Customer Reviews

Traitor (Charnwood Large Print)

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

An international thriller by Stephen Coonts deserves an exceptional narration and that is precisely what film and television actor Dennis Boutsikaris provides. At times gruff, at other times forbidding, he always imbues his characters with a defining vocal twist.

As Coonts fans know and appreciate this author wastes no time in hooking readers/listeners attention. This time it's with the death of a French intelligence agent on an Air France flight to Amman, Jordan. Such an untimely demise leads Jake Grafton, now CIA operations officer in charge of Europe to suspect that the director of French intelligence has a spy planted among top Al Queda.

Does the French director vehemently deny this? Of course, he does.

There's only one person Grafton can rely on in a life and death situation, and it's Tommy Carmellini. Seems that would be an intrepid duo and that they are. But it takes more than strength and intelligence to figure out who is spying on whom and what may happen when the leaders of the G-8 nations meet in Paris. It's especially difficult to find the truth when their lives are in danger.

Another topnotch thriller from Coonts and aces performance by Boutsikaris.

- Gail Cooke

Knowing that you have to read in order to write, I find Stephen Coonts writing superb. His command of military structure and knowledge of world events that he weaves into his narration has no equal. The Traitor is the kind of novel that takes you into the back alleys of Europe. No one does this type of adventure better than Coonts.

The two things I like best about the book are the characters and the settings. Mr. Coonts has the uncanny ability to shape and weave a character into a plot that seamlessly holds your interest as you turn page after page. I usually find his books too short, even though the publisher would usually have him cut the pages.

The settings of Europe can't help but draw one into the story. One of the things I like most about Mr. Coonts books are the absolute honesty of Jake Grafton and his other characters. They stand for what they believe in which seems to be in short supply today.
I find books like this far more refreshing than the Da Vinci Code with its secrets and made up plots. A great read.

TS Ferguson, Author of Apocrypha

Another boomer from Stephen Coonts. He proves that Jake Grafton can play a great commanding/supporting role as well as the action hero. Tommy Carmenelli continues to develop as a serious character. This book is well edited as well. I could find none of the technical or grammatical glitches so common in otherwise good books today. It's good quality literature and some excitement for the money.

Granted, some of the technical elements are stretched. But his characters are almost real. Coonts's writing style is excellent without much of the over-technicalization that is typical of many adventure writers. Yes, the ending is slightly over the top, but not impossible. Think about 9/11.

Between Jake, Tommy, and Sarah there is good rapport. I felt as though I was watching the action, not merely reading. Their travels around Paris make me want to go there.

"Tangle within tangle, plot and counter-plot, rue and treachery, cross and double-cross, true agent, false agent, double agent, gold and steel, the bomb, the dagger and the firing party, were interwoven in many a texture so intricate and yet true. The Chief and High Officers of the Secret Service reveled in these subterranean labyrinths, and pursued their task with cold and silent passion." This quotation by Sir Winston S. Churchill aptly described Stephen Coonts' latest spy thriller, The Traitor.

The plot is about an Al-Queda attempt to blow up the government leaders attending a G-8 summit in Paris. Jake Grafton has moved up from being a top gun pilot in Flight of the Intruder. He is now a retired admiral and on the payroll of the CIA. Jake is the new CIA head of European Ops. The CIA suspected the Direction Generale de la Securite Exterieure (DGSE) i.e. French Intelligence has a mole in the top Al-Qaeda leadership and they wanted to have access to this person. So Grafton was sent to Paris and he took along Tommy Carmellini, a CIA `fix it' man along. Carmellini was involved with Grafton in previous Coonts novels when he was an admiral.

There are enough twist in the plots and subplots to keep the reader's head spinning. After a couple of break-ins, buggings, surveillances and a trail of bodies, it was revealed that the spy handler became the `handlee'; there was a reversal of roles. Of course, the plot failed.

The novel was packed with action and fast moving enough to keep the reader interested. However Coonts' characters were rather 2 dimensional. It would be interesting to have more depth to the character of the Al-Qaeda double agent and his DGSE handler. The Islamist terrorists came across as rather stereotyped. It will nice to be allowed to have a glimpse into the mind of these Jihadists. Why do they do what they do? Why the disregard for innocent lives? Why is their faith so strong that they are willing to strap explosives to their bodies and blow themselves up? How do they develop such a faith?

