from the big hubs in Amsterdam or Frankfurt. Great depth was what they had in common, and darkness. Any debris that fell into them would be near to impossible to retrieve.
At London’s Vauxhall Bridge Cross, George, a long-serving Spook nearing retirement, endorses a mission codenamed Crannog to take out the targets by inserting a small team, a former SAS sniper and his spotter (now Private Military Consultants), an Omani youth to guide them, and led by “Sixer” Corrie Rankin. Two years earlier he had escaped from Syria where he was posing as an aid worker, betrayed by the guide for money, questioned, beaten, ready to be on-sold to the highest bidder: a man who has lost the art to trust. From the outset there are tensions within the group.
Everything came at a price: the man who had made the reputation for himself had the big reward dumped on his lap. Now he was in the bird and the rotors hammered and they were across the Yemen border. There had been lights in the south where the coast was, and then an empty patch of infinite blackness, the desert to the north, before the skies revealed the moon and stars.
The story unfolds not only on the ground by both sides, but also at Cannon Base in New Mexico, where Casper and partner Xavier, with data from Bart, pilots a Predator drone armed with two Hellfire missiles - despised by combat pilots as armchair aviators.
In London the bean-counters are at work: questions asked why the allies are being kept out of the loop. ‘It’s been suggested by a paper-pusher in one of the outer offices on the Fourth that George is the “risk-owner” for Crannog, and they’re checking that the assessment was properly done, that we have full contact, total control, that we’re not going to end up “embarrassed”, God forbid.'
Published in 2017, three years after Malaysian Airlines flight 370 disappeared over the Indian Ocean, and eight years after Air France Airbus AF447 crashed in the Atlantic in a storm off Brazil, this one drew my attention from the bathymetry, the villages, to the desert of Rub' al Khali: “the Empty Quarter”.
A contemporary of John le Carré, author Gerald Seymour is probably best known for the Northern Ireland conflict thriller Harry's Game. More a slow burner than a page-turner, the emphasis here is on characters rather than action scenes, which might explain the wide range of reviews, from people I have never heard of. I chose to ignore the reviews and was rewarded: engrossed by how the ragged group got in, the targets met and their desperate escape.
Verdict: an absorbing read, and certainly ranks among the top 50 books I have read in recently years.
Jericho is an MI6 spook of a cold war cast, operating out on an office above a travel agency in Muscat, Oman. He dresses in loud cricket blazers, shirts padded out to give the impression of a buffoon, as he gathers intelligence from airliner crews and whispers from agents in the field- a Brit jihadist known as Belcher, inducted into Islam while serving a sentence in an English jail and “turned”; a woman archaeologist working the dig sites of the Queen of Sheba in Yemen. The chatter is of a meeting between two High Value Targets, the Emir, a leader among Al-Kaeda Arabian Peninsula, and the Ghost, a bomb maker, with a design for a device to be implanted inside a “chosen one”, who will board a plane without rousing suspicion due to his ethnicity.
The Ghost had made it his business to know the names of all the fractures, basins and troughs in the seas of the mid-Atlantic. He knew the distance of each one from London’s Heathrow airport or Charles de Gaulle outside Paris, or from the big hubs in Amsterdam or Frankfurt. Great depth was what they had in common, and darkness. Any debris that fell into them would be near to impossible to retrieve.
At London’s Vauxhall Bridge Cross, George, a long-serving Spook nearing retirement, endorses a mission codenamed Crannog to take out the targets by inserting a small team, a former SAS sniper and his spotter (now Private Military Consultants), an Omani youth to guide them, and led by “Sixer” Corrie Rankin. Two years earlier he had escaped from Syria where he was posing as an aid worker, betrayed by the guide for money, questioned, beaten, ready to be on-sold to the highest bidder: a man who has lost the art to trust. From the outset there are tensions within the group.
Everything came at a price: the man who had made the reputation for himself had the big reward dumped on his lap. Now he was in the bird and the rotors hammered and they were across the Yemen border. There had been lights in the south where the coast was, and then an empty patch of infinite blackness, the desert to the north, before the skies revealed the moon and stars.
The story unfolds not only on the ground by both sides, but also at Cannon Base in New Mexico, where Casper and partner Xavier, with data from Bart, pilots a Predator drone armed with two Hellfire missiles - despised by combat pilots as armchair aviators.
