Flint [Abridged, Audiobook] [Audio Cassette]

Paul Eddy (Author), Fiacre Douglas (Reader)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 28, 2001

An exceptionally talented undercover policewoman, Grace Flint nearly dies in a botched sting operation. Months later, physically healed but psychologically scarred, she gets an unexpected clue about her attacker, and disappears on a mission of revenge - unaware that she is about to pull the first string that will unravel a vastly complex web of international treachery, extortion, and murder. Pursuing her, using whatever clues he can find, is Harry Cohen, the former chief legal advisor to the British Security Services, who has been drawn back in as an impartial outsider because everybody is worried about Flint's safety. Or are they? Much to his surprise, he finds himself tugging on a string of his own that leads him high into governments on both sides of the Atlantic - and into a conspiracy with unexpected resonances, not only for him but for Flint. For there are many kinds of betrayal, and some of them are worse than others . . .

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The title Flint suggests something incendiary, and that is precisely the word to describe Inspector Grace Flint. Keenly observant and physically courageous to the point of madness, Flint is a complicated heroine who has a personal stake in hunting down a notorious money launderer who, we learn, is just the first in a chain of high-level bad guys. In the first chapter, a sting operation turns bad and Flint's partner is executed. Flint herself is literally smashed to bits. Pistol-whipped and kicked in the face, she requires multiple plastic surgeries to reconstruct a mere approximation of her old face, a mask that rarely betrays the rage that motivates her remarkable bravery.

Hot on the trail of her assailant, Flint disappears from her home base of London, which raises the concern (or is it something else?) of her supervisors. They commission Harry Cohen, former chief legal adviser to the British Security Services, to find her. The search leads Flint and Cohen, working separately, high into governments on both sides of the Atlantic, where they unravel a conspiracy whose participants will stop at nothing to keep it a secret.

But the conspirators are up against formidable detectives. Flint's mother disappeared suddenly on a country walk when Grace was just 5 years old; the disappearance shapes her personality from then on. Cohen lost his wife to cancer; just 34, she was a victim of misleading medical tests that allowed cancer to metastasize before it was diagnosed. Flint and Cohen are motivated by a strong sense of justice, and they're dangerous because they each think they've got nothing to lose.

Author Paul Eddy spent 25 years as an investigative crime reporter for London's Sunday Times, and his broad research crams the novel with highly verisimilar details. Grisly without being gratuitously violent, Flint explores human motivations with the same alacrity that it delves into the intricacies of international financial scams and the dirty work it takes to hide them. This book is truly a page-turner, full of depth but brilliantly fast-paced. --Kathi Inman Berens --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

London investigative reporter Eddy, author of six nonfiction books (The Cocaine Wars; Hunting Marco Polo), tries his hand at fiction in this gripping, complex and highly plausible thriller. The novel crashes open like a cluster bomb with the protagonist, Grace Flint, a promising young English undercover cop, being brutally assaulted in a sensitive sting operation gone wrong. The sadist responsible for leaving her in a bloody heap, shady financier Frank Harling, vanishes without a trace, and Flint is left to heal, simmer and pick up the pieces. She stumbles across Harling's trail while on assignment with a joint British/American task force headed by a take-no-prisoners FBI agent named Cutter, who hunts international money launderers and has borrowed Flint from British intelligence to investigate a Caribbean bank. When a Learjet is bombed out of the sky, taking the banker and Cutter's number-two man with it, Flint figures Harling is behind the attack and launches her own investigation. Then she's plunged into a terrifying (and believable) conspiracy of rogue British and American spies who have been using the banker to shake down his criminal clients. As Flint pinpoints Harling, a sinister operative is dispatched to do her in. Brutal cloak-and-dagger games rage from the streets of Paris to the tense Turkish/Greek DMZ on Cyprus as rival intelligence agencies wage unsanctioned war against their own operatives. Flint is an engaging and thoroughly sympathetic heroine, wrestling her doubts and fears as she moves through an utterly amoral world. Eddy, who has written extensively for the London Times on political corruption, espionage and terrorism, keeps his story fast and seamless, expertly ratcheting up the tension in a breathlessly complex web of intrigue that keeps the reader guessing about loyalties and betrayals right up to the end. Mystery Guild featured selection; film rights to Columbia Pictures; foreign rights sold in the U.K., Germany, France, Holland, Norway, Italy and Israel. (Aug.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Paperback Nova Audio Books; Abridged edition (August 28, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1587883201
• ISBN-13: 978-1587883200
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 4.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,812,250 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best journey I have taken for a long time., October 6, 2000

By 

christopher morgan (London Great Britain) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Flint (Audio Cassette)

A foul windy and wet day and 700 odd miles before me was not conducive to a happy day. So I put the first Flint cassette in to the car player. The day took on a new meaning. I was gripped by this extraordinary exciting story. I had already read the book it made no difference to the excitement.The miles fell away even idiot drivers were an irrelevance as I became immersed in the world of Grace Flint, a British under cover detective inspector, who is so real but goes through the kind of reality no one in their right mind would want to experience. It is a very special story and the plot is cunningly crafted by Paul Eddy. I thought ahead but each time the story proved me wrong as I was lead from one direction to another. The story has pathos and incites rage(not traffic) then laughter then satisfaction. It is a very stimulating story with a heroine of courage and beauty, the latter from the delicate hands of a plastic surgeon's scapel as a result of a savage beating. One word -terrific.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Chipped Flint, August 13, 2001

By 

Charles Meyrick (Fairfield, CT USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Flint (Paperback)

...as in a razor-sharp arrowhead. The character of Grace Flint is given a sharp edge by what she has endured. The writing of Paul Eddy is incisive and well-aimed.

I picked up a copy of the UK paperback version of this book here in Tokyo, in spite of the cover line comparing Grace Flint to Clarice Starling. The comparison is off the mark, and suggests that Eddy's novel is somehow derivative of the work of Thomas Harris.

It is more true to say that Paul Eddy is writing in the tradition of John Le Carre. Good character development, excellent plotting, an insider's knowledge of organizations and locales. I particularly enjoyed the confrontation with the President of the Northern Turkish Republic of Cyprus; Eddy shows a keen insight into international affairs, and takes us to a place not often visited in novels.

This book is very difficult to put down; I resented every minute that I was obliged to do something else. I look forward to Eddy's next book.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rave reviews for Flint, August 29, 2000

By 

Sara Walden (London) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Flint (Hardcover)

Time Magazine (cover date August 21) said, "Not since Modesty Blaise has spy literature seen a heroine as determined and spunky as Flint... Her adventures may be more diverting than credible, but Flint, who emerges from it all as a genuinely sympathetic and interesting character, looks as though she may have some pretty good commercial legs."

And the Wall Street Journal (August 18) said, "There are sophisticated technological tools and exotic locales, without the James Bondian touches that often push the genre to ridiculous excesses. `Flint' relies upon the strength of its steely lead character to propel the narrative. A believable trail of clues and the creepiest denouement since Thomas Harris's `Hannibal' more than make up for the occasional patch of clunky writing in this strong first novel."

Finally, Booklist (August) concluded, "Flint is cold, absolutely resolute, and refreshingly original-a fine heroine in an accomplished first novel. Eddy, an investigative reporter for London's Sunday Times, wisely leaves the door open for succeeding volumes in what one hopes will become the Grace Flint series."