| Title | : | The Deceiver |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0553297422 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780553297423 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 480 |
| Publication | : | First published September 1, 1991 |
But times have changed and mavericks like McCready are an endangered species. Now, before a panel of his peers, McCready must defend his unorthodox exploits or face dismissal. What hangs in the balance is not only his own career, but the very future of British intelligence.
The Deceiver Reviews
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The Deceiver was a interesting, gripping, exciting, rational, readable read that felt realistic and possible. The main character was described as a complicated, flawed, and experienced intelligence agent. The four stories included in the book could all be read pretty much separately from one another as the book is not really a novel but a collection of short stories. This is definitely one of my favorite thriller reads. Recommended.
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Sometimes you just realize when you are in the hands of someone who really knows what they're doing. I have tried a number of spy and suspense authors with varying results, but picking this book up at the library recently and reading it reminded me what it's like to be entertained by a master. Day of the Jackal was terrific, and this book, while more low-key nevertheless satisfied the reasons you read spy novels. Unfolding as a retrospective of a spy's career told in the context of an internal administrative hearing, it stitched together several very good stories with the protagonist as the common thread. Ranging from byzantine puzzles of spy vs. spy defections to a lighter final tale of a colonial governor's mysterious murder, each of the stories was well written with good characters and excellent plots. It is reminiscent of Le Carre's The Secret Pilgrim, where a George Smiley lecture at Sarratt, the SIS training academy, provides the launching point of a tour through Ned's career from Russia House, and both as well done. When I compare this book to a Dale Brown or some of the other thriller geopolitical novelists of today, they lose - badly - and you appreciate Forsyth as a storyteller even more. Admittedly, in many of his books, Forsyth has the "good guys/bad guys" certainty of the Cold War making his job easier, rather than the stateless, morally ambiguous political and terrorist landscape of today to try to make sense of while telling a good story. But Forsyth and Le Carre remind us, all was not black and white during the Cold War, and there was still plenty of moral relativity and tradeoffs to vex the heroes of their books.
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This novel is divided into four stories each involving British super-sleuth Sam McCready and his operations during the last years of the Cold War
From London to Berlin and Washington DC to the Mediterranean to the Caribbean we are exposed to the inner working of the British Secret Services which seems to be Forsyth's field of specialty
Wherever we go action and intrigue follow us
And we get to meet villains as diverse as East German STASI Secret Police , IRA terrorists , Libyan Mukhabbarat (Gadaffi's brutal Gestapo-like secret police) and Caribbean gangsters
McCready is not the only hero in the book .much of it focuses on the work of other characters like the tragic end of a West German secret serviceman and a former SAS man turned reclusive author that Mc Cready manages to recruit for a high risk operation
The book is dedicated to all who worked and sacrificed so that the West could win the Cold War
There is always something nostalgic about remembering the Cold War and a very important message therein : During those days we knew who our enemies where before political correctness corrupted our values and blurred the difference between good and evil .Now it is fashionable to make excuses for Islamic terror .As Forsyth writes in his forward :Those were the days , my friends -
A brilliant novel with a beautiful ending. Forsyth shows how it should be done. A great tribute to people like Sam McCready who spent their lives in the shadows to ensure that the people in the light were never harmed. A highly recommended read.
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Its a typical 'Fredrik Forsyth' style international spy thriller telling story of an good old, intense, undercover, secret agent Sam MacCready. His career hangs in imbalance, as his authorities tried to retire him to a desk service from field activity amidst all professionals politics thats often played in almost all fields. As his case was presented and played out among peer- panel, dispersed after each chapter, as 'interludes' in the book, Sam McCready's various rendezvous as field agent named as 'deceiver' were described making up the 04 main chapters in this book. I liked to read the last one titled ' a little bit of sunshine' as his work in northern Carribbean island. The author is the master story teller of political espionage. Thought I generally dislike to read about politics & war, that's what unfortunately makes up the world today. 03 stars for this one.