In London the bean-counters are at work: questions asked why the allies are being kept out of the loop. ‘It’s been suggested by a paper-pusher in one of the outer offices on the Fourth that George is the “risk-owner” for Crannog, and they’re checking that the assessment was properly done, that we have full contact, total control, that we’re not going to end up “embarrassed”, God forbid.'
Published in 2017, three years after Malaysian Airlines flight 370 disappeared over the Indian Ocean, and eight years after Air France Airbus AF447 crashed in the Atlantic in a storm off Brazil, this one drew my attention from the bathymetry, the villages, to the desert of Rub' al Khali: “the Empty Quarter”.
A contemporary of John le Carré, author Gerald Seymour is probably best known for the Northern Ireland conflict thriller Harry's Game. More a slow burner than a page-turner, the emphasis here is on characters rather than action scenes, which might explain the wide range of reviews, from people I have never heard of. I chose to ignore the reviews and was rewarded: engrossed by how the ragged group got in, the targets met and their desperate escape.
Verdict: an absorbing read, and certainly ranks among the top 50 books I have read in recently years.
February 6, 2017
"Boredom slays more of existence than war."
This book had all the boredom of war and none of the excitement, I persevered in hope of a twist or a sign of life that was believable, every character is an automaton complaining about other automatons the only believable character was the drone, but if I hear one more time how lovingly one must clean its lenses I will scream.
The entire book is full of repetition in case you forget the simple plot or the simple shallow characters, I counted four references to a dam destroyed by rats in the far distant past, countless loving references to a predator drone, and the constant repeat of all the characters thought of the other characters, yet none of it developed any kind of motivation that was half believable, the Islamist are Islamist and are bad, but we do not know why they act the way they do, they like to crucify people and invent new ways of blowing up planes, the why is never even explored, the special forces guys are special forces they do what they do, and the spies are spies by force, or some entrapment, but they just do what they do.
I know my opinion counts for very little, but when you pay for a book it should have a plot that is more than the simplest of ideas, a motivation or at least an explanation of motivation that is more than I need to pay my mortgage or I am proud of making bombs. Expanding a book by repeating ideas and events is almost an insult, when it is just boring padding it is an insult.
If you do not have the guts to express an opinion on the most controversial of events why are you writing?
This book had all the boredom of war and none of the excitement, I persevered in hope of a twist or a sign of life that was believable, every character is an automaton complaining about other automatons the only believable character was the drone, but if I hear one more time how lovingly one must clean its lenses I will scream.
The entire book is full of repetition in case you forget the simple plot or the simple shallow characters, I counted four references to a dam destroyed by rats in the far distant past, countless loving references to a predator drone, and the constant repeat of all the characters thought of the other characters, yet none of it developed any kind of motivation that was half believable, the Islamist are Islamist and are bad, but we do not know why they act the way they do, they like to crucify people and invent new ways of blowing up planes, the why is never even explored, the special forces guys are special forces they do what they do, and the spies are spies by force, or some entrapment, but they just do what they do.
I know my opinion counts for very little, but when you pay for a book it should have a plot that is more than the simplest of ideas, a motivation or at least an explanation of motivation that is more than I need to pay my mortgage or I am proud of making bombs. Expanding a book by repeating ideas and events is almost an insult, when it is just boring padding it is an insult.
If you do not have the guts to express an opinion on the most controversial of events why are you writing?
February 6, 2017
Gerald Seymour is a genuinely great thriller writer with a body of excellent books behind him. Jericho's War, but it isn't one of his best.
This is classic Seymour territory – a whisper of two High Value Targets in villages in Yemen and a small team assembled slightly on the hop to go in and assassinate them. We get the histories of the three-man team, the tensions between them and the slow, meticulous details and playing out of the operation. Indeed, it's such classic Seymour territory that if you have read A Deniable Death you may, as I did, find quite a bit of this slightly familiar. It's well done in many ways and there is genuine tension and interest, but the middle of the book especially dragged considerably for me.
Part of the problem is that we get the personal stories and internal monologues of a very large number of people: each of the three-man team, two "assets" on the ground, the two targets, a three-man team controlling a drone, the agent controlling the operation, three intelligence officers in Yemen, another three in London…and so on and so on. It's too much, and the story gets very stodgy in places as a result. We even get the point of view of an uninvolved camel drover miles from any action – whose apparent irrelevance but detailed history acted as a significant spoiler for me. It felt as though there was a lot of repetition, too, and I wanted to say "OK, OK – I get it!" rather often.
