Espionage Aficionados discussion

Sallie just reminded me of this wonderful thriller. I'm gonna feature it on our group page for a while.

Just look at that kick-ass cover photo! Can you stand it?

My review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Author Thomas Gifford got a raw deal. He was an innovator; he refined the techniques of the "really big international thriller" lon-n-n-n-nn-g before Dan Brown's Vatican fantasies.

At the same time, he knew how to keep a story tightly focused and highly violent, as his contemporaries were doing (Frederick Forsythe, Thomas Harris).

Gifford also brings in an early prototype of the currently popular "Scandinavian procedural". At the time this thriller came out there was only "The Laughing Policeman" and "End of the Game" for landmarks in that style.

I give this vivid thriller the kind of praise I typically reserve for someone like Forsythe. Gifford writes at that level, albeit lacking any major breakthrough novel. Sad. He came close!

If anyone's game to read it, your reactions would be featured here.

Feliks

p.s. apart from arguing about John LeCarre' this group is somnolent. Maybe I need to do a one-off "Feliks recommendation" each month. Sort of a book challenge but completely opt-in. Either you trust my recs, or you don't...