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|---|---|---|
Searching... Monmouth Public Library | PBK-OV Fiction Dunn, M. | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
"Great talent, great imagination, and real been-there done-that authenticity make this one of the year's best thriller debuts."
--Lee Child
"Not since Fleming charged Bond with the safety of the world has the international secret agent mystique been so anchored with an insider's reality."
--Noah Boyd, New York Times bestselling author of Agent X and The Bricklayer
"A real spy proves he is a real writer--and a truly deft and inventive one. Spycatcher is a stunning debut."
--Ted Bell, New York Times bestselling author of Warlord
A real life former field officer, Matthew Dunn makes an extraordinary debut with Spycatcher, a masterwork of international espionage fiction that crackles with electrifying authenticity. Fans of Daniel Silva, Robert Ludlum, Brad Thor, and Vince Flynn will be on the edge of their seats as intelligence agent Will Cochrane--working on a joint covert mission for the CIA and MI6--sets out to capture a brilliant and ruthless Iranian spy. Timely and gripping, Spycatcher rockets the reader into a shadowy world of terrorism and counter-terrorism, and holds them in an iron grip until the last pulse-pounding page is turned.
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
British author Dunn draws on his real-life experience as an MI6 agent for his strong spy thriller debut. MI6 agent Will Cochrane, code name Spartan, winds up shot after a New York City mission involving an Iranian intelligence source goes bad. After a brief stay in a secret hospital, he takes on a new task-locating the mastermind of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, who's planning a massive terrorist attack. Will tracks down freelance journalist Lana Beseisu, who's now living in Paris and rumored to be the terrorist leader's one-time lover. Will and Lana form an alliance and an instant attraction, though Will knows he has to keep his hands off this beauty until the mission's successful completion. When Will learns that the Iranian terrorist was responsible for the death of his own father, revenge helps fire his search. While some predictable plot twists suggest Dunn is still learning his fictional craft, readers will want to see more of his distinctive hero, "the ultimate killer of killers." (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
A super elite M16 agent goes after an Iranian terrorist planning a massive attack, possibly in America or Great Britain, in this debut thriller.Dunn, a former M16 officer, fashions a Nietzschean hero who looks poised to give Lee Child's Jack Reacher a run for his readers. The agent's real name is Will Cochrane, but to the head of M16 and the British Prime Minister (the only two who know of his existence) he is "Spartan," a singular agent whose brutal physical training included a 100-mile trekbarefootthrough the Scottish Highlands in sub-freezing temperatures. Cochrane is a powerful, efficient killing machine, but his menace is leavened by some warm and appealing traits. He brews Scottish leaf tea and plays Segovia LPs on a Garrard turntable, all the time nursing wounds from his father's violent demise, an event that propels him on his first case. Learning from sources that a small unit of Iranian terrorists known as "the Jerusalem force" plans "a huge massacre, the likes of which the world has never seen," Cochrane'sM16 controller and the British PM set Cochrane after the unit's leader, Megiddo. The strategy is to convince Lana Beseisu, a freelance journalist and a former courier for Megiddo, to lure the elusive terrorist into the open where Cochrane will capture him. Beseisu accepts the assignment and soon makes the desired contacts with Megiddo through intermediaries. The man is wily, however, constantly stalling off a direct meeting. A series of solidly described action set pieces ensue across Europe as Lana, a Mata Hari in the war on terrorism, goes after her quarry, and Cochrane waits for his high-noon moment with Megiddo.After a while, the barriers Dunn throws in the way of his protagonists seem calculated to stretch out the plot, but action fans shouldn't mind. This is twisty, cleverly crafted work.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Will Cochrane is Spartan, MI6's top agent. Armed with any weapon or unarmed he's lethal. impeccably ruthless. quick to anger and disobey his controllers, and emotionally scarred by a life defined by extreme violence. Within days of being shot three times, he's assigned by MI6 and the CIA to stop an imminen. genocida. attack at an unknown location by an unknown terrorist believed to be a general in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. Racing across Europe, he learns from a beautiful Arab woman that his target calls himself Megiddo, and Spartan develops a plan to draw Megiddo out, kill him, and thwart the attack. Along the way, he falls in love with the woman and gets shot two more times. First-novelist Dunn, a former field operative for MI6, has a flair for scenes of mayhem, and he lovingly identifies every weapon used to induce it. Some readers will happily suspend disbelief and enjoy the ride. Others may question whether anyone could survive five bullet wounds in a few weeks' time and then swim 100 meters underwater during an Adirondack blizzard.--Gaughan, Thoma. Copyright 2010 Booklist
Library Journal Review
Will Cochrane is an arrogant, physically and mentally superior secret agent recognized as a dangerous wild card by the chiefs of Britain's MI6 intelligence agency and the CIA. He is tasked with saving humanity from monstrous terror plotted by a mysterious Iranian. But Cochrane also has a personal agenda for catching this man-to avenge his agent father's death in Iraq 25 years ago. Despite his repeated failures, Cochrane's supporting cast is faithful and competent. A bulked-up version of 007, our spycatcher suffers an impressive collection of personal wounds while amassing an astonishing body count of evildoers. Dunn, himself an ex-MI6 agent and writing under his real name, reveals few of his agency's operational techniques, subsuming them under the unique methods of his protagonist, who is both restrained and hard-driven as much by vengeance as by duty. VERDICT This very uneven novel features a pace that seesaws between leisurely and frantic. The literary style and level of violence is comparable to David Stone. Dunn eschews sex, but indulges occasionally in 007-ish mentions of five-star hotels, powerful motor cars, fashionable dress, and trendy beverages. Recommended for spy fiction enthusiasts. [See Prepub Alert, 1/31/11].-Jonathan Pearce, California State Univ. at Stanislaus, Stockton (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.