Greed [Mass Market Paperback]

Chris Ryan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 6, 2003

Five Men. One Robbery. A deadly game of greed, revenge and betrayal is about to begin. Fresh out of the SAS, Matt Browning is down on his luck. He owes [pound]500,000. If he doesn't get the money soon, he dies. From nowhere, he is offered a lifeline. A hit on al-Queda, sanctioned and helped by MI5. Matt gathers a small team of former SAS men to steal USD 10 million in gold and diamonds from the world's most deadly terrorist organisation. MI5 will give them all the equipment and information they need. No charges will ever be pressed. Matt thinks it's the perfect crime. Safe, quick, and patriotic. But after the money is stolen, the killing starts. Someone is taking down the members of the team one by one. A silent, expert assassin is stalking the team, gruesomely murdering both them and their families. And Matt knows that he's next. Greed is an explosive story of what happens when terrorism, money, love and jealously combust.

--This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

Five men, one robbery: A deadly game of greed, revenge and betrayal is about to begin.

Fresh out of the SAS, Matt Browning is down on his luck. He owes £500,000. If he doesn't get the money soon, he dies. From nowhere he is offered a lifeline. A hit on Al-Queda, sanctioned and helped by MI5. Matt gathers a small team of former SAS men to steal $10 million in gold and diamonds from the world's most deadly terrorist organization. MI5 will give them all the equipment and information they need. No charges will ever be pressed.

Matt thinks it's the perfect crime. Safe, quick, and patriotic, But after the money is stolen, the killing starts. Someone is taking down the members of the team one by one. A silent, expert assassin is stalking the team, gruesomely murdering both them and their families. And Matt knows that he's next.

Greed is an explosive story of what happens when terrorism, money, love and jealousy combust. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From the Back Cover

Five Men. One Robbery. A deadly game of greed, revenge and betrayal is about to begin.

Fresh out of the SAS, Matt Browning is down on his luck. He owes -500,000. If he doesn't get the money soon, he dies. From nowhere, he is offered a lifeline. A hit on al-Queda, sanctioned and helped by MI5. Matt gathers a small team of former SAS men to steal $10 million in gold and diamonds from the world's most deadly terrorist organisation. MI5 will give them all the equipment and information they need. No charges will ever be pressed.

Matt thinks it's the perfect crime. Safe, quick, and patriotic. But after the money is stolen, the killing starts. Someone is taking down the members of the team one by one. A silent, expert assassin is stalking the team, gruesomely murdering both them and their families. And Matt knows that he's next.

Greed is an explosive story of what happens when terrorism, money, love and jealously combust.

Praise for Greed: '...lean prose delivers all the action with the usual trenchant force...The plot moves like the proverbial express train' The Good Books Guide Praise for Chris Ryan: 'chock full of military fat to chew on... will keep you awak till dawn' FHM 'Hard as nails' Mirror --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback
• Publisher: Century (June 6, 2003)
• ISBN-10: 184413265X
• ISBN-13: 978-1844132652
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,447,570 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars "Greed" indeed - of the author and publisher, March 28, 2004

By 

Robert Hazelwood (Arizona USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Greed (Paperback)

I enjoyed Chris Ryan's other novel "The Watchman". It got a little far-fetched at the very end but was a good read overall. Ryan's SAS "tradecraft" contributed markedly to this.

"Greed" is... idiotic. It's almost a put-on of "The Watchman", with (among MANY other defects) an ending that is so stupid that it's incredible. Incredible in and of itself - and also incredible that an author could write such tripe and that a publisher would print it. It features - and I am not making this up - people ambushing people ambushing people ambushing people, with two of those involved coming back from the dead on cue! Except for these over-the-top excesses it is in broad terms exactly the same ending as in "The Watchman"!

But this ending is hardly a let-down, given the inanities that precede it. The entire premise of the plot, as explained to the ex-SAS squad, is so logically flawed that a child would reject it. I simply couldn't believe that I wasn't missing something clever, so I kept reading. But after the first page, it's all downhill.

The characters are alternately hardened, superlatively-trained special forces except when the "plot" demands that they be helpless and hapless fools. Their "emotions" are laughably imagined. The master assassin easily picks off whoever he feels like while the rest of cast mills around in terror. Ryan uses inexcusable authorial misdirection to "fool" the reader into thinking that one character is killed, when he is not. But it's still so obvious that you want to weep. The climactic battle between the hero and the assassin IS NOT EVEN INCLUDED !! The here merely reports later that he waxed the guy!!

Unbelievable. This must be the worst book I have read through in decades. A real stinker. No more Chris Ryan for me!

1.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely stupid, October 26, 2011

By 

Al of Calgary - See all my reviews

This review is from: Greed (Hardcover)

I want my money back. This is one of the worst books I've ever read. The characters are unlikeable and completely unbelievable. They make one absolutely stupid decision after another. If this is how ex-SAS operate then the British are in worse shape than I thought. The whole motivation of the "hero" is so riduclous that his only real quality is his outright stupidity. I will avoid every other book this guy wrote. Seriously, though, I want my money back.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great Action/Mystery book, August 24, 2004

By 

Drake "Drake" (Montreal, Quebec Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Greed (Paperback)

I took this book with me on a plane and couldn't put it down. The only drawback was that I had nothing to read on the way back. I thought I would be taking breaks in between but I just had to keep reading. Great realistic action and mystery. Overall just great descriptive writing. I'll be getting more books from Chris Ryan!