Customer Reviews

A Hooded Crow

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To follow up on The Last Raven, Craig Thomas created this little piece of entertainment and goes all over the place with it. Though most of Craig's books are all over the place with an ensemble cast of characters, this time he seems to take it pretty far and almost to the point of being down right confussing. But regardless, it's a very fun read just for Craig's marvelous writing.

There's an electronics company called Reid Davies that British agents Patrick Hyde and Tony Godwin are investigating for some reason. Of course they're snooping around where they shouldn't and uncover things that some want left covered. Right when Hyde and Godwin run to Sir Kenneth Aubrey, head of SIS, Aubrey recives a letter from Namibia, where ex-agent Richard Anderson is in trouble. He unwittingly stepped upon the back end of what Reid Davies are up to and is pursued. The small village where he spends his quiet life in is burned down by his pursuers, and he gets sucked back into his old life in the process. Of course, who could be behind all this mischief? None other than British traitor Andrew Babbington. Also Paulus Malan from The Last Raven has something to do with it, and Aubrey had sworn revenge against him at the end of the last book. Will he finally get that revenge?

It's all a little confussing, but if you're familar with Craig's books you should enjoy this one. It ties up the loose ends from the last few books and it's just a really fun read. Patrick Hyde is one of my favorties of Craig's characters and Tony Godwin makes for a good partner for Hyde. Great entertainment.

The Rottenberg Review has long prized the delicate prose and high-powered characters of Craig Thomas, but "Hooded Crow" offers perhaps too much of a good thing. More likely to please those who loved his other books, "Crow" follows the story arcs begun in prior books (the South African connection from "Last Raven"; the perfidy of turncoat Babbington from "Bear's Tears", AKA "Lion's Run") and never stitches a sufficiently coherent plot from its many intriguing threads.

Babbington, unhappy in his Soviet exile, plots with his new colleagues to loot an Anglo high-tech firm of its technology. (In the wake of "Desert Storm", the Soviets are hot for any western technology.) Meanwhile, Richard Anderson, a former British operative living a gentle life of retirement in South Africa, discovers a crashed cargo plane in the middle of the desert. The sand-covered tomb houses high-tech cargo and a dead pilot with a KGB ID card. Impulsively alerting Kenneth Aubrey, his old colleague and the spymaster-hero of Thomas's other books, Anderson's life is shattered by the arrival of others interested in the wrecked plane. Barely surviving, Anderson turns to his old habits of "an operative" in hopes of learning who is behind the assault that claims his wife. He also hopes for revenge. Meanwhile, Patrick Hyde follows up the trail of high-tech from the other end of the world.

CT is a master of weaving in disparate plots - but those here don't come together as well. It does lack the underlying threat of something big (like a Soviet coup from "Snow Falcon" or orbiting laser weapons from "Winterhawk") and it's difficult to get motivated by high-tech weaponry that exists only to be pursued but don't otherwise effect the story. For fans comfy with Thomas's prose, "Crow" offers the climax of the Babbington story arc, as well as an intriguing transformation of Anderson and the ruthless efficiency of Patrick Hyde.

I found this book to be very poorly written and utterly boring.

Don't spend your money on this book, you will only be disappointed!