So – long on atmosphere, setting and characters, but at the expense of good storytelling in too many places. It's still better than a lot of espionage thrillers because of the quality of the writing and meticulous research, but it could have done with a good deal of trimming and tightening up. I have rounded 3.5 stars up to 4, but this comes with a qualified recommendation.
This is classic Seymour territory – a whisper of two High Value Targets in villages in Yemen and a small team assembled slightly on the hop to go in and assassinate them. We get the histories of the three-man team, the tensions between them and the slow, meticulous details and playing out of the operation. Indeed, it's such classic Seymour territory that if you have read A Deniable Death you may, as I did, find quite a bit of this slightly familiar. It's well done in many ways and there is genuine tension and interest, but the middle of the book especially dragged considerably for me.
Part of the problem is that we get the personal stories and internal monologues of a very large number of people: each of the three-man team, two "assets" on the ground, the two targets, a three-man team controlling a drone, the agent controlling the operation, three intelligence officers in Yemen, another three in London…and so on and so on. It's too much, and the story gets very stodgy in places as a result. We even get the point of view of an uninvolved camel drover miles from any action – whose apparent irrelevance but detailed history acted as a significant spoiler for me. It felt as though there was a lot of repetition, too, and I wanted to say "OK, OK – I get it!" rather often.
So – long on atmosphere, setting and characters, but at the expense of good storytelling in too many places. It's still better than a lot of espionage thrillers because of the quality of the writing and meticulous research, but it could have done with a good deal of trimming and tightening up. I have rounded 3.5 stars up to 4, but this comes with a qualified recommendation.
February 8, 2017
You'll need to strap yourself in tightly to your seat-belt for Gerald Seymour's "Jericho's War". This is high octane nail biting action, brutal and unforgiving.Corrie Rankin is still recovering both mentally and physically from his escape from capture in Syria. During his period in the custody of local hardmen he was treated with disdain, along with three others, all of them supposedly Aid workers whose financial value to their captors was the driving force as to whether they survived or not. As a British operative Rankin was tough and well prepared for the sort of treatment he was subjected to. Somehow he managed to turn a British radical who was part of the terrorists holding him, and escaped in poor condition and with a broken leg. That he managed to virtually crawl his way to the border and ultimate rescue was a huge achievement.
Now Corrie is asked to return to the Middle East, this time to Yemen, with a small team, with the goal of taking out an important Iman and his off-sider called the Ghost who are putting together a plan to down Western aircraft. To say that Rankin and his two person Army sniper team don't get on is a major understatement, but then they think he is a desk bound pen pusher rather than a genuine action hero.
The story plays out relentlessly as the small squad embeds itself and prepares to carry out their mission. Circumstances are challenging and their very lives are at risk day by day. This is a brilliantly conceived and written thriller at the high end of the genre.
Now Corrie is asked to return to the Middle East, this time to Yemen, with a small team, with the goal of taking out an important Iman and his off-sider called the Ghost who are putting together a plan to down Western aircraft. To say that Rankin and his two person Army sniper team don't get on is a major understatement, but then they think he is a desk bound pen pusher rather than a genuine action hero.
The story plays out relentlessly as the small squad embeds itself and prepares to carry out their mission. Circumstances are challenging and their very lives are at risk day by day. This is a brilliantly conceived and written thriller at the high end of the genre.
May 13, 2018
A smart thriller. British secret service, intent on a little glory hunting, lie in wait for two key terrorists in Yemen. As the planned assassination unfolds the tension Rachel’s higher and higher as does the cynicism. Very smart very good.
September 21, 2020
FIRST off let me say that Gerald Seymour is an outstanding thriller writer, one of the very best of our time. I have been privileged to read some of his books, Line in the Sand being one such masterpiece that sticks in the memory. Now here's the catch...
I thought this was a tired, repetitive, unbelievable dirge of a book which I found only magical in respect that when I thought I was reaching the end the pages just seemed to multiply. It is rare that I find myself actually wishing a novel to finish other than when it is so intriguing I just have to find out what happens. Unfortunately I couldn't have cared less about the climax here.
Possibly I'm out on my own with my views of Jericho because I notice it was a Sunday Times Thriller of the Month and received high praise for its brilliant ending, among other things. Well, I predicted the ending at least six chapters before, give or take a couple of things which I missed, probably because by this time I'd lost the will to live.
