File on Devlin [Paperback]

Gaskin Catherine (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 236 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers (April 6, 1970)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0006122973
• ISBN-13: 978-0006122975
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,192,588 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable and old-fashioned, June 3, 2011

By 

HannahR (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The File on Devlin (Paperback)

Catherine Gaskin's Cold War tale of international intrigue and espionage (circa 1964) is a well written novel. While not a fast paced spy thriller a-la Nelson DeMille or Ken Follet, it nonetheless reads in a very masculine way, without alot of fluff romance and overdone "feelings".

I liked Gaskin's slow build up of the story of Nobel Prize winning author Lawrence Devlin's disappearance in a small plane over the Afghanistan/USSR border. Did Devlin die in a crash, or did he perhaps defect to Soviet Russia? His grown daughter Sally is unaware of any duplicity in her father's life, but soon even she is caught up in the tangle of intrigue as she suspects she is being watched and followed, and her possessions rifled through. Unsure of her father's fate, yet unwilling to share her fears and grief with her estranged step-mother; a woman she has never even met, Sally eventually embarks on a journey to Switzerland with her father's long-time editor and good friend, and Josh Canfield, a writer with secrets of his own.

Gaskin's story is methodical and well developed, with plenty of in-depth character studies and a very palpable "is he/isn't he" mystery. I'm taking off one star because I would have personally liked more action, but that's just me.

Good stuff. I will be looking out for more by Gaskin in the future.

1.0 out of 5 stars The file on Devlin, September 15, 2010

By 

L Murphy (Ireland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The File on Devlin (Mass Market Paperback)

Devlin disapears on a trip from Afganistan over the Russian Boarder. This is the story of the investigation into what happened to Devlin.

I found the first hundred pages of this book extremely hard to follow, I did not really care too much for the Characters either. I think a story about Devlin himself would probably have made a better read, he seemed interesting.

This was not one of Gaskins better books.

4.0 out of 5 stars Love in the Cold War, May 21, 2005

By 

M, Compulsive Reader (Santa Cruz, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The File on Devlin (Hardcover)

Sweet story of people drawn together over the life, and death, of the enigmatic Devlin -- his daughter, and a British operative. The coming-to-love after separate life experiences growing out of Devlin's influence. A bad made-for-TV warped the story into Cold War mentality, though actors David McCallum and Elizabeth Ashley were well cast and played well.