Richard Hoyt

A Cold War cloak and dagger thriller, Trotsky's Run, by Richard Hoyt, starts off well. We're quickly introduced to Kim Philby, notorious 1950's British agent turned Russian defector; Leon Trotsky, one-time Russian revolutionary, assassinated in Mexico in 1940, but who seems to live again; Paul Burlane, CIA agent; Derek Townes, charismatic politician who seems a shoo-in to become the next President, and his wife Susan.

It seems Philby wants the CIA to help him escape from the Russians; in show more return he'll give the CIA secret information about one of the candidates in the upcoming Presidential election. Seems like a fair trade.

Paul Burlane and a senior CIA analyst, Ara Schott, are dispatched to Turkey's Black Sea coast, hook up with a mercenary smuggler, and set off to retrieve Philby from the Russians at Yalta. So far, so good - there're a lot of possibilities, and Hoyt keeps the reader turning pages.

At this point, the reader starts to wonder if Hoyt figured he'd already typed enough to earn his advance, or maybe just got bored. We're plunged from a pretty solid little spy thriller, into something more like "Man from U.N.C.L.E". We're treated to plenty of gratuitous sex (interesting, but it usually has little to do with the plot) and a quick wrap-up involving... well, it was disappointing to me.

If you're looking for a quick read, and aren't a Deighton or Le Carre' fan, you might like it. show less

This is the first book from Hoyt in a while and it is good to have him back, albeit with little help from Moonshine Publishing. The book was not well presented or edited, but it still contained moments of Hoyt's brilliance. The book begins with the usual Hoyt - grab your attention start - a man out mushrooming find a dead woman who is being eaten by crows -- and then you are off on an adventure. Hoyt seems wedded to have a Native American side kick - perhaps a tribute to his roots of growing show more up in Eastern Oregon - but I am not sure the character adds much to the novel, and he needs to have a voice that is more distinct from the main character, Jake Hipp. The book is filled with intelligent side ventures where you learn about things like there are forty species of crow/raven around the world. I hope an outfit that is willing to spend a bit more money on the project will take a flyer on Hoyt. He still has plenty of miles in the gas tank. show less

Richard Hoyt blends history and speculation into a fascinating tale of wartime deceit. Did MacArthur really make a deal with Emperor Hirohito for control of the Golden Lily, Asian war booty plundered by the Japanese? Hoyt makes a pretty convincing case in this entertaining novel.

Published in paperback by Forge.

About halfway in, I gave up. It stopped being a satire and it wasn't really serious and I didn't know who was who and I got very bothered by the amount of killing that was planned and I needed more Castro. I skipped ahead, lots of people died, and I had no idea how it would get there and didn't really care to find out. Too bad.