Back to the basics then. Stories are all about characters in my opinion and not only did I find none of them likeable, I didn't even find them believable or engaging - in either a good or bad way. The suggestion that one of the main ones, an intelligent woman archeologist named Henry Wilson, would almost instantly decide she would plan her future around one of two men who suddenly appear in her life is just too simplistic and, dare I say, patronising to someone who is as level-headed, intensely self-dependent and brave as Henry appears to be in every other aspect of her life.
The Jericho in question - though mainly a bit part player - is an old hand in an espionage game that is rapidly changing. He doesn't come across as particularly bright however, or even charismatic enough to persuade people to risk their lives for a cause he obviously believes in. I'm not really sure what that cause is, either, other than to thumb a nose at modern methods. In the days of drones and Hellcat missiles, the idea he would take the autonomous decision to launch a highly dangerous mission into the Yemen in the hope of killing an Al-Qaida leader seems flawed in the extreme, particularly when he has little backing from his superiors and must deny everything if it goes wrong.
Basically, this means he is risking the lives of up to 10 people in the vain hope that when he is eventually pensioned off he will be seen as something of a hero.
Now we come to the protagonist, Corrie. A survivor of kidnap and torture from a previous mission in the Middle East he is asked to spearhead another, even though he is still suffering permanent physical damage from that last escapade. He is known as the 'sixer' by two Iraq war veterans who must accompany him, one a skilled sniper called Rat whose job it will be to eventually shoot the target. Rat and Corrie don't get on for some reason, the soldier believing that the MI6 man is just a pen pusher (a strange conclusion to draw from a man walking with a serious limp and being chosen to go on a deep undercover mission into deadly territory). What's even more bizarre is the fact that even Henry - a total stranger to the ways of espionage and warfare - thinks of Corrie as the 'Sixer'. Where she might have heard this term, I've no idea.
Rat and Corrie constantly argue as to who is the leader of the mission. Fair enough, but you would think that might have been established by the supposed genius that is Jericho even before they flew out. Neither Rat nor Corrie appear to have any redeeming features - in fact Rat strikes me as nothing but a bully and a coward - and his mate Slime, who carries all the baggage, does exactly what it says on the tin. He's just slimey.
On and on come the anomalies.
The strangest for me is that everyone seems to believe the Al-Qaida man's big plan - being worked upon by his technical partner-in-crime The Ghost - is to bring a passenger plane down in one of the deepest trenches beneath the Atlantic. Everyone goes on and on about this as if it is the most important thing on the mission when, to my mind, if your jet explodes in mid-air it will scarcely matter to you how deep the trench is where your body parts will eventually come to rest.
What nagged at me more and more as I read was the repetitive nature of it all. This type of writing can work on occasion, but in this case it just became boring. At times I found myself almost shouting at the book, 'Yes, I know! I know!'
Cut out even half the repetition and the book might have come in at a manageable 300 pages rather than a totally overwritten 470. Even during lockdown it's taken me a good five or six months to read, simply because it doesn't thrill and excite enough at any particular stage. I didn't find myself thinking, 'I must read on to see how they get out of this one'. I either knew already because it was telegraphed or the suspense simply wasn't there in the first place.
Sorry Gerald Seymour, I really didn't want to rip your book apart. People will likely have completely contrary views to mine and that's what reading is all about. I love many of your other works, but for that reason I felt obliged to give my honest opinions on this one.
Jericho's War? To my mind, this was Jericho's Bore.
I thought this was a tired, repetitive, unbelievable dirge of a book which I found only magical in respect that when I thought I was reaching the end the pages just seemed to multiply. It is rare that I find myself actually wishing a novel to finish other than when it is so intriguing I just have to find out what happens. Unfortunately I couldn't have cared less about the climax here.
Possibly I'm out on my own with my views of Jericho because I notice it was a Sunday Times Thriller of the Month and received high praise for its brilliant ending, among other things. Well, I predicted the ending at least six chapters before, give or take a couple of things which I missed, probably because by this time I'd lost the will to live.
Back to the basics then. Stories are all about characters in my opinion and not only did I find none of them likeable, I didn't even find them believable or engaging - in either a good or bad way. The suggestion that one of the main ones, an intelligent woman archeologist named Henry Wilson, would almost instantly decide she would plan her future around one of two men who suddenly appear in her life is just too simplistic and, dare I say, patronising to someone who is as level-headed, intensely self-dependent and brave as Henry appears to be in every other aspect of her life.
