Avenger

Rating:
Summary: Taut Thriller
Review: Welcome back, Mr. Forsyth. This novel, using current affairs as a backdrop, takes us from WWII to Vietnam to Bosnia to the Current War on Terrorism. This book arrived today, from Amazon of course, and I thought I'd read a few pages. At midnight, I finished it. I simply couldn't put it down. Every once in a while, it is nice to have something so taut that one page simply leads to the next. Thank you, Mr. Forsyth!!

Rating:
Summary: Mr Forsythe, please fire your editor!
Review: Even after all these years, I remember the thrills that Frederick Forsyth generated in my adolescent heart with his early works, such as 'Day of the Jackal' 'The Odessa File' and 'Dogs of War'. Not only were they well crafted novels of international intrigue with subtly communicated opinions on the machinations of the international military/industrial complex, they always contained a neat twist, with an often overlooked clue dropped almost offhanded early in the story which later is discovered to be critical to the plot's resolution. So I looked forward to this latest offering. Sadly, I was left unsatisfied; but more because of what I think is sloppy editing than the author's lack of skill.
Cal Dexter (not 'Pete' as one well known and prolific reviewer has mistakenly written all over the net) is the kind of modern hero that we all can respect. The child of a broken marriage and a nomadic childhood with a blue collar father, he volunteers for the Army during the Viet Nam era, serving with distinction as a 'tunnel rat', one of an elite corps who braves the subterranean maze beneath the battlefields to find and eliminate Viet Cong fighters. He bonds with a better educated superior officer and through this relationship finds the drive to leave the service and work his way through law school. Although offered a lucrative position with a well established firm, he chooses instead to become a public defender, championing the rights of the unfortunate.
From this point on, I am going to have to be a bit cryptic, since as any reader of Forsyth's work knows, enjoyment of his books depends on a reviewer being very discreet about how the plot twists, in order to avoid spoiling the surprise ending. In the case of 'Avenger', this is again essential. Suffice it to say that a series of personal tragedies compels Dexter to lead a double life. He leaves public service and sets up a low key private practice in a suburban town near New York City, but in secret becomes 'Avenger', a skilled bounty hunter dedicated to bringing killers and the like to face justice. It is as Avenger that he is contacted by a billionaire whose only grandson has been brutally murdered while serving as a relief worker in Yugoslavia. Unbeknownst to him, the murderer is protected by high level US government agents, who are planning to use this evil man to reach an even more important target, and are ready to sacrifice the life of our hero to achieve what they believe is a greater good.
The plot is resolved with typical Forsyth cunning, and with a typical Forsyth 'twist' at the end. The problems with 'Avenger', that keep it from being one of Forsyth's better work, mostly concern sloppy editing. For example, at one point, a character converses with a Yugoslav in what the author specifically states is in English; but a few pages later, the same character is specifically described as not understanding English. This is the most obvious of the flaws; there are many others, as well as inexplicable style conventions, such as the use of 'f***' instead of the printing of the word. And according to some who know the areas of the world in which the novel is set, there are many errors when it comes to the geography.
All in all, 'Avenger' is still above the crowd, as any Forsyth book would be expected to be. But the annoyances do take away from the enjoyment, and the 'twist' is not up to Forsyth's best. Those less critical will still have a good read, but for those of us who have looked forward to the return of Frederick Forsyth, it can only be wished that he had had an editor who was more dilligent.

Rating:
Summary: Simply the best!
Review: Do not read this book at night if you have to go to work the following morning. You just cannot put this book down. It's "The Day of the Jackal" and "Odessa File" combined. The best of Forsyth so far.

Rating:
Summary: How much time have you got?
Review: "Have you ever read Frederick Forsyth?", a friend asked waving his latest novel, The Avenger. I wasn't sure. Vaguely, I thought of Forsyth being somewhat similar a writer to Harold Robbins, Sidney Sheldon -- all authors for whom I would not at all be surprised if it was true that some of them DICTATE their books to secretaries. "Read it!", my Dutch-Suriname friend said -- "it's the only book where our two countries meet!" So I did it, for her. And now she owes me big time.

