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A Deniable Death (2011)

by Gerald Seymour(Favorite Author)

3.73 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

1444705857 (ISBN13: 9781444705850)

languge

English

genre

Fiction

publisher

Hodder & Stoughton

review 1: I have read several Gerald Seymour books, and they've all been highly entertaining and thoughtful, as we dive into the innards of terrorist activities, covert operations, and the people that undertake them. Yes, there is action in these books - the last pages of this one are gripping - but I've come to appreciate more so the intertwining that he does of the various characters' lives, the threads that we follow of, say, assassin, victim, and high and low level MI6 operators, all brought together around some operation. We go back and forth between them, into and out of their worlds, and he uses this technique to ratchet up the tension, as we see the operation from all angles, from all perspectives. It's all a great deal of fictional fun.
review 2: It's hard to ca... morell this a thriller--although that's the genre it falls in. The pace is slowed by the meticulous step-by-step set up of this covert operation and all the wonderful detail Seymour includes. Still there's a sense of urgency throughout, but the pace builds at a slow burn. It's been a while since I've read Seymour, and I had forgotten his love of background and character details that make the place and people seem real. Basically, this is the story of two men--a veteran and a cop with special tracking skills--sent into Iran to monitor the Engineer, the man responsible for the effective IEDs that are killing so many solders. Lots of set up as they work their way to a spot from which they can conduct surveillance. And the Engineer has his own story--his wife, whose cause is land mines from previous wars, is dying of a brain tumor. He wants to take her to a better physician, and the Brits want to kill him when he does. it's a long hard slog, getting the info and getting it out, surviving the stakeout, and then enduring the torture when one of the men is captured. Written in polished prose, a grim and provocative story. Narrated by Ralph Cosham whom I adore as the reader of Louise Penny's Mystery series. This didn't work as well for me--narration too rushed, perhaps in an attempt to compensate for the slow pace. Though his reading certainly evokes the hard-edged tone. less

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