such a thriller writer.....! ( )

Reasonably well worked thriller but with a slightly disappointing ending.

Quinn was once the world's foremost hostage Negotiator, now he lives in retirement in a comfortably small village in the Spanish hills. Meanwhile President Gorbachev and the new American President Cormac look set to sign a historic arms reduction treaty, saving both their nations vast sums of money and also the oil required to maintain them. This of course displeases the industrial-military arms complex in both countries. Co-incidentally a few key players happen to meet and discussions occur. Then the American president's son is kidnapped while he's studying in the UK and Quinn is called in by the CIA to be their official presence on the negotiations to obtain his release. All is going as smoothly as might be expected until the official 'oversight' starts interfering in Quinn's duties, and he makes a break to deal with the kidnappers on his own.

Set in early 90's the concerns regarding the oil shortages were real, but haven't yet to come to pass, the perestroika of Gorbachev and the issues this raised in the Russian factions are also well known. I'm not quite sure given this 'real' background why it was necessary to invent an American president, but it doesn't clash too badly with the rest of the story. The story jumps around a lot between the various parties, especially at the beginning, and the vast number of names is a bit confusing. Though there is fair warning of this as a cast of characters is included at the beginning! Like all of Forsyth's books that I've read, this is not a fast paced thriller, more of a slow build up of suspense with intricate details determining the final outcome. This makes the whole final third of the book a bit of a let down, where the plot switches to a more direct action sequences. Intelligent and otherwise clever conspirators suddenly seem to lose all their wits when Quinn shows up in person - only 1 phone number in a list of hundreds is in code? Blurting out al the answers when you have Quinn at your mercy instead of finishing him off professionally? These are the sorts of mistakes amateurs make, and neither the characters nor Forsyth as an author is an amateur.

However while not exactly gripping throughout there is a certain level of interest maintained and a desire to see how it all works out, and whether Quinn will get to the bottom of the mystery. I suspect though, that this book will age badly as the global events and tensions rapidly fade from the pressing concerns they were a few years ago.

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Superpower power supply synchronicity scheme.

High-ranking American and Russian military leaders come to a roughly the same decision, at around the same time, with oil supplies dwindling, they would prefer to control the Middle East supply themselves.

This involves cover operations to get rid of the current Saudis, for example, and set up their own controlled puppet rulers.

In the midst of this, the American president's son is kidnapped, and he wants the world's best, but retired negotiator to handle the case.

This leads the negotiator to a world travelling investigation to find out what is actually going on.

http://notfreesf.blogspot.com/2008/05... ( )