Customer Reviews

Deceiver

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Not a bad little page-turner. First off the structure of the book is four stories that all have one character placed in each one. It was fun to explore how the author does it. I liked the different story lines; most of them have been done before, but not this well or with this type of structure. The book sneaks up on you and really sucks you in. You find your self almost hurrying to the next page because the suspense builds through to the end of each of the stories. Very good characters with competent development and well thought out roles within the story. I would have liked a bit more detail on the locations. Overall, this is a good old spy novel.

This book had everything- suspense, action, psychological thrills, and clever plot twists. And, to boot, there are four stories that each are independent of the other, yet are interwoven in that they trace career highlights of the Deceiver.

Forsyth's attention to detail is startling in light of the complexity of the stories he tells. He is one of the few espionage-slash-action writers I can stomach, because his style is so vivid and clean. This book is excellent and is every bit as good as Jackal and Odessa File.

This book comprises four short stories featuring spymaster Sam McCready.

Story #1 is a masterpiece of action; your heartbeat will confirm this as you turn page after page avidly. The way McCready has to kill the very friend he is there to save is pure drama. One of the best compositions by Forsyth ever -- teachers should assign it for children to read at school.

Story #2 is the state-of-the-art of psychological twist. Until the last page you will not know who is telling the truth or lying. Thank you Fred.

Story #3 does not take after the two previous ones; it is good but not as gripping as those are. You will not let unnoticed the vast research job Forsyth has done to describe places and situations in such a detailed manner. ...

Story #4 -- Forsyth not in his best; he was actually having a bad day.

Because of its fluent prose and intricate plots, I can recommend “The Deceiver” -- a really worthwhile book.

I've read a few spy novel by other authors, but this one has to be the best I've read to date. It's interesting how Forsyth managed to blend in the character of Sam Mcgeedy in all the four sub stories in one book. Particularly my favourite is the first two stories which involves a phony russian defections and Sam Mcgreedy involvement in a 'cross border exchange gone wrong' in Berlin. Highly intense!

The detail of the story on how the procedure are done in the intelligence community prooves his thorough research on the book. This is rewarded by an overwhelming attachment and sense of realism from the reader. It is really difficult to put this book down, once you started it. Highly recommended for those who seek realism and detailed process in espionage action story.

Forsyth has written some of the best spy-thrillers, in an universe filled with LeCarrés, Folletts, Deightons and so on. His earlier books, such as "The day of the Jackal" and "The Odessa file" are simply marvelous pieces of research and storytelling. This book, "The Deceiver", portraits what happens to a british spy when the Cold War is over: his superiors are trying to give him an early retirement, since he's no use in these peaceful days. Maybe Forsyth wrote the story ( I mean, the four stories ), thinking what was going to happen to HIM, and other writers alike, since their primary plot in the real world was shattered altogether with the Berlim Wall. And I guess Forsyth wasn't that much worried. The first story is the heaviest one, with a psychological side. As the book goes on, you get to know the hero, MacCready, not only as a spymaster, but mainly as a person, an individual. The last story is the best one, in a mood that resembles the Agatha Christie's Poirot's detective cases. Highly recommended to people who want to learn more about Forsyth himself.

The first two stories in this compilation of episodes from the colorful career of one Sam Mcready a.k.a "The Deceiver" are worth their weight in gold. The first one deals with a thrilling infiltration into East Germany with a variety of twists and turns. The second story details the defection of a senior KGB officer who creates a rift between the British MI6 and the CIA. The final two stories are more run-of-the-mill, but Forsyth fans will not be disappointed.

Frederick Forsyth has penned a most unusual collection of spy tales here. In fact four episodes from the colorful career of Sam McCready, British spy master, are provided and well-crafted. The four tales cover about 10 years and every terrorist and criminal hub in the world, including Libya, Cuba, USSR, the IRA, and East Germany.

McCready has been deemed expendable, due to his unorthodox and outrageous tactics, in a post Cold War era by very high level political and civil service leaders.

The typical story line for a prehistoric cold war operative runs like this: Operate a high level Russian spy for many years in an uneasy collaboration with the CIA. Send an overweight, aged, hard drinking West German spy into East Germany to collect a package. With the help of retired smugglers, go yourself into East Germany to retrieve the package when the West German suffers a complete break-down. Of course this needs to be done without any official sanction from the British or West German, while the KGB is also on the trail of the Russian general. Clearly these tactics have no place in the post cold war 1990's, a time of seeming safety and tranquility at least until Iraq invades Kuwait in August 1990.

The fundamental premise here is that McCready has a legal right to a deparmental hearing as a sort of protest of his forced retirement. In the hearing the four spy tales are told. This is a very unusual construct and may not appeal to all. The tales are all good, but not good enough to stand alone as Forsyth novels, and are strangely unrelated, other than that they are four cases successfully solved by our hero. This is also a book for those like me, who love the technical minutae and operational details of the covert trade.

Frederick Forsyth delivers thrilling tales of Cold War espionage in The Deceiver. The book is a collection of novellas that revolve around the career of one of British intelligence's most effective operatives. Unfortunately for that operative, he is being sent by the new administration into quiet retirement on the eve of the end of the Cold War. Using a committee review of that operative's career to link the individual episodes, Forsyth provides another entertaining character in thrilling spy tales.

This novel is divided into four stories each involving British super-sleuth Sam McCready and his operations during the last years of the Cold War
From London to Berlin and Washington DC to the Mediterranean to the Caribbean we are exposed to the inner working of the British Secret Services which seems to be Forsyth's field of specialty
Wherever we go action and intrigue follow us
And we get to meet villains as diverse as East German STASI Secret Police , IRA terrorists , Libyan Mukhabbarat (Gadaffi's brutal Gestapo-like secret police) and Caribbean gangsters
McCready is not the only hero in the book .much of it focuses on the work of other characters like the tragic end of a West German secret serviceman and a former SAS man turned reclusive author that Mc Cready manages to recruit for a high risk operation
The book is dedicated to all who worked and sacrificed so that the West could win the Cold War
There is always something nostalgic about remembering the Cold War and a very important message therein : During those days we knew who our enemies where before political correctness corrupted our values and blurred the difference between good and evil .Now it is fashionable to establish good relationships with Cuba and Red China and to make intellectually dishonest dictinctions between different terrorist groups .As Forsyth writes in his forward :Those were the days , my friends

Sam McCready's job is to engage foreign threats to her majesties realm, but this time the threat is within: an internal enquiry. When confronted with questioning through four courageous episodes of duty, a hidden agenda seems clear. Can insider politics out-match THE DECEIVER?