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Frederick Forsyth novels were a familiar fixture in our household when I was growing up, as both my parents loved his work. He was amongst the first ‘adult’ reads that I was drawn to at the time. So, my love affair with his books began, and over the years I have read everything he’s written- keeping up with any new release/s.
As my mother has been in and out of hospital quite a lot over the past year and a half, I am keeping her supplied with books to read, and buddy reading them with her, or reading them to her when she isn’t well enough to read for herself. We have gotten through quite a lot of books in this time and it has been wonderful to discuss each one with her as we read/finish. It has been a great bonding experience for us, and Mr. Forsyth is our current author of choice- and we have both really enjoyed revisiting all his books, again.
Mr. Forsyth has a great knack for writing wonderfully suspenseful and exciting read, there is always great tension, action, drama, some danger, intrigue, and lots more to hold your attention. I can always count on him to deliver an intriguing read. -
Quite possibly the worst book I have read this year. A collection of four spy mystery novellas. I am astounded by how badly written this book is. A study in why rampant headhopping is a bad thing and info dumps the size of mt Everest. The whole premise of this book fails. Forsyth tries to show off his (supposed) detailed knowledge of how the secret services work through his info dumps. Problem is that if you are a fan of spy novels, these info dumps contain things you already know. And if you are not a fan of spy novels the minute details of how the secret services operate would bore you to tears. Another serious flaw is that Forsyth fudges, making up imaginary countries and political figures. All in all not worth the paper it is printed on :-(
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I'm afraid I couldn't make it through this book. It was my first Frederick Forsyth novel, and it had moments when I really believed it was going to take off, but then it went back to more and more dull drudgery.
It just went on and on, without much happening and I just decided that life was too short to force my way through something that I just didn't want to pick up. I think when you start to avoid a book, that it's time to let go!
Not for me I'm afraid. -
A real Forsyth.
Spy thriller divided into three separate episodes. You can get a nostalgic feeling about a good old Cold War time. A very exciting experience, super researched, with an amazing voice of Uwe Teschner. Highly recommended!
*Audio in German -
The protagonist Sam McCready is an unconventional one. Details are sketchy as I read this a few years back. I do remember three separate plot lines being laid bare before a committee for one man's defense. Worth a read for the Cold War espionage plays.
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Love these short espionage stories, crafter by master spy storyteller Frederick Forsyth. Once you have read the book, check out the DVD Frederick Forsyth Presents which are made for TV movie adaptations. Very '90s but worth a go. Wish Freddy had written an entire novel with Sam McCready.
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I have just read this novel. I missed it first time around, This is one of the masters of spy fiction. What an amazing book I just loved it.
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'The Deceiver' was my foray into the works of Forsyth after a hiatus, and reading this reminded me of why he is one of my top 5 favourite authors. The no-nonsense, limelight averse Sam McCready has a lot of similar characteristics with several other heroes of Forsyth, but the stories do his character justice. Though the flow may appear disjointed (owing to the four separate exploits of the protagonist), the trademark narrative style of the author and the brilliant pacing ensure that the reader is never bored.
