Colin Forbes (1) (1923–2006)

This was absolute rubbish, and served to show how far the thriller has evolved in the last few decades.

The plot was fatuous, and the characters were trite and pandered to the most inane stereotypes. Even allowing for the fact that the book was published more than forty years ago, the sexism was painful to behold, with no cliché knowingly overlooked. Forbes’s characters made the James Bond of Ian Fleming's novels seem almost like a woke warrior.

Written in 1977 Avalanche Express has for the most part stood the passage of time well. Whilst some parts reference radio direction finding and basic radio broadcasts to communicate and there's the stark absence of modern technology this in no way detracts from the mystery, action and intrigue.

I found this to be much more enjoyable than the novels Tweed & Co series.

Essentially the story involves an American plot to exfiltrate a highly placed Russian KGB operative who has been feeding them show more quality intelligence. All does not go to plan however when their cover is immediately blown and storms move in shutting down airports leading to a cat & mouse game on the 'Atlantic Express' Trans-Europe train.

And yes, it does involve an avalanche. show less

Heights of Zervos - Colin Forbes *****

Colin Forbes has always been an author that I meant to pick up and never got around to it. There have been two of his books sat on my shelves for the best part of ten years (this and The Janus Man) and for some reason I just never read them. These days I have read nearly all that Jack Higgins has to offer, I have sampled quite a few Innes, Maclean and Kyle so thought it was about time I gave Forbes a go. This book was the thinner of the two so I decided show more to chance it.

The book starts of as it means to go on, full of action and adventure. We find a Scottish secret agent (Ian Macomber) undergoing a sabotage operation against the Germans, things don’t go quite as expected and he is lucky to escape with his life. As he tries to leave his double life behind and evade capture he becomes caught up in a covert mission by Nazi Abwher agents to take the monastery on top of Zervos. Should they be successful it could change the entire war in Europe, with help many miles away can Macomber and his new found collaborators first avoid detection, and secondly make it to the monastery before the Germans?

The thing I love most about books like this is that they do exactly as they were intended, transporting the reader into a situation they will never find themselves in real life. Forbes is a much better writer than I had anticipated and this is really one of those ‘boys own’ type adventures where you want to keep reading to find out what will happen next. A major plus point for me was the total lack of any love story, nothing ruins an action book that some soppy chapters just thrown in because the author wants to follow a formula.

I will be reading a few more by Colin Forbes, really wish I had tried him years ago. show less

Heart-pounding excitement from first page to last. Three unrelated stories unfold through the book, all involving Lex Harper, an assassin previously used by the British government’s shady department called The Pool, which has the remit to work in unconventional ways to achieve its goals.

The main storyline relates to a rogue soldier who has decided to join ISIS. He travels to Syria, persuades an ISIS commander to support a plan to launch an attack on British soil, and then sets about show more planning the atrocity. However, when he was in Syria, he killed a British army leader (during a test of his allegiance to ISIS), which soon has the intelligence services after him, and The Pool pay Harper to neutralise him. This story thread follows Harper as he tracks down the soldier, prevents the attack, and undertakes his objective.

A second storyline relates to Charlotte Button, who is still loosely attached to The Pool and who has copies of secret files that could bring down many political figures. This is her “insurance policy” because she left the government’s pay in disgrace and is worried they may decide to eliminate her. The problem is that someone has stolen two of the three copies of those files. She asks Harper to collect the third one and make more copies (she knows she is under surveillance so can’t do it herself).

The third storyline concerns personal trouble that Harper stirs up with a Russian Mafia boss, which can only be settled one way.

Although Takedown was a very exciting thriller, I was a bit disappointed because a couple of aspects felt unrealistic, which slightly spoiled the read: firstly, everything runs too smoothly for Harper—nothing goes wrong and his enemies never come anywhere near getting the better of him. As one example, this is seen when the rogue soldier never applies any anti-surveillance, allowing Harper and his team to repeatedly follow him with ease. This sort of lack of realism broke the spell of the book in several places.

The second aspect that spoilt an otherwise excellent thriller relates to how the rogue soldier managed to get buy-in from an ISIS commander to provide funds and the use of valuable sleeper jihadists in the UK—he convinces the commander that he has a viable plan to strike at the heart of Britain—he won’t even say aloud who the target is in their meeting, but writes it down, shows the commander and then burns the paper. Yet when it comes to it, the targets seem fairly mundane, and the sort of thing anyone with a suicide vest could manage.

However, the never-ending action and excitement dragged me through the book, meaning I definitely still enjoyed it overall and still give it four stars. show less