Dov Alfon

An Israeli tech specialist goes missing in Charles de Gaulle airport immediately after getting off a flight. Surveillance footage shows him following a blonde woman in a red dress and then disappearing. On investigation it would appear there isn't much to the incident as the missing man has no links to Israeli military or intelligence. The information is passed to Israeli intelligence officer Lieutenant Oriana Talmor who decides to look a bit deeper.

While reading this book I jumped between loving it and feeling a bit flat about it. The plot is superb and the writing is engaging most of the time but it needed to lose about 50-60 pages in my opinion. There are a myriad of interconnecting lines which pull the main characters in various directions at the same time. However, there is a section about 3/4 of the way through the book which goes nowhere to move the plot along. There are also far too many peripheral characters who only serve to confuse matters.… (more)

At times unbelievable novel by former Israeli spy Alfon, who served with the unit the title refers to. The mysterious disappearance of IT-specilaist Yaniv Meidan at Charles de Gaulle airport not only sets Unit 8200 but several other Israeli intelligence services (Tzahal, Aman, Mossad, Shabak) are all responding according to their own agenda. Alfon writes in pleasantly short chapters. Many of the developments are hardly believable. Read it to know how to oblige a taxiing 757 to turn back. John McLane can learn something here.
Nevertheless, I'll probably be reading the next Dov Alfon.… (more)

A very cinematic book, a fast paced action movie with a lot of drama. Lots of acronyms and other Israeli jargon but if you can get over that you’d better hang on to your seat because it’s good. I liked how the characters were drawn and how they fitted with each other. Lots of high tech bullshit like all these books and movies but nothing to detract from the narrative. It is the narrative that holds you from the get go. It is tight and works.

The story is the same old world in danger stuff but don’t let that put you off, if tooth like them then you already know that it’s not just the content that makes these books. It is the skill of the writer.

It is very Israeli and I wonder if it does the same thing for Israelis as reading John Le Carré does for the English?

Either way, if you want a good read, here’s one for sure.… (more)