Give it a go if you are a fan of the Forsythian style of storytelling or espionage thrillers in general, and you shall not be deceived. -
Forsyth has done an outstanding job of detailing the circuitous paths of the old espionage game along with giving us a lot of reasons why our world of the technocrat spy really isn't a lot different from the world of dubious political activities taking place during the cold war. The KGB or what would now be called the VSR is still out there being led from the very top by a guy who was once one of the insiders of that organization under Gorbachev. The Colombian drug dealers may have been replaced by the Mexicans or S.E. Asia's Golden Triangle, but they all use many of the same old fashioned methods and don't need to rely on spy satellites, drones, or having to keep clean white gloves on for clean hands in a clandestine war that may have to go wet at times to tidy up messes. McCready and all the old school spies he represents, may seem like a fossil to the guy with a cell phone, a gps and a 'beam me up' team sitting back home with computers, but he's not traceable, when the electricity fails he's not at a loss of how to contact home, and when the 'beam me up' guys don't get the chopper into the right sector on time to pull him out he's still got a hole in the ground to go to and a backup plan to get his defector out. Each of the tales is a classic. Well worth reading several times. I did have one criticism of his use of the term 'Claymore' for a mine which should have been classified as a 'Bouncing Betty,' but I can forgive one error to an author who has been so on top of the game for years and who is now living in a time when his young editors probably wouldn't pick up on the nuances of Vietnam era weaponry. Read it. enjoy it and know that there are still men and women out there who can really pull off the job when the slick joy-stick kids on the computers screw up on a mission. That's what happens on an Op. You go in thinking you've got the mission down cold and halfway to the goal line you better have another plan or you'll be just another piece of cannon fodder. Keep the McCready clan, both men and women alive and well. We need them!
PS don't forget to check Amazon for my free book offers! See the previous blog for the dates they are going for FREE!>) at rickmcbee.me -
Mr. Forsyth is one of my fave authors in his genre, besides Mr. Clancy of course. He's not relying too much on technology, but more to suspense, spy works, and his orientation is not to the Yankees, but to the Brits. That's why you'll find that in several of his novels he provide quite extensive description on the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), SAS (the best special force in the world next to Delta Force & Sayeret Matkal), Century House (now Vauxhall Cross) and Foreign Office politics, etc.
The Deceiver tells about a senior agent (the head of Deception, Disinformation and Psychological Operations (Dee Dee and PsyOps for short), Sam McCready. He's one of the main characters in Forsyth's books that I find not really interesting. Compared with the hotshots in "The Negotiator", "The Day of the Jackal" and "The Fist of God", McCready seems too...dull.
This book is consisted of four stories (It's basically a flashback of McCready's most successful operations as a spook): the dangerous hand over of a top secret military document from a Soviet spy IN East Germany, the suspected defector from the KGB which leads to mutual distrust between SIS & CIA, the cooperation between Qaddafi (yes, that Libyan dude) and IRA to attack US interests in Europe and an eventful governmental transition of a British former colony in the Caribbean started by the murder of the governor.
My fave is definitely the second story. Great twist at the end.
Overall, this is not my fave Forsyth book. Perhaps because the psyops thing (that supposed to be the center of this book) does not meet my expectation, who knows? -
Forsyth insieme a Le Carre' e' uno dei miei scrittori di spionaggio preferiti perche' e ' molto ben informato sulla storia e anche nei suoi racconti di fantasia si imparano un sacco di cose interessanti. Inoltre sa far anche ridere con situazioni paradossali, ma realistiche. Qui si trovano quattro episodi storico-spionistici diversi in luoghi e circostanze diverse, dove per trovare una soluzione e uscirne fuori interi ci vuole coraggio si, ma anche "plenty of common sense", come il protagonista dimostra di avere. Il nostro eroe stavolta e' un ometto apparentemente insignificante e sgualcito, con legami e conoscenze ovunque che sa utilizzare al momento giusto, chapeau Forsyth.
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This book is four short spy stories linked together and is positively enthralling! I was skeptical of the format at first but Forsyth pulls you in and gets you invested in each story anew and takes you on a wild ride from Berlin to a tiny Caribbean island. A recommended read for anyone interested in spy novels!
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az in nevisande va ketbaye charndesh aslan khosham nemiad
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This was a really cool book, lots of intrigue and action, but also stories within the main story! Really great!
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McCready ist der Deceiver, einer von Forsythers Superbriten. Und da der kalte Krieg vorrüber ist, soll er aufs Abstellgleis. Wie toll er ist, wird in vier Kurzromanen geschildert. Alle sehr gut.
