Reluctant Hero [Paperback]

Michael Dobbs (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 4, 2010

When Harry Jones discovers that former friend Zac Kravitz's life is in danger, a debt of honour sends him on a perilous rescue mission to Kargistan, a mountainous and landlocked former Soviet republic bordering Russia, China and Afghanistan. Muscling his way onto a delegation of MPs who happen to be paying the state a visit, Harry finds an unlikely ally in the stubbornly independent Martha and together they devise a plan to break Zac out of the grim prison Bodima. But when the attempt backfires and he finds himself stuck in prison in Zac's place, little by little Harry realises that all is not as it seemed and that he has been lured into a web of international conspiracy.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"If you haven't picked up a Michael Dobbs novel in a while you should . . . He has skillfully carved out a second career for himself as a master of the international thriller, juggling a variety of combustible elements on a global stage."  —Daily Express

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

About the Author

Michael Dobbs is the author of 15 thrillers including the major bestsellers The Lords' Day, Winston's War, and House of Cards which became a hugely successful BBC TV drama. He lives near Salisbury in Wiltshire. Visit his website www.michaeldobbs.com

Product Details

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (February 4, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1847372872
• ISBN-13: 978-1847372871
• Product Dimensions: 5.9 x 1.3 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,152,479 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good book for the beach, October 31, 2010

By 

Daniel Silver (Kingston, Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Reluctant Hero (Harry Jones) (Paperback)

This is no better or worse than Frederic Forsyth's more recent books. I prefered Forsyth's earlier works such as The Odessa File, The Dogs of War, & The Devil's Protocol as Forsyth had clearly done a lot of research digging up details on military hardware, gun smuggling, mercenaries, etc. It's as if Forsyth had the inside scoop on these subjects and spilling everything for the reader.

Forsyth's later books don't have the same kind of detail (though in fairness, I had read those earlier books when I was a teenager, so my perspective might not be the same today were I to re-read these books.)

The Reluctant Hero doesn't have huge amounts of details to impress the reader with the author's knowledge. It has basic character development sketched with the smae amount of detail as you might get for characters in a Bond film. It's a basic adventure story with rather generic villains and a rather generic plot. It takes place in an imaginary former Soviet Republic, and Dobbs does succeed in conveying a sense of the place that rings true. If you're looking for an effortless read to distract you on a flight or on the beach, this is worth getting. But we're certainly not breaking any new boundaries here.