Free Agent: A Novel (Paul Dark Trilogy) [Kindle Edition]

Jeremy Duns (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Amazon Exclusive: David Morrell Reviews Free Agent

Creator of Rambo and cofounder of the International Thrillers Writers organization, David Morrell is the New York Times bestselling author of the classic spy trilogy, The Brotherhood of the Rose, The Fraternity of the Stone, and The League of Night and Fog. He is considered by many to be the father of the modern action novel. His latest novel is The Shimmer.

If you're a fan of espionage novels, I hope it won‘t shock you when I say that some authors make the stuff up. They wouldn't know the difference between a dead drop and an ATM machine. If you mentioned "brush contact" to them, they'd think you were talking about a hike in the woods. The truth is, there's a strict discipline to being an operative: rules and codes of conduct and ways of talking that most outsiders don't understand.

I spent the bulk of my career learning about this world, at first from countless non-fiction books that were written by retired members of the community (another favored term), later from former operatives who were kind enough to teach me about what's known as tradecraft—among other things, those dead drops and brush contacts. Because of The Brotherhood of the Rose trilogy, I was admitted to the Association for Intelligence Officers as an honorary lifetime member.

All this is meant to make the point that I know a true espionage author when I see one. John le Carré is, of course, the master of all espionage writers, not only a talented author but a former member of British Intelligence. Robert Littell ( The Company) is another talented accurate espionage author.

And so is Jeremy Duns, whose Free Agent made me keep saying, "Yes, you got this right and that right." In fact, everything's right. An early scene in which a group of spymasters discuss a possible mole is impressively authentic.

Because the fine points of the "spy game" took place during the Cold War, Duns’s cleverly sets Free Agent in that period, specifically 1969, when British Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, visited Nigeria during its harrowing civil war. East and West governments vied for control of the region. Espionage schemes were rampant. The main thrust of Duns' novel is an assassination plot against the prime minister, so if you're an action fan, you'll find plenty to your liking, but for my money, it's the true espionage details that kept me turning the pages of this remarkable novel.

(Photo © Jenifer Esperanza)

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Set in London and Nigeria during the latter's 1969 civil war with flashbacks to the months after WWII, Duns's terrific debut will draw inevitable comparisons to early John le Carré, though the lead character, turncoat British Secret Service agent Paul Dark, is a complete original. In Nigeria, KGB agent Vladimir Slavin has asked the British for asylum, offering in trade the name of a Soviet mole lodged in the upper echelons of the Secret Service. That mole, we soon learn, is Paul, an ideological victim of youth and notions of revenge, who in 1945 assisted his father, a fellow MI6 operative, in a number of secret missions to hunt down and kill Nazi war criminals. Paul flees to Africa, where he expects to find a former Russian nurse he once loved and whom he once believed long dead. Seldom has a thriller plot taken more unseen turns as Paul searches for the truth about his past and the reality of his present. Readers will eagerly await the sequel. (July)
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Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 419 KB
• Print Length: 364 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0670021016
• Publisher: Penguin (June 29, 2010)
• Sold by: Penguin Publishing
• Language: English
• ASIN: B002I1XRXQ
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #229,512 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

More About the Author

Jeremy Duns is the author of the Paul Dark spy thrillers. His first novel, Free Agent, received a starred review from Publishers Weekly, was a Daily Telegraph Thriller of the Year 2009, and received praise from William Boyd, Eric Van Lustbader and David Morrell, while The Guardian wrote: 'Deep knowledge of espionage and classic spy novels informs this excellent debut'. The Times called the second book in the series, Song of Treason, 'a masterly excursion back to the bad old days of the Cold War', while The Guardian said it was 'a treat for fans of traditional Len Deighton-style spy thrillers'. The Dark Chronicles, an omnibus of the trilogy, will be published in early 2012, followed by The Spy of The Century, a non-fiction investigation of the Oleg Penkovsky espionage operation.

Find out more at http://jeremyduns.blogspot.com and http://www.jeremyduns.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing thriller, October 11, 2009

By 

book reader "mary" (Santa Barbara, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Free Agent: A Novel (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

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.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Empty "thriller" with an uninteresting protagonist..., June 28, 2009

By 

G. Stewart "Debussy & Sibelius Freak" (Chesapeake, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Free Agent: A Novel (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

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...

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Don't be misled by comparisons to Deighton, et al. Excruciatingly bad, July 24, 2010

By 

Bill Donovan (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Free Agent: A Novel (Hardcover)

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.