The Jericho in question - though mainly a bit part player - is an old hand in an espionage game that is rapidly changing. He doesn't come across as particularly bright however, or even charismatic enough to persuade people to risk their lives for a cause he obviously believes in. I'm not really sure what that cause is, either, other than to thumb a nose at modern methods. In the days of drones and Hellcat missiles, the idea he would take the autonomous decision to launch a highly dangerous mission into the Yemen in the hope of killing an Al-Qaida leader seems flawed in the extreme, particularly when he has little backing from his superiors and must deny everything if it goes wrong.
Basically, this means he is risking the lives of up to 10 people in the vain hope that when he is eventually pensioned off he will be seen as something of a hero.
Now we come to the protagonist, Corrie. A survivor of kidnap and torture from a previous mission in the Middle East he is asked to spearhead another, even though he is still suffering permanent physical damage from that last escapade. He is known as the 'sixer' by two Iraq war veterans who must accompany him, one a skilled sniper called Rat whose job it will be to eventually shoot the target. Rat and Corrie don't get on for some reason, the soldier believing that the MI6 man is just a pen pusher (a strange conclusion to draw from a man walking with a serious limp and being chosen to go on a deep undercover mission into deadly territory). What's even more bizarre is the fact that even Henry - a total stranger to the ways of espionage and warfare - thinks of Corrie as the 'Sixer'. Where she might have heard this term, I've no idea.
Rat and Corrie constantly argue as to who is the leader of the mission. Fair enough, but you would think that might have been established by the supposed genius that is Jericho even before they flew out. Neither Rat nor Corrie appear to have any redeeming features - in fact Rat strikes me as nothing but a bully and a coward - and his mate Slime, who carries all the baggage, does exactly what it says on the tin. He's just slimey.
On and on come the anomalies.
The strangest for me is that everyone seems to believe the Al-Qaida man's big plan - being worked upon by his technical partner-in-crime The Ghost - is to bring a passenger plane down in one of the deepest trenches beneath the Atlantic. Everyone goes on and on about this as if it is the most important thing on the mission when, to my mind, if your jet explodes in mid-air it will scarcely matter to you how deep the trench is where your body parts will eventually come to rest.
What nagged at me more and more as I read was the repetitive nature of it all. This type of writing can work on occasion, but in this case it just became boring. At times I found myself almost shouting at the book, 'Yes, I know! I know!'
Cut out even half the repetition and the book might have come in at a manageable 300 pages rather than a totally overwritten 470. Even during lockdown it's taken me a good five or six months to read, simply because it doesn't thrill and excite enough at any particular stage. I didn't find myself thinking, 'I must read on to see how they get out of this one'. I either knew already because it was telegraphed or the suspense simply wasn't there in the first place.
Sorry Gerald Seymour, I really didn't want to rip your book apart. People will likely have completely contrary views to mine and that's what reading is all about. I love many of your other works, but for that reason I felt obliged to give my honest opinions on this one.
Jericho's War? To my mind, this was Jericho's Bore.
May 13, 2017
This was something of a difficult read, and I considered bailing out after the first few chapters. But I persevered and glad I did. Seymour writes in a kind-of old fashioned way (restating a character's story goal over and over and OVER) and that can be tedious. Also, his characters seem mostly devoid of real, proper, honest-to-goodness FEELINGS. But anyway, the whole knitted together in a hugely competent way . . . six out of ten, plus an extra star purely for the description towards the end of a character who awaits death surrounded by a gathering flock of vultures; that scene really is Seymour doing what he does at his very best.
May 13, 2018
Gritty portrayal of reality of war
British boots on ISIS territory, MI6 shoestring against US Drone warfare. Subterfuge, double agents, radicalised jihadists. Brilliant and surprise ending.
British boots on ISIS territory, MI6 shoestring against US Drone warfare. Subterfuge, double agents, radicalised jihadists. Brilliant and surprise ending.
February 4, 2017
A solid but not spectacular read. Generally a fan of Mr Seymour's works but earlier reads were better quality. Lovers of this genre should still enjoy the story.
January 7, 2018
Not his best...
January 21, 2018
A real page turner, I kept turning them hoping to get to the end as quickly as possible it was so boring and predictable. If this was movie it would be cut to twenty minutes. Yawn fest.