No spy thriller will be complete without its array of technological gadgets. Here, there are the usual audio and video surveillance bugs, computers code breakers and Interlink. Interlink -S is a US government internet network that contains classified information and Interlink-C is the internet network where the US, Britain, Australia and Canada shared intelligence. The best gadget in my opinion is a wireless Taser. This gadget is like a pistol. Instead of shooting a bullet, it shoots a laser beam to mark the target and then a few thousand watts of electricity ride along the beam of light to fried the target!

As usual, Stephen Coonts delivers a good spy thriller and a pleasant way to spend an afternoon.

CIA agent Tommy Carmellini is just back from too long in Iraq when he's sent to France--along with the beautiful woman he once dated and who now hates him, Sarah Houston. The CIA has learned that French intelligence has a plant high in Al Queda, and they desperately want access. Tommy and Sarah are to play lovers willing to sell out their country in order to get access to French intelligence. Tommy's old boss, Jake Grafton is running the show in Europe--and there's a coming meeting of the G-8 that Al Queda would just love to disrupt or destroy.

Although Tommy's identity is supposed to be secret, pretty much everyone, from French Intelligence to Israeli Intelligence to Al Queda quickly finds out, and they all seem to be gunning for him. Tommy has to stay quick on his feet and with his fists, as well as fancy with his rented Vespa, to stay ahead of foreign killers. Then there's the woman he drugged back in America who inconveniently shows up.

With his identity blown, the turning traitor trick doesn't seem likely to work, but Grafton insists on it, and Tommy, along with Sarah, get a chance to test their skills with the polygraph machine. Could Tommy be a sociopath? The story culminates with Tommy battling with evil traitors within Versailles Palace.

Author Stephen Coonts writes in a breezy and engaging style, slipping seamlessly between first person for the Tommy Carmellini scenes and third person for the others, and making Tommy's problems seem real. The title sums up not just the role Tommy is assigned to play, but also the theme of the book--with betrayal coming from all directions and from all levels.

Much of the story deals with dealings between supposedly allied intelligence agencies (the CIA and the French DGSE). Coonts rightly reminds us that even allies may have different interests, and may be unwilling to share all of their secrets, or simply be unable to trust their friends. I found some of the adventure to be hard to believe, however, and I guess I didn't buy into why Grafton would send Carmellini to play traitor after his cover was blown. Although it served a purpose in the story, I don't know that it made sense from an intelligence perspective.

Though I miss the days of the Grafton novels, Carmellini is an easy character to enjoy. Great read with some minor plot deficiencies.

Maurice Marton,a French government official has a heart attack
om a jet and dies.Mossad is able to obtain paperwork that Marton
is carrying.This paperwork shows that the chief of French(DSGE)
intelligence Henri Rodet has made a sizeable investment in the Bank of Palestine.It is also believed that Rodet has a secret source in Al-Queda.He does not want to share this source with
the United States.The Americans decide to get to the bottom of this situation.
Tommy Carmellina is assigned to Paris to check this situation
out.He is reunited with his old flame Sarah Houston.He is also
joined on this trip by Willie Warner(Willie The Wire).He also discovers the his old boss Jake Grafton is the CIA operations officer in charge of Europe.
Rodet's source,Abu Qasim from Algeria,is a lifetime friend of Rodet.It is now up to Grafton and Carmellini to get to the bottom of this conspiracy.The leaders of the G-8 industrial
powerhouses are due to meet in Oaris.Grafton fear a terrorist assassination attempt.It is up to our heros to figure out who the bad guys really are and put a stop to the evil plan.You
will also be surprised to learn the true identies of the forces
of evil.
This turned out to be a very exciting readable book.

As Coonts fans know and appreciate this author wastes no time in hooking readers/listeners attention. This time it's with the death of a French intelligence agent on an Air France flight to Amman, Jordan. Such an untimely demise leads Jake Grafton, now CIA operations officer in charge of Europe to suspect that the director of French intelligence has a spy planted among top Al Queda.

Does the French director vehemently deny this? Of course, he does.
There's only one person Grafton can rely on in a life and death situation, and it's Tommy Carmellini. Seems that would be an intrepid duo and that they are. But it takes more than strength and intelligence to figure out who is spying on whom and what may happen when the leaders of the G-8 nations meet in Paris. It's especially difficult to find the truth when their lives are in danger.

Exellent book! Coonts has keep me into it again. Looking forward to getting the next in the series.