Four novellas in one cover, offering a largely unchallenging and entertaining read. The central character (Sam McCready) doesn't really have a character at all, but is simply a device to hang the plots on. I was intrigued by the complexity of the deception and double-crossing he portrays in the defection story; the casual violence of some of the minor baddies in the arms-running story is repellent, and Forsyth has a tendency to dispatch minor characters in a way that leaves a bad taste in the mouth. The fourth tale is simply a whodunit detective tale with a diplomatic flavour, in which McCready engages in the kind of effortlessly superior counter-plotting that reminds me of Lord Peter Wimsey. MB 10-vii-2009 ( )

you never know what will happen next excellent read...

The Deceiver may be a little less detail oriented than many of Forsyth’s books. But his plot lines are still intellectually complex. As I was reading this book, especially the first two parts, I was reminded of John Le Carré. In the espionage world, no one really knows everything that is going on. The book is really four short novellas, loosely connected by “interlude” pages. They work well together with a common protagonist. But they would have worked equally well with four different protagonists.

The Deceiver is yet another in a long line of great Frederick Forsyth books. It is a little out of his norm, but I loved it all the same.

My complete review is on my blog, Nate's Library, specifically at: http://nates-library.blogspot.com/200... ( )

The book revolves around 4 episodes in the career of Sam McCready. He is the head of a special desk withinthe Secret Intelligence Service but is seen to be an embarrassment to Whitehall following the end of the cold War. Sam feels other areas of the worlds problem areas need to be addressed but they remain unconvinced. This results in a tribunal in which his deputy puts forward 4 examples of Sams successes in the past. The first 3 are enjoyableconcentrating on the Russians and the Irish. The fourth is dire and reminds me of a Boys Own story. Worth reading as still a clever author but just wonder why he couldn't have developed the firsat 3 stories into full books as they definitelt had potential with strong characters and story-lines. ( )

Basicaly several short stories linked by a common charicture this keeps the pace up and stops the book from draging on .The book feels real and is a good read over all ( )