November 26, 2019
Another class read
Always a gripping read from Gerald Seymour
Keeps you reading until the last page
Can’t wait for the next book
Always a gripping read from Gerald Seymour
Keeps you reading until the last page
Can’t wait for the next book
September 18, 2021
The titular Jericho appears to be an overweight, obnoxious dinosaur - someone to laugh at in in his ostentatious cricket blazer, drink in hand. But perhaps Jericho is more than he seems...
A cast of characters includes a drone crew in the US, an ex-army sniper team, an archaeologist, terrorists in Yemen and an agent who has been there and done it. The team have a target, a member of Al-Qaeda, and if they fail hundreds of lives are at stake.
Overall, this is an excellent story. I have one or two of Seymour's books years ago and will be seeking out some more. The characters are well drawn, they have lives, foibles, hopes and dreams. The desert, and the terror of being a spy - the constant threat of the tap on the shoulder, soon to be followed by much worse, are shared. It is quite long, and in some cases a bit repetitive, but it draws you in, and you will always want to read the next few pages.
A cast of characters includes a drone crew in the US, an ex-army sniper team, an archaeologist, terrorists in Yemen and an agent who has been there and done it. The team have a target, a member of Al-Qaeda, and if they fail hundreds of lives are at stake.
Overall, this is an excellent story. I have one or two of Seymour's books years ago and will be seeking out some more. The characters are well drawn, they have lives, foibles, hopes and dreams. The desert, and the terror of being a spy - the constant threat of the tap on the shoulder, soon to be followed by much worse, are shared. It is quite long, and in some cases a bit repetitive, but it draws you in, and you will always want to read the next few pages.
May 26, 2018
Classic Seymour: a loner agent is sent into bandit country to foil a terrorist plot. In this case our damaged hero is Corrie Rankin, an SIS operative - a 'sixer' - still recovering from a mission to Syria. He's dispatched to the Yemen with a sniper & his spotter to stop the Islamists using a human bomb to down an airliner.
This is one of the author's best recent books with echoes of previous works such as "Holding The Zero" & "The Unknown Soldier". It's a slow fuse with a lots of prolonged flashbacks and the boredom of surveillance work all too accurately portrayed. That said, the ending is worth all those hard yards. I always set aside the time to read the finale in one go and this is a cracker. Credulity is stretched a bit but I found the bitter sweet ending wholly satisfactory.
This is one of the author's best recent books with echoes of previous works such as "Holding The Zero" & "The Unknown Soldier". It's a slow fuse with a lots of prolonged flashbacks and the boredom of surveillance work all too accurately portrayed. That said, the ending is worth all those hard yards. I always set aside the time to read the finale in one go and this is a cracker. Credulity is stretched a bit but I found the bitter sweet ending wholly satisfactory.
October 13, 2022
The British security service is involved in a plan to eliminate a senior Al-Quaeda commander in Yemen who is preparing to bomb an airliner. A veteran spy, Corrie is sent with a two man team of ex special forces soldiers, one of whom is an expert sniper. The plan evolves from information obtained by a local source in Muscat called Jericho. He is an apparent barfly in a cricket club blazer who talks to everyone he meets, gathering intelligence. The story is seen alternately from the point of view of each side - MI6, the inserted team in Yemen, an archaeologist working there who is Jericho's contact, the Al-Quaeda group, and an oversight team of US based Predator drone operators.
It is a slowly developing blend of these parts of the overall story, and Seymour brings it together to an exciting climax, with a great reveal at the end about a main character.
It is a slowly developing blend of these parts of the overall story, and Seymour brings it together to an exciting climax, with a great reveal at the end about a main character.
June 13, 2021
Spy/Suspense fiction does not get any better than this! I have read all of Mr Seymour's engrossing, suspenseful, politically incorrect and unforgiving, fact filled, page-turning, adventures with deep appreciation. His talent for setting and character development, combined with an experienced and gifted storytelling ability is unmatched.
Jericho's War is yet another unique, deeply felt tale of a land and culture far from Western shores. It offers insight into an Islamic world that is basic, harsh and deeply rooted in tribal loyalties and behaviors.
As an unexpected parallel to this superb story, I was given an understanding of and compassion for the culture and people of Yemen that I had not anticipated. Thank you Mr. Seymour!
Jericho's War is yet another unique, deeply felt tale of a land and culture far from Western shores. It offers insight into an Islamic world that is basic, harsh and deeply rooted in tribal loyalties and behaviors.
As an unexpected parallel to this superb story, I was given an understanding of and compassion for the culture and people of Yemen that I had not anticipated. Thank you Mr. Seymour!
