I had seen one part of this work on television and we then were not aware it was based on a Forsyth book, else we probably would have bought and read it earlier. Reading that part of it, I became aware of the similarities and finally it was clear the very intelligent and intriguing episode we had watched - at that time I don't know if we thought it was a film, but cable tv was comparatively primitive then - was a Frederick Forsyth work; if we had, the amazingly intelligent quality would have seemed something natural.
The book is about the world of spies, and their bureaucratic masters and rules play a small role while those that achieve much due to sheer competence at the craft rather than adhering to the rules are closer to centre stage. The various episodes are connected through a narrative about the career of one such extremely competent master spy McCready whose career is being reviewed due to administrative orders around '90 to put him out to pasture - his very competence is what is now the cause for this, during the brief illusion of peace brought on by collapse of iron curtain.
The first part is about retrieving a very important document from a Soviet official working for west as an agent, and dangers of any westerner crossing into eastern Europe across the iron curtain, even when it is a west German across the border into east. Next part is the one we saw all those years ago, about an elaborate plan by KGB to destabilise not only CIA from within for years to come but the US - UK relations as well, by sending a high placed operative as a defector and pointing a finger at someone very high up - which unfortunately fails too late to save a life. Next is about a retaliation plan by Libya against US and UK for the bombing of Libya using IRA for the latter, which when discovered fortuitously in UK fails using a possible plot against the former, fortunately in time. All of them very satisfactory in almost every way except for the loss of life of someone innocent in the second, which reminds a reader that all too often a victim is just that and not necessarily guilty but merely targeted with years of preparation.
The final one is unique amongst all Forsyth works for one unexpected quality, humour, which is not immediate and not apparent, but definitely and subtly there in the way a part of Caribbean is portrayed. Are those islands real? Would like to find out, but am afraid they might again have been invaded by miscreants. Not the same set necessarily but could be another from any nation in the general neighbourhood.
One is forever mesmerised by the intricacies of the tasks that go into this career and the ever necessary presence of not only mind but a very sharp one, apart from sheer courage and knowledge, and memory. And it is only matched by the rigorous detailed research that goes into every work of Forsyth to present one with a story, so a reader while enjoying a thriller becomes aware of far more in the world, politics and bureaucracy and people and much much more.
