Whirlpool

Tweed & Co. #8

by Colin Forbes

Tweed returns to face a desperate enemy in this follow-up to “ Shockwave” . Glasnost is being blown to pieces as Europe is engulfed in a wave of terror. But who is the new enemy? This book travels from England, Sweden and Finland, through to a mysterious institute in Lapland.

Genres: Thriller, Fiction, Espionage, Action

560 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Raymond Harold Sawkins was a British novelist, who mainly published under the pseudonym Colin Forbes, but also as Richard Raine, Jay Bernard and Harold English. He only published three of his first books under his own name.Sawkins wrote over 40 books, mostly as Colin Forbes. He was most famous for his long-running series of thriller novels in which the principal character is Tweed, Deputy Director of the Secret Intelligence Service.

Sawkins attended The Lower School of John Lyon in Harrow, London. At the age of 16 he started work as a sub-editor with a magazine and book publishing company. He served with the British Army in North Africa and the Middle East during World War II. Before his demobilization he was attached to the Army Newspaper Unit in Rome. On his return to civilian life he joined a publishing and printing company, commuting to London for 20 years, until he became successful enough to be a full-time novelist.

Sawkins was married to a Scots-Canadian, Jane Robertson (born 31 March 1925, died 1993). Together they had one daughter, Janet.Sawkins died of a heart attack on August 23, 2006.

Sawkins was often quoted as personally visiting every location he features in his books to aid the authenticity of the writing. As a result, there is detailed description of the places where the action in his books takes place.

Fury (1995) was inspired by the courage of his wife before she died, and he set it apart from his other novels “because of the strong emotion and sense of loss that runs through it”.

Just one of Forbes' novels was made into a film: Avalanche Express, directed by Mark Robson and starring Lee Marvin and Robert Shaw, which was released in 1979 to generally poor reviews.

Reviews

[Carolyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Standard Colin Forbes stuff, a good book but the finale is lacking in substance and detail a bit.
Decent read, the characters have a bit more meat about them as you get further into the series. Re-read after 20 years and enjoyed it again.

[Sharyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is probably the least favourite of the Tweed books I've read so far, but it was still okay to read.

[RUTH J GRIFFITHS · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had read a few pages before I realised I'd already read this book, albeit with a different title. I did read the whole book as I don't like to leave a job unfinished. It was quite tedious though and totally formulaic. I was particularly annoyed by the role of the few women who basically sit around in tight tops and mini skirts showing off their toned legs, sipping mineral water, while the male baddies try and kill them, only for the male heroes to rescue them. I don't think I'll be bothering with a third version of this book.

[Stefan Salonen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stabil Forbes och Tweed. Inte överraskande på något sätt men trevlig läsning.

[Colin Whittaker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Way too complicated and full of 2 dimensional characters. Assuming to read of a time when spies had to look out for telephone boxes.

[Nigel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whirlpool finds Tweed and Co battling a megalomaniac banker who has designs on expanding his empire across the whole of Europe. The action is split in the main between England and Finland and all of the usual cast of characters are to be found within the story.
If you were to analyse in detail the plot of Whirlpool (or many of the Tweed and Co series) you would probably conclude that it is unrealistic and farfetched. Added to which are the seemingly never ending near death scrapes that the team managed to get themselves into, and almost without a scratch get out of. I don’t see this as a major problem as stories are still good fun to read and after all enjoyment is the main point of reading a work of fiction. Besides no one would ever accuse James Bond of realism but it hasn’t stopped him from becoming a successful franchise.
One notable aspect of this and some of the previous books in the series (once Paula has arrived in the team) is her ongoing struggle with Tweed to be allowed into dangerous situations, where he wouldn’t hesitate to send ‘one of the guys’. In the end by recalling her past successes she always manages to persuade him, usually to the benefit of the plan. One has I think to temper one’s initial reaction Tweed’s apparent sexism by remembering that the book was written 24 years ago when the roles of ladies in both real world and fiction were perceived differently than they are now, and I think we would do Mr Forbes an injustice by judging a book from nearly a quarter of a century ago by today’s standards.
Eight down in my re-reading of all Colin Forbes’s books, next stop “By Stealth”.

[James Henderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is part of a series of thrillers featuring the agent Tweed and his associates. These reflect the international political and diplomatic concerns of the era. A vast banking concern called INCUBUS is expanding its influence into Eastern bloc nations, including Russia. When it is learned that this concern may be using rather idiosyncratic methods of intrusion, for instance terrorism and blackmail, Britain's best SIS agents Tweed, Paula Grey and Bob Newman are sent to investigate. An entertaining, with well-described Scandinavian locales and an original story idea, and thrilling plot make this thriller well worth reading.

[Janine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did enjoy this rollicking thriller as it moved from the UK to Finland to Russia and back again. A team of expert spies led by the inscrutable Tweed gather evidence against a megalomaniac intend on controlling the world one business and government at a time. Have to say that the events were entertaining but improbable, odd how very few "goodies" perished in this and escaped every time. Also did not like how most women were characterised in this book, many played overwhelmingly on their sexuality and were judged accordingly by the question asking men.

[Christian · Rating 3 out of 5]

I used to love this book, but this is the first reread after 20 years and it regrettably revealed the weaknesses in Colin Forbes writing, almost as if he had the ready made phrases kit.

The story follows Tweed‘s struggle with a megalomaniac banker, bent on converting the world the American way. The action plays primarily in Finnland, but the ultimate climax is in typical tweed style in england.

[Gartibright bright · Rating 4 out of 5]

simple- a fantastic piece about how 'Mafia's run their business

[Lynn Hutchinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable story, even if a little improbable at times, how come the good guys never get killed? Still makes you want to keep turining the pages!

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent read, by a very good author.

[Warwick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad for a Colin Forbes, moves quickly, Tweeds operatives getting a bit cavalier about killing. Timeframes for getting resources a bit unrealistic, agents impossible to kill.

[James Oliver · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book some very basic plot holes one of Colin Forbes better books set mainly after the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe before the USSR collapse, the action is mainly set in Finland, this book takes some plot from Len Denigton book The Billion Dollar Brain novel. Again Mr Forbes dislike of technology is shown in the novel