A Line in the Sand

Rating:
Summary: The real world of espionage
Review: A decade ago, under a different name, Frank Perry spied for his government against his customer, Iran when he fingered the locations of several of the country,s biochemical warfare plants. Frank was feeling safe in England for himself and his family until M15 informs him that Iran has fingered him for assassination. To the shock of the espionage community, Frank refuses to run.

The Anvil is coming to destroy the enemy to his state. The English counterintelligence crowd feel obligated to protect Frank. This turns his peaceful village into a mini army post that divides Frank's neighbors. Most of them want their neighbor gone before the Anvil arrives. High Noon is coming to Suffolk.

A LINE IN THE SAND is an exciting espionage tale because the prime players seem genuine in their multidimensional behavior. Frank is a bit crooked, making him a not so perfect hero. The Anvil has many redeeming qualities and is not just a religious killing machine. Even the M15 crowd seems less like super 007s and more like real people as they wonder if they should be proud of Franks' heroism or loathe him for placing them in danger. Even the townsfolk mob mentality of abject fear feels real. The charcaters destroy stereotypes that normally exist in this genre, which turns Gerald Seymour's novel into a triumph of the spirit.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: One of Seymour's Best
Review: I didn't expect to like this book. I had read and tremendously enjoyed what some call Seymour's Northern Ireland trilogy (Harry's Game, Field of Blood, and the Journeyman Tailor), but I hadn't liked another effort, Kingfisher.

But while I eagerly continue to wait for another Seymour thriller centered in Northern Ireland, I decided to read his book Untouchable, which while not perfect, had me in its grip from the first to last page.

So I decided to give Seymour another whirl, and I picked out A Line in the Sand. After reading it in about two days, I have to say the analogy one reviewer made of Seymour's plots coiling around a reader like a boa constrictor as the tension builds to an unbearable level is well put. The book is very hard to put down, and really doesn't have any flaws (apart from a couple of minor facts not worth mentioning here).

Furthermore, like in his other books Seymour doesn't just write a thriller, he presents the reader with an ethical question. "What would you do if you found out your neighbor was marked for death by a state sponsor of terror like Iran? Would you rally to his side, stand aloof, or try to drive him out of your pretty little village?"

As for myself, I'd like to think that I'd continue to be a friend and neighbor, but suggest that my good friend the terrorist target take a long vacation until the threat subsided.

Bottom Line: A superb read, it is reportedly being made into a movie even as I write this. I look forward to seeing that . . .

. . . But I hope with all my heart that with his next book (titled Meaning No Evil) Seymour returns to his familiar stomping grounds of Northern Ireland and with all the wonderful characters that he created there: Inspector Rennie, Cathy Parker, Gary Brennard, and of course, Frankie, the IRA man.

Rating:
Summary: Great plot, great characters, great writing.
Review: I first came upon Gerald Seymour more than 20 years ago. I really liked his writing then. It is nice to see that he just keeps getting better.

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Summary: Another Seymour Stunner
Review: I think it is unfair to expect this book to grab you in the first few chapters; that is not Gerald Seymour's style. His style is that of a boa constrictor's, where the pressure builds slowly until you realize you are grasping for breath. It is like comparing John LeCarre to Tom Clancy. There is a world of difference, Clancy writes for the masses, and LeCarre is an author. Gerald Seymour is an author, and while this is not his best book ( Holding the Zero has that distinction ) it lives up to his fans' expectations. Frank Perry was an informant for MI6, the British Secret Service, but his use to them is over and they have let him go, with a new identity. However, the new identity has been breached, and now the Iranian secret service has sent their best man, the " Anvil ", to repay Perry for his treachery. The British try to move Perry out with yet another new identity, but Perry is not running anymore. He has a wife and son now, and lives in a small town where he has friends who will rally to him. Or so he thinks anyway. The tension builds as the Anvil makes his way to the small town where Perry resides, and the townspeople rebel at the presence of British security turning Perry's home into a small fort. Plot turns are sudden, with moments of unbearable sadness. What most impacts are the thoughts of Perry, as he reflects on his life and his decision to stay rather than run, with the implications of that decision. Seymour provides us with real people dealing in genuine ways with rather difficult situations. This separates him from the spoonfed drivel of Clancy, where the heroes are infallible and their motives are clear and good. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: A disappointment
Review: I tried. I really, really tried, but I simply could NOT get into this book.

