Customer Reviews

Free Agent: A Novel

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

There's nothing worse than looking forward to being engrossed in a thrilling book, and then being disappointed. A good thriller should keep you turning the pages, ignoring meals, phone calls and bedtime so you can keep reading.

The book spans over 20 years as Paul Dark,an agent for the British spy agency MI6, finds himself on the run from both his agency and the KGB. He deals with the relationship with his father, a fellow spy, and the only woman he ever loved, who was thought dead but now may be the one who betrays him. The narrative is a little dull and I found myself just not caring enough to really want to know what they were all about.

Free Agent wasn't terrible, it just didn't keep me enthralled as I expect a good book to. The action is engrossing but the characters are shallow, so even though there is plenty going on, you don't care all that much because you don't care about the characters as much as you should.

Looking back, I can't say where the book took a turn, but it didn't take long for the story presented to start getting bogged down in it's own details or, occassionally, lack thereof. The story had potential, but our narrator, Paul Dark, is a character that it is hard to like or dislike; he just tells us his story. Never knowing whether or not Dark (the name is a bit too cliche for my tastes, as well) is a good guy or a bad guy, a victim or a villian, doesn't help the story; I suppose this is meant to be a means of building suspense, but the author never really explains enough for the reader to know where our narrator stands, who he is.

All characters are styrofoam cut-outs of the genre, with no real depth and nothing to make them stand out in the reader's mind. I found it difficult to recall characters that had disappeared from the story for a while. There were many characters that were so much alike that I couldn't remember which was which was which...

I can't even classify this as a decent diversion. There just isn't anything about this story that causes me to want to read the sequel; and they made no mistake, at the end, in letting us know that this dreadful story would continue.

The book is not thrilling, not mysterious, not suspenseful and when the finale finally arrives its not shocking, not interesting.

I rarely rate a book 1 star as writing a book is a difficult task, but this certainly does not deserve a 3 star (average) rating. Its just a poor outing...

The first thing you'll notice is the wretched writing: "...after that we'd spent the entire afternoon at her flat, pushing the sheets to the bottom of the bed."; "High stakes," he muttered, tapping his glass with his fingers" "...a chasm of despair opened up in my stomach."

But after a page or two, you'll realize everything about this ridiculous book is fourth-rate. You've been suckered into buying a trite, silly, flatfooted counterfeit of an espionage novel. My copy features a stunningly dishonest quote from Christopher Reich on the cover. "I was...reminded of the best of Le Carre, Deighton and Forsyth."

Bollocks.

Consider yourself warned. Any Hardy Boy book will give you a more compelling read.

It's obvious that Jeremy Duns is a skilled writer and it's equally obvious that he's immersed in the subject matter here.The major difficulty for me is the fact that I just didn't like the character. I agree with those who believe the protagonist should be flawed, but to work, the character must be basicaly a good person with flaws that hamper him. Paul Dark, for me, just wasn't that good a person. Will I read FREE COUNTRY, the sequel? That's gong to depend on how full my schedule is when the new book comes out. I won't be making an effort to catch the new novel, but if it drifts my way at a time that my reading schedule isn't cramped, I will likely give it a chance because I do believe Jeremy Duns is a dedicated writer who just didn't hook me with his first outing.

I didn't think this book was great but it was ok. I didn't realize until the end of the book that it was a start of a series with the next book being Free Country featuring Paul Dark. I think with it being the first book in the series that the author made a mistake. Most first books in a series set everything up and give a lot of depth to a character. I didn't feel the author did this. I felt he had a story he wanted to tell and he was going to tell it. The plot I felt was somewhat confusing and could have been a little more realistic. It takes you from England back to wartime Germany to England to Nigeria where there is a war going on in 1969. None of the book takes place in present time. It's all in 1945 or 1969 while the Cold War is starting up. It's a definite Cold War book. I just couldn't get real invested in the characters. Most of the events were unrealistic and how Paul Dark doesn't get caught is just too unbelievable. I felt the twists in the book were a little contrived and not set up well. However it is a different book about double agents and what they start doing when their cover is blown. I wouldn't recommend this book because it's just not good enough to pay hardback prices for. However I would say to pick it up on the bargain book table or as a paperback.

I am a longterm fan of espionage novels, and think I know authenticity when I see it. This book was excellent - a very promising beginning for a novelist who clearly understands the contradictions and internal conflicts of an espionage agent .... as well as the politics of international government relationships. Like some who have reviewed this book, at first I did not like Duns' main character. After all, who would respect a double agent? But as the book evolved, Duns has allowed us to see clear glimpses of the humanity of this character, and of the complexity that moves strongly beneath the surface. The issues which brought the British agent Paul Dark into the double agent world are in fact not simple, and don't support a view of him as a villain. I am looking forward to Duns' next book in this series, which I expect will more fully develop his main character. I would not be surprised to see Paul Dark re-evaluating his place in the espionage world, and his governmental loyalties ... or at least how he goes about doing what is in fact right and just in behalf of his fellow humans, if not the governments who pay him.

I'm not a John LeCarre fan but did enjoy this book of espionage. I did laugh at the main character's name -- Paul Dark, the double agent for both M16 and KGB. He was turned 25 years ago, at the end of WWII. Now in the middle of the Biafran civil war he needs to confront the woman who turned him. A KGB officer wants to defect and promises to name the British double agent.

We go through the much with Paul, his memories of WWII, his father's death, his lover's turning him, his flight to Biafra and his trying to find the lover to stop her from a crime that will identify him.

