Customer Reviews

The Fourth Protocol

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The year is 1987. The place, London. Someone in the British Defense Ministry is funneling top secret military information to the Soviet Union. John Preston, a British intelligence agent of considerable skill, is handed the rather daunting task of finding out who is doing it and why.

Meanwhile, in Moscow, a diabolical plot is being hatched to bring Communist rule to the British Isles using the most nefarious of tactics.

Frederick Forsyth masterfully interweaves these two storylines using a narrative style that is detailed to the nth degree. The Fourth Protocal is highly suspenseful and filled with unexpected plot twists. Moreover, Forsyth dares to employ the unusual and somewhat risky technique of using a real life historical figure as one of the main characters....in this case the notorious double agent Kim Philby.

The Fourth Protocol is an extremely engaging, well crafted and meticulously researched cold war thriller that does not disappoint. It ranks right up there among the genre's finest.

Frederick Forsyth's "The Fourth Protocol" written in 1984 before the dissolution of the U.S.S.R. is a classic offering in the political thriller and espionage genre.

A by product of a jewel theft in London is the discovery that sensitive clandestine information has been traitorously pilfered by George Berenson, a member of the British Ministery of Defense.
High ranking agent of the British Secret Service, M15, John Preston has been assigned to plug the leak and evaluate the damage. Exhaustive investigation unearths a plot nurtured through a South African source and eminating from the very top of the Soviet government. British traitor, Harold Philby, now a colonel in the KGB, has inspired a plot approved by the Soviet Secretary General created to topple the reigning British government. A pact to avoid broaching the "fourth protocol" would be violated resulting in the establishment of the hard left, Communist sympathetic Labour Party as the rulers of the British government. The fourth protocol was part of a treaty signed by nuclear powers is avoid certain types of nuclear proliferation.

Forsyth creates a hard biting, chilling thriller that traverses through the highest channels of several governments. Such a scenario is still plausible in the tumultuous political climate existent today.

It's only my personal opinion.....but I think this is quite possibly Forsyth's best novel. From the seemingly innocent burglary at the start to the suspense filled denouement, it is flawless. If you only ever read one Forsyth novel...make it this one.

I'm not a devout reader of novels, and have started quite a few without finishing them. But this book kept me riveted. Make sure you don't have anything important going on in your life when you start this book! (Unless, unlike me, you are a fast reader.)

As the ending drew near, I was literally shaking because of the tension (and that's certainly never happened to me before).

Great book.

What a great tale. Tension, fast moving plot, sometimes excruciating while the author takes the reader slowly through the thoroughness of the details, leaving the readers in suspense of the outcome.

Like many masterpieces, villains and heroes are not always so well defined. British MI5 agent John Preston has the serendipidity to be at the right place at the right time despite his superior's best efforts to the otherwise. Uncovering the scent of a case after case, his doggedness enabled him to penetrate layers of deceit and patience rewarded by necessary breaks.

The Russians were no less masters of the game, and in fact, better and it was through sheer bad luck that they were discovered.

Despite the lengthy introduction of characters though, readers could not really feel for the cast, except for perhaps John Preston who was separated from his wife and looks forward only to spending time with his son.

Nonetheless, the lack of characterisation was more than made up by brilliant twists and turns that would keep a reader continuing through anything.

Frederick Forsyth is a master of complex plotting and this book, published in 1985, is without a doubt one of his most complex."The Fourth Protocol" begins quite humbly with the simple burglary and theft of a mult-million dollar set of diamond jewelry from a London town home. Finding a sparkling tiara won't fit into his own carrying case, the burglar takes an attache case belonging to the owner and thereby saves the entire Western Alliance from collapse. Only Forsythe could pull this off. He does so with a cast of dozens, meticulous attention to plot detail and the sure knowledge of his readers' fear of communism and nuclear terrorism in the 1980s. The story begins slowly, but manages to hold the reader's interest through a series of accidents, mayhem and shrewd deductions of British intelligence officer John Preston. The story takes us back and forth from Europe to the Soviet Union, from Pretoria, South Africa to a U.S. air base in England, and all over Europe. Each new revelation brings the reader a little closer to the edge of his chair and the ending nearly sends him to hide underneath. Even though this thriller is somewhat dated in its Cold War mentality, it is still a wonderful, compelling novel. With only a bit of paranoia, the reader can substitute a Middle-East villain for the aging Soviet one in this novel, and scare himself silly.

Another great book, I think he is the master of the spy vs. spy book. This was heads and tails above the movie. Great characters, I really disliked the antagonist. Good, smart story that still plays today. He pulls the rug out from under you a number of times so you cannot predict the outcome. I have never gone wrong with this author.

This is really good. I am not much of a reader of thrillers, and the last one I remember really, really enjoying was Day of the Jackal, which I read about 30 years ago, or whenever it was new. This book was a tremendous cause celebre at the time and caused the word "jackal" meaning a professional political assassin to enter the popular language.

I read Forsyth's next couple of books, and they were OK, but not exceptional. And then I read no more Forsyth until I picked this up in the Desoto County Public Library and was hardly able to put in down for the whole of the weekend.

There are lots of writers of spy thrillers, but I think what makes Forsyth exceptional is the detail he goes into to describe how you might do something, like maybe disabling a burglar alarm, or famously (in Day of the Jackal), how to get a false British passport. This book is meticulously researched in terms of various criminal techniques, physical locations, structures of intelligence services, and even contains clear instructions on how to build your own small nuclear weapon. (Please do not try this at home; it may be injurious to your health.) I'm not sure how true all of this stuff is, but it seems as plausible as hell to me, and fact and fiction are so cleverly blended that you really can't tell where one starts and the other stops.

What strikes me now, reading in 2005, is how much new technologies like cell phones and Internet communications have changed everything. I really doubt that spies still have to have secret radios hidden in the attic, or that their signals are triangulated by vast monitoring stations, so to some extent the story is already dated.

But the threads of the story are wonderfully told and spun together to reach a lip-biting climax.

I highly recommend this book. It would be ideal for airport reading and to pass the time on an intercontinental flight, but don't try it for bedtime reading, or you will be up all night.

My rating scale:

***** A not-to-be missed classic of the genre.

**** Excellent work, the artist at his best.

*** A good buy if you like the work of this artist.

** Some good bits, but not worth going out of your way for.

* Awful, not recommended at all.

No one can tell a story like Frederick Forsyth can. The plot is masterly conceived and keeps the reader glued to each page. In typical Forsyth style, the plot comes together masterly at the end. It is a pitty that the movie that starred Pierce Brosnan & Michael Caine did not do the novel any justice, as this was an immense work to compress into a two hour film without losing great parts of the plot.

I am new to this writer because I thought he just wrote boring war stories for old men. I was quite surprised to find that he is a talented writer who is able to create a fast-paced, gripping thriller with a lot of psychological punch. If you are reader of good fiction, even science-fiction (like me), then try this book out. It has many technological surprises.

The story is basically about a top level Russian official who wants to bring down the current british government (maggy thatcher, hehe) and install his own covert government (the opposition, labour!). In order to do this he needs to sway the majority of the british vote to labour by launching a semi-terrorist type attack on a small british town. Seems odd? Well not at all because Forsyth makes you believe it by throwing in some of the most coolest characters alive since "Gorky Park". Although the first 100 pages are pretty slow going you will finish this book in no time. Big surprises, nice plot twists and a courir service from hell.