No way would The Avenger "convert" anyone who takes up a book to read for reasons other than just so that the time passes more quickly. No way would it disappoint anyone who does. It's a good story but I thought it was the worst novel I can remember reading. The characters are sketchy, anyone is either a "good guy or a bad guy", their sentiments, emotions, reasoning are given only in rudiments if not entirely absent from the narrative. Cal Dexter, the main character, has risen above the blue-collar environment of his father's by hard work and perseverance, finished a law school and after internship in a prestigious law firm decides to work impossible hours as a public defender because of job satisfaction he derives from helping the underprivileged. With such devotion and empathy one would imagine he would have managed to make a more transparent and open family life with his loving wife and daughter. Instead, one day, out of nowhere, his blooming teenage daughter runs away from home, in protest after Dexter did not approve of her boyfriend. He has a strong intuition, you see, his gut instinct that has proven life-saving in Vietnam and that has served him well throughout his life told him there was something wrong with this guy and with all that empathy, understanding, love, verbal skills of an effective public defender, the best he does in articulating his disapproval to his beautiful daughter is one firm "No." His daughter soon ends up forced in prostitution and drug addiction and is savagely raped and killed. He disappears to Central America to trace and kill the leader of the gang who did this to his daughter, and when he comes back -- wouldn't you know it -- his wife has committed suicide out of guilt because she was encouraging about her daughter's affection to the boyfriend. Of course, all this just passed by our hero -- he had no idea of something troubling his wife or daughter... Coming from Forsyth Americans are portrayed as patronizing red-necks who can force anyone into submission either by force or by waving handful of dollars. Adversaries are incompetent fools or pompous idiots causing annoyance at most. Our guy just walks in and does what needs to be done, Schwarzenegger-style. In the end of his main mission, after planning his entry to a small, corrupted Latin American country of refuge of the Serb villain he is to bring back to justice in America, he carefully observes the fortified compound of three and half square miles with elaborate safety arrangements (barbed wire, fences, piranhas, sharks, a dozen of blood thirsty Doberman dogs, 200 armed guards, an elite squad of South African guards, cameras, radars...) and what was the greatest difficulty Dexter faced in snatching the Serb mass murderer? Well, he got really sweaty, you see. Actually, there was something courageous Dexter did in his tracing the renegade criminal but it went unnoticed: Dexter boarded JAT (Yugoslav airline company) to fly from Belgrade to Beirut. Now that's something I am not sure I would have the guts to do myself...

Forsyth must have had map upside down when doing research about former Yugoslavia: Belgrade is not south (?) of Travnik, for instance. Pale, Sarajevo and Banja Luka are not north of Belgrade. Or, what on earth did Forsyth mean by SEVEN provinces of former Yugoslavia -- it's either six or eight: there were six federal republics and in Serbia there were two autonomous provinces. In bringing to the reader the complexities of war in former Yugoslavia, we will learn that Croatia got "irresponsibly premature recognition by the German chancellor" (p. 26) and yet after 78 days of NATO bombing Serbia, "the Serbs began to mutter it was the mad Milosevic who had brought this ruin upon them. It is always educational to note how the war fever fades when the roof falls in." (p. 122). As a Croat living in Croatia until 1997, I also thought this was very educational indeed, and a further proof that international recognition of any of the 6 federal units (countries) of former Yugoslavia was all but premature. "Bosnia", we read, "was a UN affair until finally, in exasperation, taken over and resolved by the USA." (p. 73)

The scenes and how Forsythe lines them, I thought, made it easy to imagine this novel as a film. There were some impressive thrillers done on the basis of his novels but I don't expect this one to become one. It would be a kind of unengaged escapist action movie in which the main role was played by someone like Jean-Claude van Damme or Steven Segal. Time may pass quickly, true, but in my case it was mostly time wasted. What McDonalds' is to cuisine, The Avenger is to literature. Be careful about your diet.

Rating:
Summary: Great
Review: Frederick Forsyth said he was retiring from thriller writing after his last one. Thank God he changed his mind, since he tops himself here. I've read all his books, and the last ones have been slightly disappointing, but THE AVENGER is first rate. I'll probably read it twice. I think Forsyth may have been inspired by moral anger in the wake of 9/11 events, as he incorporates it in this book, and the result is a great book. It's probably the best thriller I've read since Craig Furrnas' THE SHAPE: A NOVEL OF INTERNATIONAL SUSPENSE.