I usually give a novel one chapter to draw me in, but because of all the good reviews this book received, I read five. It was no good. I was bored. I just didn't care about the characters or the plot.

I love thrillers, but this one left me cold. It's not that Seymour is a bad writer, he just isn't a very good one. There was nothing wrong with his writing, aside from leaving the reader bored and wondering when the action would start.

There are too many good books out there to waste your time on a boring one. This is strictly my opinion. Several other reviewers loved this book, so to each his own.

This was my first Gerald Seymour book and will probably be my last.

Rating:
Summary: A first class example of the genre
Review: The West's current struggle with fundamentalist Islamic terrorists makes A LINE IN THE SAND all the more topical even though it's fiction. As such, it's an engrossing novel by plot-meister Gerald Seymour.

Brit Gavin Hughes was once a salesman selling illicit industrial mixing equipment to the Iranians for the latter's use in making weapons of mass destruction at a top-secret base. Then MI6 caught on, and put the squeeze on Hughes to become an informant. Gavin's information eventually allowed the Mossad to deal a crippling blow to Iran's WMD program. For his own protection, MI6 gives Gavin a new identity and life. He's now Frank Perry living with his wife Meryl and foster son Stephen in an isolated village on the Suffolk coast. The thing is, you see, a Saudi raid on an isolated terrorist camp yields evidence that the Iranians have discovered Gavin's identity and are sending in their master assassin, the Anvil, to make the hit. The British Security Service (MI5) now has jurisdiction, and pleads with Frank to run once more, but he adamantly refuses. Thus, an odd lot of players are converging on the village, its inhabitants, and the Perrys: the Anvil, the assassin's local accomplice previously converted to Islam, MI5, Scotland Yard, the SAS, an FBI anti-terrorist specialist, a sullen Scottish tracker and his dogs, a former British diplomat and his scarred foreign-born wife (the latter a survivor of Chile's torture chambers), and an injured marsh harrier - a migratory bird of prey.

One of my pet peeves with some "highly acclaimed" writers is that they impart no individuality to the principal characters of their books. The British government minister, the Yank CIA officer, the South American drug king, and the Tokyo police detective all talk and act as if they're cut from the same cloth, which might as well be that of an insurance broker in Des Moines. Seymour, on the other hand, makes each individual unique and real. This talent can make up for other faults. However, A LINE IN THE SAND is not deficient by any standard to which I hold. It's a taut, smart, finely crafted thriller that should encourage the reader to investigate Seymour's other works. More than that, it's a contemporary parable on the consequences of one's actions.

Rating:
Summary: One of Seymour's Best
Review: This is another tightly plotted thriller from Gerald Seymour that is awfully hard to put down once you start reading. The author often places relatively ordinary people into extraordinary situations - and he does so in this book. Seymour doesn't write about superheroes - I can't imagine Harrison Ford playing any role in any film of a Seymour book. Instead Seymour creates highly believable characters, complete with foibles, weaknesses, irrational impulses and some strengths. The main characters in "A Line in the Sand" all have their own weaknesses, strengths and motivations. Seymour weaves these together with great skill to create a taut, tense thriller.

Seymour books often differ from the Clancys and Ludlums of the world in another respect - don't expect too many happy endings. Seymour writes about worlds where there's a certain inevitability of disaster - and he often lets disasters happen. That makes his stories much more credible, and much more frightening than most.

Seymour also poses moral dilemmas for his characters. He's not an author who thinks one side is completely right and the other completely wrong. For Seymour, all combatants are flawed in some respects. In "A Line in the Sand", Seymour creates a moral dilemma for the inhabitants of a small English village - do they support one of their own or deflect a threat to their village by casting that person out ?

I enjoyed "A Line in the Sand". In fact, it's one of Seymour's best novels so far.