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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Life among the Oakes,
By
This review is from: Last Call for Blackford Oakes (Blackford Oakes Novel) (Hardcover)
This is only the fourth Oakes novel I've read. My previous reads included Who's On First, Marco Polo (my favorite), and Mongoose. I look forward to reading these stories, but the amount of required reading I must do leaves little time. I must say, that Last Call for Blackford Oakes is a superb ending for such an outstanding spy. Buckley does a terrific job spinning the tale. I've always believed that Buckley writes his novels for the reader and never fails to deliver.
Its 1987 and Oakes is sent to the Soviet Union to prevent yet another assination attempt on Mr. Gorbachev. While he saves the hapless premier yet again, his life becomes complicated by a romantic interlude with Usina Chadinov, a Russian doctor, and also the continuation of his life and death struggle with Kim Philby his sworn enemy. Like most of Buckley's books, both fiction and nonfiction, his use of the English language is wonderful. Buckley is to the point. He weaves a wonderful story that will keep you turning the pages. Even the slow start is quickly overcome. I certainly hope that somehow, the series will continue.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Bad End to a Good Series,
By Markh (Ames, IA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Last Call for Blackford Oakes (Blackford Oakes Novel) (Hardcover)
Fans of the Blackford Oakes novels may wish to simply skip this book, which ends the series on a depressing note and which seems to have been written with total disregard for what has come before it. In the opening of the previous Oakes novel, A Very Private Plot, Blackford and his wife Sally are, in 1995, about to celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary; in this book, which starts in 1987, Sally has already been dead for months. I understand that authors of a series that lasts for decades may need to contract or expand the aging process to fit the needs of a plot (and the use of this device in, say, the Matt Helm or 87th Precinct series has never bothered me a bit), but people who are dead should not be allowed to reappear years later. (Sally is not the only one who rises from the dead, but I won't give away any more plot points.) This book also seems to lack the literary panache of earlier Buckley novels. This is not a terrible book, but, like a TV series that overstays its welcome, there are, I think, one too many books in this series. Buckley should have quit while he was ahead.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
nostalgia for last days of Cold War,
By
This review is from: Last Call for Blackford Oakes (Blackford Oakes Novel) (Hardcover)
In William Buckley's final (?) Blackford Oakes novel, the veteran CIA operative is dispatched to Reagan-era Moscow to thwart a plot to assassinate Gorbachev. The plot is half-baked, but Oakes unexpectedly finds himself involved in both romantic entanglements, in a network of dissatisfied Russian scientists, and in confronting the traitorous Kim Philby.
The best thing about this book is the depiction of Oakes, a man who realizes he's about to embark on the last chapter of his life. His passion for Ursina, the Russian doctor he falls for, is convincingly presented as a final grasp at youth. I was less impressed with the scenes of Russian bureaucrats bickering with each other (firmly standard issue) or with the cameos by real-life figures (Graham Greene, Ronald Reagan). Buckley has no insight into Philby, who comes off as merely a mustache-twirling villain. Still, although a bit long-winded, this is a good read for anyone with a love of spy novels or an interest in CIA lore.
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