Rating:
Summary: Welcome back to a great thriller writer
Review: Frederick Forsyth's sabbatical from thriller writing has been too long - and now, thankfully, he is back writing again and giving us first class thriller fiction. What is interesting about him is that he is unaffected, unlike lots of his rivals, by the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989. He has continued to be up to date and relevant in his thrillers. OK so they are not world class literature but we can't be reading Dickens all the time and for what they are Forsyth's novels are great. He is a massive improvement on the rather formulaic Tom Clancy and since Forsyth's politics are way way to the right of most people it is great that he has concentrated now instead of getting back to giving us all excellent holiday reading. Welcome back Forsyth - it is good to see you in print at what you do best again! Christopher Catherwood, author of CHRISTIANS, MUSLIMS AND ISLAMIC RAGE (Zondervan, 2003)

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant
Review: Fifty-one year old attorney Pete Dexter practices law on the Jersey-Pennsylvania line and runs triathlete events relatively successfully. People who know him picture a quiet unassuming friendly fellow, but Pete has a second job as the AVENGER, a renowned bounty hunter, that he keeps secret from his neighbors. Pete maintains a Manhattan apartment as his center of human hunting operations in which he answers ads in Vintage Airplane magazine asking for the AVENGER.

Billionaire Canadian mining mogul Steve Edmond hires the Avenger to kill Serbian Zoran Zilic, Milosevich's sadistic henchman for murdering his grandson. Following the trail from Serbia to South America just like he did the Cong in the tunnels of Nam, the Avenger closes in on the kill. However, the CIA does not wink this time, as they fear the consequences of this particular murder. To avoid global chaos Agent Kevin McBride must stop the Avenger anyway he can.

THE AVENGER is a typical Forsyth tale in which the action-packed plot uses real world events as a backdrop to a non-stop thriller that deeply focuses on a specific incident. The story line moves rather quickly forward as Pete begins his latest quest of vengeance for his client. Pete is an extraordinary individual who feels his soul is clean though he is obviously a paid killer. Kevin commiserates with Pete, but also knows orders and fears the outcome of a successful output by the Avenger. A strong tale though no DAY OF THE JACKAL, fans of the author and anyone who appreciates a taut international thriller will enjoy THE AVENGER.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic!
Review: Don't miss this one. It's an education about warfare, and specifically U.S.methods of operation and our intelligence services and why they don't work. It is a compelling story at every level, and there are many. With few words the author defines the characters by their defining moments in life. I can't say enough about it. Many years ago, I, along with thousands of others, became addicted to thrillers thanks to the author's Odessa File and Day of the Jackal. He certainly hasn't lost his touch.

Rating:
Summary: This cannot be Forsyth
Review: Very disappointing novel that has nothing to do with Forsyth's previous work. The intricate plots of Dogs of War and Day of the Jackal give me the impression that this story was not written by the man himself. A messy story from Bosnia via the Middle-East to South America? Come on, next to Bin Laden Forsyth introduces South African bullies, private armies, CIA black ops, Vietnam vets and every other cliche in modern suspense. Please pick up any other Forsyth.

Rating:
Summary: Forsyth has still got it
Review: Frederick Forsyth has been quoted as saying he only writes a new book when he needs the money. His material has never gotten thin, but on the other hand we only get a new book every few years. A pity, as in the espionage/thriller genre, he's got one of the highest batting averages - he's never written a bad book. His writing is matter of fact, never flashy and moves quickly. Forsyth researches and assembles his plots with the inventive and systematic precision characteristic of his heroes. "Avenger" shows Forsyth he's still got what it takes, almost four decades after "The Day of the Jackal."

His hero, Cal Dexter, is a onetime "tunnel rat", one of the American soldiers in Vietnam tracking the VC into their extensive tunnel network and fighting a harrowing war in its shadows. The combat and survival skills he gains serve him well later in life when, owing to a personal misfortune, the middle-aged lawyer moonlights as a freelance hunter of bad guys.

Forsyth's detail on the tunnel rats is fascinating, a little-known aspect of the Vietnam war. So are his passages set placed in wartorn Bosnia and Serbia, whose modern tragedies have not yet been adequately explored by English-language novelists, and where one particular tragedy will ultimately involve Avenger.

I give this book four stars instead of five.

--Forsyth occasionally puts Britishisms in the mouths of Americans. All the top British writers do this occasionally, but isn't this what editors are paid to catch?

--It seems at times dated. The book has the requisite computer hacker on an electronic trail, but Dexter sometimes seems transplanted out of the 1960s; his gear often has a mid-century camper's feel to it.

--And our bad guy, a former Milosevic warlord named Zoran Zilic, builds himself an impregnable tropical hideout, a huge and self-contained plantation where he has seemingly thought of everything to keep enemies out and off his trail. It seems a bit fantastic and unreal, more like a bad guy's lair in a James Bond novel. Forsyth's realism has generally been one of his strongest suits; we don't expect to encounter Dr. No in one of his books.

Still, Dexter's ingenuity in taking on Zilic is impressive and absorbing. The quibbles above are only that. This is a fine book.