It moved fast enough but I just didn't care for Dark or his many associates, some who knew him for what he was and some who didn't. The author did draw the British diplomats and such as a strange bunch and maybe they are. The Biafrans where written as the ones in charge were just as bad as the ones they wanted to replace.

Overall I liked the book enough to feel I didn't waste my time but do know I won't be reading anymore spies novels. They don't seem to be my cuppa tea!

I sincerely hope this book is meant to parody Ian Fleming's James Bond, because the alternative is too depressing to contemplate. If this derivative, cliché-ridden mishmash is meant in earnest, I weep for the future of spy thrillers that it came out from as reputable a publisher as Viking. I like a good Cold War whodunit as much as the next bloke, but I don't like feeling as though I'm wallowing in forty-year-old castoffs.

Paul Dark, a senior executive in British Secret Service, has been accused of being a Soviet mole. The twist is, he really is a spy. So he goes on the run, from London to Nigeria to Biafra in the heat of wartime, trying to protect a quarter century of work. Along the way he gets tied up with MI5, KGB, the Nigerians, the Biafrans, and a plot to kill British PM Harold Wilson on foreign soil.

As I read, I realized you could make a drinking game out of this novel. Give yourself a slug every time you spot story ideas cribbed from Bond movies. Look, there's "The Spy Who Loved Me!" Pass the bottle, I just glimpsed "Casino Royale!" Wasn't that scene part of "On Her Majesty's Secret Service?" At one point Paul Dark even speculates that he might be up against agents of SMERSH. Hoo boy.

Nor did I think that alone. In chapter V, a supporting character accuses Paul Dark of being "a secret agent like your Double Oh Seven." Why steal from a more original writer, and then signal your theft? In the final forty pages, I began to suspect there was an actual inventive twist in the works--maybe the effort of reading had been worth it. Then the author snatched it back again and announced it was a fake-out. BORRR-ring!

Perhaps this novel will entertain readers who distrust astonishment or innovation. But I have a hard time imagining that such people read thrillers, since thrills are based on the element of surprise. As I say, maybe this is a parody. Sadly, that's not the idea I get from the author's relentlessly solemn tone. I suspect Paul Dark will be a nine days' wonder, a blip on the spy thriller radar that will be quickly forgotten. I intend to start on that goal right away.

First, the positives. The author has picked a rather unique setting in both time and place for this story. Set in the west African country of Nigeria in the late 1960s, it's got a real appeal with a completely different perspective on the east vs west struggle of the period. He doesn't just use that period to set a back story, it is the real story which is a refreshing change. The Biafran conflict which presumably few western readers will recognize makes it more interesting too.

But other than that, I found the spy Paul Dark to be a formulaic and thin character inhabiting a formulaic spy novel, complete with a mysterious female character, meets in noisy bars, punctuated by the obligatory narrative to explain the real plot that was too unbelievable for the story itself to expose. And best of all of course, the character is set up to reappear in a sequel. Which I won't be reading.

When a KGB Agent turns up during the Biafra civil war in Nigeria with information about a double agent in British Intelligence, agent Paul Dark fears his past will catch up with him. Twenty-five years ago, Dark was recruited by MI6, joining his father in a covert, unsanctioned mission to unofficially execute Nazi war criminals. Now on the run from both MI6 and the KGB, Paul Dark is determined to protect himself and find the only woman he has ever loved, a woman he long belived dead. The Biafra civil war complicates his mission, not only thwarting his physical movements but highlighting the moral dilemma of intelligence work itself more and more as the novel races towards the final shocking resolution.

In his debut espionage thriller FREE AGENT, Jeremy Duns gives espionage lovers an action-packed novel with several twists and turns as the boundaries between agent and double agent collide. The first person narrative aligns the reader with Paul Dark, allowing the reader to view the events only through his incomplete knowledge. While this adds an element of suspense, the reader needs more details to feel drawn into the story. The backdrop of the Biafra civil war gives an interesting look into the influence of the superpowers and the intelligence game itself during this period of time. One wishes the author had developed this aspect of the story more both in giving more historical details and simply more space in the current action. In addition, the 1945 background seems a most promising twist on the story, but little background is given throughout the story and most details are saved until the end. As fascinating as the final denouement is, more background to the past throughout the novel would have built up the sense of anticipation as well as the depth of the characters.

FREE AGENT would benefit from more in depth characterization. The characters and their relationships, both personal and professional, feel sketchy. Fast paced, action-filled espionage thrillers are great, but one needs enough characterization to be drawn into caring about the characters in the first place. The surprise ending fascinates with its clever twists and subterfuge, and yet, the lack of characterization leading up to that moment decreases the potential impact of the ending. FREE AGENT would have been a better book with more attention to historical background of the characters and in the scene setting itself. If it makes the book longer, so be it. More atmosphere and characterization would produce a more intense, nail-biting pace because the reader would have had more investment in the characters and the outcome. The author's mention of the Philby background and the historical notes at the end fascinated me, but I would have liked to have seen more of the author's knowledge interwoven into the story itself. Rather than detracting from the story's action, this would have built up the significance of the action.

With his potential complexity and history, Paul Dark has potential as the center of an espionage series. This espionage thriller lover hopes that in future novels, the author will take the time and page count necessary to flesh out the story more so that all those twists and turns have the desired maximum effect. While I enjoyed the non-stop twists and turns and the nods to history, the sketchiness of the novel felt more like an undeveloped outline for a great story to be told.