Rating: 
Summary: Details without drama; too predictable
Review: These five short stories demonstrate that Forsyth has a great grasp of the British military, the history of Siena, the great art masters, and international air travel. He provides intricate background and small facts. Yet the characters are much too stereotyped and Forsyth telegraphs the all-too-expected outcome from the first story. While you might learn about British 'paras', the German strategy in northern Italy in 1944, the small details of piloting a British Airways flight from Bangkok to London, and the arrogance and bad habits of aristocrats cheating the art world, there is no one with much appeal to this reader.The fifth story, longer and different, opens another genre. "Whispering wind" is as much science fiction as meticulous history. Forsyth certainly did a lot of travel and study of the geography of Wyoming. But the story dragged on. The characters were icons or caricatures rather than heroes or villains. There's the perfect outdoorsman, the perfect Indian maiden, the perfect professor, the perfect mountain sheriff, and the perfect idiot among Custer's troops who resurfaces several generations later in this strange time travel tale. All too perfect, too predictable. Forsyth has done much better.
Rating: 
Summary: A five story book
Review: This book has five stories, each of one has his own reality and his own fable, some of the fables are out of this world but you will learn something of the book, the best story is the last one "Whispering Wind", and the fable of the story is obviously out of this world.
Forsyth know how to write and every story keeps you reading from the first page to the last one.
Rating:
Summary: Forsyth's latest short stories
Review: This collection of five stories are fascinating, but not as intriguing some of the other Forsyth novels I've read. The first story, "The Veteran" starts out with a mugging of an old man who is "special" or was once regarded as "special". The "special" aspect of him explains the outcome of the mugging as well as the final act of "justice". "The Art of Matter" was a step down for me compared to "The Veteran". I'm just not interested in Art and auctions. For those into trickery and art, I suppose it would be quite an engaging read. "The Miracle" was my next favorite story about a mysterious woman. The ending will take you by surprise and may even make you laugh. To get the full effect of the story, one must be careful and focus on the details of the dialogue. "The Citizen" was another great story involving a drug smuggling operation. By far, the best story of the book was "Whispering Wind" which is largely a romantic adventure. Anyone familiar with Custer's last stand at the battle of Little Big Horn or simply those interested in the old west will enjoy it tremendously. It's the type of story that many women would like because of the romantic element.
Rating: 
Summary: A Riveting Work of Fiction
Review: What do a young art dealer who was cheated by his boss, an unknown murdered man in a British public housing project, an American couple in Sienna at the Palio (a race going back to the 13th century), a family returning from vacation in Thailand, and the only man to survive Custer's last stand all have in common? When Frederick Forsyth writes about them, you will find yourself following every word and turning every page. This is an absolutely remarkable collection of short stories running from the very realistic through the surprising to the supernatural. His portrait of a saint in Sienna is brilliant and compelling, and the outcome of the story is stunning and memorable. He provides a very satisfying explanation of who a murdered unknown person really is and how his identity affects the thugs who killed him. The life of the only scout to survive Custer's last stand is told so grippingly that I could not stop from finishing it. Forsyth simply has the wonderful knack for writing fiction so it seems real, personal, and meaningful. His writing carries you into a world of possibilities and will stretch your own thinking and enrich your understanding of life's possibilities.
Rating:
Summary: ALMOST AS GOOD AS "DAY OF THE JACKAL" ...
Review: When you read a book like this (consisting, actually, of 5 mini-novels in one) you just hope that Frederick Forsyth will get around to writing one more "proper" thriller novel. I mean, the title story, THE VETERAN, is a quite brilliant depiction of a canny lawyer who has to defend some evil low-lifes after a diabolical murder. Forsyth is not a lawyer, so compared, say, to Dexter Dias's protrayal of a far worse killer in POWER OF ATTORNEY, the legal details don't seem quite as convincing (Dias, I understand, is a practising barrister in the UK - and his book was Thriller of the Month when I was there). But Forsyth's genius has always been to make you "root" for his hero. And this we do. I would have loved for the story contained in the restricted pages of The Veteran story to have a novel to itself because then we could make a proper comparison between Forsyth's legal thriller and Dias's - POWER OF ATTORNEY is the best legal thriller I've read in years, and THE VETERAN comes very close, which is the highest praise possible.
Rating:
Summary: valid for only 60 days?
Review: Why would anyone want to pay for a book that expires? These folks doing ebooks better rethink what they're doing.
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