The Janus Man [Hardcover]

Colin Forbes (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1988

A thriller featuring Tweed of the SIS, as he battles to discover which one of his European sector chiefs is a traitor. Other work by the author includes "The Stone Leopard", "The Palermo Ambush", "The Heights of Zervos" and "The Greek Key".

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This novel was a bestseller in England, leading one to question current British standards for spy thrillers. British spymaster Tweed thinks one of his four European section chiefs is a double agent and possibly a sadistic mass murderer. Tweed treks to Germany, where one of his top agents was killed, obviously betrayed by the traitor. The Russians and East Germans, hoping to kill Tweed, lead him to Lubeck, home of mysterious philanthropist Dr. Berlin. Deliberately using himself as bait to flush the two-faced "Janus," Tweed is saved from assassination in Lubeck only with the help of British agent Bob Newman. Eventually Tweed uncovers a Russian plotfostered by a tough-talking Gorbachevto flood England with heroin, which the Soviets assume will destroy the country. The interminable comings and goings of Tweed and Newman, one in England, the other in East Germany, are chronicled in clumsy prose, often like a bad translation ("She moved agilely but with grace.") and unintentionally funny "Cunning as a fox, Markus Wolf."). The unlikely plot and pat solution are matched only by Tweed's phlegmatic dialogue: "We can't afford the scandal. England can't. Mass murderer a senior chief in the SIS. Not on, Bob." Forbes wrote Cover Story and Terminal.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 427 pages
• Publisher: Harcourt; 1st edition (May 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0151461600
• ISBN-13: 978-0151461608
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 1.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,543,449 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Nothing Much to Write Home About, April 9, 2002

By 

John G. Hilliard (Toronto Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Janus Man (Hardcover)

Like Janus, this book had two faces, one bad and one ugly. I do not mind it if an author is going to pass off an old, well-used story line on us - this is the spy mole hunt with the odd pairing of hinters, but you have to make it interesting. We just kind of moved through this book at a plodding pace that never picks up, the characters are so weakly described that you really never care to find out what happens. I heard he was a good author so I struggled through to the end, but I now regret the lost time.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars The average spy roman, August 23, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Janus Man (Paperback)

This book could have been much, much better if Forbes would have described better his characters. The story is about a Russian spy known as Balkan, who is the head of one of the European headquarters of the SIS. The chief of the European sector, Tweed, tries to find out, who the black sheep is. His help is a newswriter called Newman who is actually his bodyguard. The plot is too simple and the characters don't really have "faces". If we forget about this, the book is good, readable, but not so much enjoying. That's the cause of the 2 stars.