Customer Reviews

Death by Espionage: Intriguing Stories of Betrayal and Deception

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I am more than an avid fan of Mr. Martin Cruz Smith. I own a complete collection of his works. Either I read the book hype wrong or else I have mis-judged Mr. Cruz Smith's ability as a writer. Except for the excerpts by established time honored writers: Mark Twain, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Guy de Maupassant, I find the book mundane, deplorable and a disappointment that Mr. Cruz Smith attached his name to it. I found bad usage of grammar, stories that lost the development of the plot, confusion of character identification (Frederick ?)and just poor mystery writing overall.Amaturism personified. Mr. Cruz Smith, did you read the book before you affixed your name to it? I will gladly sell it if I thought I could recoup my costs. This shakes my confidence in Mr. Cruz Smiths future writings and whether or not I may purchase them.

All collections of short stories are going to have their hits and their near-misses. Fans of Sherlock Holmes will welcome the inclusion of the "The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans", though it's not one of Conan Doyle's best. Ed Hoch leaves a hard-boiled little "noir" twist at the end of his "Enemy Territory" and Guy de Maupassant is at his Frenchified best in "Two Fishers". In his introduction Martin Cruz Smith says that the espionage story has entered a golden age and these tales show flashes of that.