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The contract
Book by Poyer, Joe
309 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1978
6 people want to read
About the author
Joe Poyer
55 books5 followersJoseph John Poyer was an American author whose fiction first appeared in Analog magazine with Mission 'Red Clash' (1965). His novels include technothrillers such as Operation Malacca (1968) and North Cape (1969), and the alternate-history work Tunnel War (1979).
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
October 2, 2024
I was rummaging in the upper floors of our semi-abandoned, downsized office, and found this book along with soda cans, yellowing People mags, and abandoned 1980's office furniture, and decided to give it a read. Written in 1978, The Contract is a spy novel dealing with underwater demo/ex-CIA man Michael Brogan, pulled out of a happy life in Hawaii by Deboucheron, an Interpol agent who needs Brogan to infiltrate a secret heist that may determine terrorist financing in Europe, since the USSR has stopped funding groups, and Semtex don't come cheap.
Brogan goes to Sweden during Christmas, and Poyer has rich descriptions of Sweden and Norway in this season, as well as a lot of cold, freezing water and lots of other discomfort Brogan endures in his mission to find out why a heist is taking place over the holidays. If you like narrow escapes from hypothermia, this is your book.
He is teamed up with shadow characters, the shadiest of them is Aubuili, and Brogan gets caught up in the usual gunplay, mixed allegiances, chases through Scandinavian streets, and his femme fatale is Helga, an innocent ex-engineering grad turned nurse...or is she that innocent?
It's a standard, by the numbers espionage story with solid characters, situations, descriptions, page-turning dilemmas, and the usual doses of Cold War cynicism. It did keep my interest, and Poyer did a good job showing Brogan's physical discomfort through his many trials. Since this takes place in 1976, there is some use of computer espionage. Also, a terrible blizzard causes a lot of trouble, and I like this because I was stationed in Germany at that time, and the winter of 1976 was pretty cold and snowy...the only time I ever saw snow in usually drizzly Frankfurt.
The plot's ping-pong match between the quartet in the book is entertaining. It is a well-done story, what we used to call a good airplane read.
The book is probably long out of print (the author recently died), but it can still please.
Brogan goes to Sweden during Christmas, and Poyer has rich descriptions of Sweden and Norway in this season, as well as a lot of cold, freezing water and lots of other discomfort Brogan endures in his mission to find out why a heist is taking place over the holidays. If you like narrow escapes from hypothermia, this is your book.
He is teamed up with shadow characters, the shadiest of them is Aubuili, and Brogan gets caught up in the usual gunplay, mixed allegiances, chases through Scandinavian streets, and his femme fatale is Helga, an innocent ex-engineering grad turned nurse...or is she that innocent?
It's a standard, by the numbers espionage story with solid characters, situations, descriptions, page-turning dilemmas, and the usual doses of Cold War cynicism. It did keep my interest, and Poyer did a good job showing Brogan's physical discomfort through his many trials. Since this takes place in 1976, there is some use of computer espionage. Also, a terrible blizzard causes a lot of trouble, and I like this because I was stationed in Germany at that time, and the winter of 1976 was pretty cold and snowy...the only time I ever saw snow in usually drizzly Frankfurt.
The plot's ping-pong match between the quartet in the book is entertaining. It is a well-done story, what we used to call a good airplane read.
The book is probably long out of print (the author recently died), but it can still please.
Displaying 1 of 1 review