August 3, 2018
I read quite a few of Gerald Seymour's books when I was a teenager, and remember enjoying them. I'm not sure whether it's me getting older or the author, but this was disappointing and certainly not a patch on my memories of Harry's Game and At Close Quarters. The dialogue is so formulaic and completely unbelievable - no-one talks like that! I also found the descriptions of the action really difficult to follow, it just wasn't clear how locations linked together.
Don't think I'll be trying any of the newer Gerald Seymour books, I might have to go back to one of the early ones and see if it's me or the books that have changed!
Don't think I'll be trying any of the newer Gerald Seymour books, I might have to go back to one of the early ones and see if it's me or the books that have changed!
September 1, 2020
3.7 stars - Reading this relatively soon after “Vagabond” crystallised my thinking about Gerald Seymour. This book is in many ways similar to that one with a central character carved out of granite leading a team which is not wholly comfortable with his leadership into a very difficult mission. The plot is very interesting and the characters well drawn, but I think the author has a tendency to overwrite making it somewhat difficult for the reader to be drawn in, I will try another one soon to test my conclusion.
May 5, 2017
This was somewhere between being enjoyable and being just okay. I like the subject matter, the story is interesting enough, but the character development is ordinary and I never identified with any of them really. The pace felt pretty slow, without having the depth and nuance of the real masters of this art (eg Le Carre, Green) nor the readability and excitement of the more commercial (de Mille etc). Seymour is being touted as "the new xxx") for all of these writers, but I'm not convinced.
December 28, 2017
a masterly rendition with tons of believable details about the characters and the military action. the ending was gripping and i liked to be let into the frame of mind of the main individuals. i wasn't so keen of the very frequent flash back sequences which interrupted the flow so i confess to 'jump' reading a few sections. but it was worth persevering because i definitely got invested in the outcome.
January 5, 2018
Hugely immersive telling of a story that has an awful ring of, if not truth, at least plausibility. True, it's not fast-moving. But the carefully paced parallel threads that bring the various elements to their final meetings and conclusions are each well told and move along in concert. The ending does not really tell us how the story ends for each of the very credible characters - but we can surely each give our own reading a conclusion that matches our reading...
May 26, 2018
A decent read if a little long winded at times. The love element is hardly necessary here for instance. It feels as though Seymour is trying to be a little Le Carre here...but he fails if he is as the antagonists are not really that interesting and the infighting almost coincidental. Nonetheless it kept me going and overall I would say I enjoyed it, even when I became a little impatient for it to move along at a greater pace.
May 20, 2018
Needed a good editor to hack this fundamentally interesting story into a riveting read. Having read and enjoyed many Gerald Seymour books I found this sadly wanting. There was so much repetition and the characters were so 2 dimensional and mere ciphers that having read to half way, then skipped to the last couple of chapters.
December 15, 2018
I cant say i really enjoyed this book but I did want to finish it and see how it turned out. There was far too much detail and inter-weaving of time periods. Lots of things gone over again and again. For me the ending was just a bit short of the mark. 480 pages is something of a commitment to get through and not one i could see myself doing for this author again.
October 13, 2017
FIrst one of I've read by Seymour and I enjoyed it, but it was just too long, far too long. Too much unnecessary detail that actually slowed down the action and interest rather than made it exciting. Our hero Corrie was very dour. But I will look out for others by the author.
May 9, 2019
Not for me
Real jumble of characters skipping without clear links so it's like 50 jigsaw pieces that esch return 10 more randomly and hard to reconnect. I think the story is quite good but after 16% read I just couldn't stay in touch.
Real jumble of characters skipping without clear links so it's like 50 jigsaw pieces that esch return 10 more randomly and hard to reconnect. I think the story is quite good but after 16% read I just couldn't stay in touch.
July 10, 2017
Excellent
Excellent story the experience of story telling by Gerald Seymour is still top of my list six lives intertwined was brilliant and a nice ending
Excellent story the experience of story telling by Gerald Seymour is still top of my list six lives intertwined was brilliant and a nice ending
July 24, 2017
Hard work!
September 3, 2017
NOT A BAD READ
May 1, 2018
"ç*n*:&&
because it was a jolly good read. Dragged a bit in places Magnificently descriptive, I was Far East never M.E. but the sheer foreign-ness is well got across
because it was a jolly good read. Dragged a bit in places Magnificently descriptive, I was Far East never M.E. but the sheer foreign-ness is well got across
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