Customer Reviews

Deep Lie

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

About 15 years ago, before the genesis of his Pat Conroy-esque Lee Family series and his equally successful Stone Barrington books, Stuart Woods apparently decided he liked the ground Tom Clancy was beginning to tread. After this book, he decided one was enough, which makes this effort the stronger for all that. Woods has proven that if you don't get too gee-whiz in the Clancy fashion, you can still get the job done. Keep the story simple, avoid Ludlum-style mazes of subplots and gobbledegook, and your reward will be that not that many people will call you a dilletante or a poseur. There's even a bit of Clive Cussler-style huge-evil-plot. Heroine Kate Rule comes off more as a contemporary of Clancy's Jack Ryan than a ripoff in this sort-of prequel to "Grass Roots". She can kick butt when needed without becoming a cartoonish Wonder Woman clone (as she proves when she nails a guy who's been shadowing her). The Russians as the bad guys aspect of this book can be attributed to the fact that the Cold War wasn't over yet when it was written. We get to see Will Lee as a supporting character while he's still only in a casual relationship with Kate. Plus Will's boss Senator Ben Carr while he still has his health and vitality. So this book is also consistent with the character development we've come to expect of Woods. I love the Lee Family series. I also love Clancy's Jack Ryan books. This book is a fusion of the two that isn't really that incongruous, especially since Woods did it only once.

Mysterious submarines prowl the coast of Sweden, while a young an ambitious Soviet submarine commander receives new orders. A not so young, but even more ambitious Soviet general plans spy-missions from a secret base made to look like any prosperous town in the western world. Meanwhile, Kathryn Rule, a non-nonsense intelligence analyst, sees growing signs of Russian focus in the Baltic...

"Deep Lie" isn't the deepest of the submarine technothrillers that invaded bookshelves in the late 1980's (whether inspired by "Red October" or written earlier but reissued to cash in on the craze), nor is it particularly loaded with the sorts of arcane info that only Clancy was able to divine out of military technology (remember, this was pre-internet.). Yet "Deep" is still shallow fun in the way it develops disparate storylines and ties them together. Definitely a fun if forgettable read.

...but quite fun to read. Although I am sure most people, including Mr. Woods himself, are tired of this comparison, this book is very Clancy-ish in its Russia vs. U.S. one-upmanship and its submarine and weaponry technological detail work.

The story is told from two alternating viewpoints: the first from CIA department head Katherine Rule who thinks she has discovered a plot in which Russia will be invading Sweden. Not one of her superiors believes her and she must go behind their backs to continue investigating this dire possibility. The other viewpoint is that of a Russian submarine commander, moved from his normal naval command to an elite Russian fighting force, the one being trained for the invasion itself.

The storytelling is competent and not as technologically detailed as a Tom Clancy, making the story, in my opinion, flow more smoothly than Clancy's. I had figured out who the mole in the CIA book was long before the end of the book but it held my interest enough to want to find out how & when Katherine would discover it.

All in all, a nice earlier book by Woods and a step above most of his somewhat cookie-cutter mystery thrillers.

This is one of, maybe the first of, Wood's books with Will Lee and Kate Rule as the main characters. This one leans more on Rule, her role in the CIA to uncover a Russian plot, and the attempts by Company agents to prevent her discovery from coming to light. I didn't know this one existed and was glad to add it to my Stuart shelf. A good read.

I was having an online conversation with a friend some time ago, and he recommended Stuart Woods as an author to read. I started with Dirt, then Choke, then continued reading, but I have been most pleasantly surprised by this book. The main characters are all very well written. The novel was also more espionage oriented, which Wood's masterfully wrote, with only a few minor mistakes that one (like myself) who has studied something of Russian history, would find fault with. The novel was so well written though, none of those come to mind at this moment. Then again, the novel was puplished in 86, and I didn't start my serious Russian studies until after the fall of the wall. Many thanks to Mr. Woods for an excellent novel.

This was just a damn good book. I enjoyed it from start to finish. Well written. I had to laugh when they were talking about the new computers with 20 Meg Hard drives. Makes me wonder what I'll be laughing about ten years from now (I just hope I have the opportunity). I highly recommend this book to anyone who just wants to have a fun read.

Another submarine thriller in the same vein as Tom Clancy but pacier and without the ponderous detail. The writing of course makes all the difference. A female protagonist discovers a master plan, a creation of a foreign government, and sets out to foil it. Her only obstacles are her bosses who do not believe the evidence. Woods appears to have researched this throughly.
A vey good read.

This book was my first exposure to Stuart Woods. I read it when it first came out in paperback in the late 80's. Since then I have read all of Woods' books and have without fail enjoyed all of them. In recent years his books seem more cranked out based on the quality of the writing, but I really can't complain since I still can't put 'em down once I start reading.

Stuart Woods' earlier books are more detailed and deeper than current books. I think he is just having a lot of fun with Stone Barrington, which I love. But the early Will Lee books are outstanding and I can't put them down. I read a couple of later Will Lee books, but decided I better go back to the beginning, starting with Chiefs, which is one of the best books I've ever read. Stuart Woods never disappoints me.

This early book was indeed a very good one. "Deep Lie" was an espioage story, but the title also implied that after a Soviet submarine wrecked at the fjords, and deep lied lie was then discovered. Woods almost turned a spy writer with this one, he also aped to become a horror writer with his UNDER THE LAKE, but he chose to write topics more secular and realistic. A most talented writer, readers should try his wonderful RUN BEFORE THE WIND and its sequel GRASS ROOT and so on until PALIMDROME.