| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Complex Spy Yarn,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: A Spy's Life: A Novel (Hardcover)
I read the synopsis for this book in Vanity Fair, which highly recommended it. It was only after I had started it I learned the author is the editor for British vanity Fair. That being said it is for the most part an enjoyable espionage thriller. When Robert Harland's U.N. plane crashes in the waters right beside LaGuardia airport he is the sole survivor. Rescued by a bizarre technological stroke of luck, he has only just returned home, when a man show up on his doorstep claiming to be his son; The result of an affair he'd had years before with a Czech woman when he was a spy for the British. What this man has to tell him combined with the crash which Harland believes may have been sabotage,begins to unravel an unsettling and intricately plotted novel that moves from Manhattan to the streets of London, to the war torn fields of Bosnia. I thought Henry Porter created some wonderfully drawn characters, mainly Harland's caring sister, and the brilliant Tomas. I think plot wise I was just expecting a non stop fast paced thriller and instead this is a much more complex political chess game with bursts of action. But if you're a fan of authors like Robert Ludlam you'd probably really enjoy this.
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
excellent espionage thriller,
This review is from: A Spy's Life: A Novel (Hardcover)
When the UN plane crashed near LaGuardia Airport, Robert Harland quickly realizes he is in great danger of drowning, as the rescuers have no idea he was dumped into the nearby East River. He struggles over to where Alan Griswold reclines in a busted up seat, but finds his friend is dead. Robert's personal luck continues when Alan's cell phone rings. This enables Alan to inform the caller where he is. Robert takes Alan's wallet with him before the rescuers save his life. As Robert recovers from his one in a fifty billion chance of survival, he learns what happened. Transportation blames it on physics, but the FBI hints at sabotage. UN Secretariat Jaidi asks Robert to learn why someone destroyed a plane, murdering officially ten people and unofficially eleven in order to kill Alan. Apparently, Alan had damaging information on someone. A former espionage agent, Robert agrees to uncover the truth even as a young man Tomas Rath comes into his life claiming to be his son through a liaison over two decades ago with Czech Eva Houresh. Rarely does a novel start off as exciting as a SPY'S LIFE does. Henry Porter never eases up on the throttle from his first page in the East River to the final overseas confrontation. The espionage thriller is very complex though it appears to contain an unnecessary spin or two too many. The cast is developed so that readers appreciate Robert as a fabulous lead character while those who seem on the hero's side and his enemies round out a strong tale of international intrigue. Harriet Klausner
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Wildy implausible plot,
By "giraffenecktie" (Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: A Spy's Life: A Novel (Hardcover)
Perhaps I'm just getting old and jaded but with this novel I felt that I not only had to suspend my disbelief, I had to take my disbelief out behind the shed, bind it, gag it and inject a tranquilizer. The first half of the novel lurches from one improbable scene to the next. I can forgive a novelist for one or two amazing coincidences or unlikely plot developments but on nearly every page of the first half of this book I found myself saying "A real spy wouldn't do that" or "That would never happen". The second half, however, settles into a conventional but competent thriller. In all, a modestly enjoyable conspiracy-driven thriller.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product).
|
|
|