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This is a series of novellas bound together by the overlapping story of a senior British secret service spy under performance review before being fired. The hearing is bureaucratically acceptable even though the conclusion has been decided on a higher political level. Pretty silly, which is unfortunately what I think about spy stories in general.
I read only two of the stories. The first; "Pride and Extreme Prejudice" is set in Germany during the cold war. It involves our hero, Sam McReady - the secret service spy in charge of counter-espionage and disinformation etc. aka The Deceiver - who is sent to gather information from a Russian general out to make a buck. Complications ensue. Sam is known in East Germany so sends an old spy he has had on the payroll, a German named Bruno who normally works for the West German secret service but moonlights for the British.
Unfortunately Bruno has misled himself in his belief that one of the high-end escort girls he runs as part of his job - for visiting diplomats etc. - is in love with him. When he discovers her laughing about him with her pimp he shoots them both. The trip to East Germany to get the information from the Russian is also a sort of getaway. Unfortunately Bruno doesn't have the nerves for it. Complications ensue and Sam is forced to sneak in to East Germany and track Bruno down, which he does, and get the information, which he does, and put Bruno out of his misery, which he does.
This is all pretty straight forward and exciting, I will admit, though pretty silly too. This whole spy game I have found silly since I quit reading James Bond. An insiders club of spies spying on spies while trying to corrupt or disable spies spying on them. And in the end, who cares?
The last story: "A Little Bit of Sunshine" is set in the Caribbean, where the small island of Sunshine is set to achieve independence from Britain. Two candidates emerge in the race to become the first president, both surrounded by thugs. Sam is vacationing in Florida but flies out to Sunshine when the Governor is murdered. He soon discovers the two candidates are dirty being run by Cuba alternately a Colombian drug cartel. He runs the buggers out and resumes his vacation.
Who shot the governor? A Miami police officer is killed when the plane he is riding back to the US blows up. A friend and colleague doesn't accept that it was an accident and flies out to Sunshine. He soon discovers that his former partner has spotted a cold-blooded killer aka The Scorpion and joins Sam to track him down.
Who shot the governor? A senior British policeman is sent from London to discover who shot the governor. After toiling throughout the story with no clues he finally finds an undamaged bullet left by the killer and sends it back to London for analysis. It seems the bullet came from an ancient WWI revolver and then he know who did it. The kindly old lady who lives on the hill. Yep, she wanted to bring the press to Sunshine so the world could see that Independence is not an option. And so she shoots the governor - being an invalid she has help from her massive man-servant. She could probably have done better with a little advice from someone sane. Pretty silly detective story.
It was not me but a former colleague who pointed out that Forsyth's view of women is not healthy. In these two stories we have six women - of whom none have a major roll; a prostitute, a KGB officer who misses her chance, a retired school teacher, an old woman who runs a boarding house, a TV reporter and a sweet old woman murderer. The story and the action follows the men.
Still, lots of atmosphere, good exciting stories and easy to read. -
The Deceiver is a collection of four what we would today novelettes. Sam McCready, the Deceiver, is the lead person of an SIS/MI6 division intended on, well, deception. The book starts in present time, when the book was written in the early 1990s, and with the end of the cold war, some politicians try to oust McCready. His defenders rush to his defense and to an employment panel, they tell the stories of his various successes.
The four stories vary in quality and they use the age old trick of starting strong and ending strong, but I would not say that any of the four is bad. The stories are also most chronological and the start with a younger McCready being more of a field agent, and ends with McCready interfering in local politics while on vacation.
Whenever you write a book describing events in the past, you are able to add a lot of historical knowledge to the picture. Forsyth does that, making McCready mostly at the right place at the right time. Maybe it feels a bit much as back patting, and maybe the stories are much less interesting today when the geopolitical situation is so different from when there were two superpowers facing off.
Still, the book is ok. Not the best Forsyth book by far, but it is ok. 2.5 stars rounded down. -
Having read the odessa file and the fourth protocol I decided to give this book a go .
Its split up into a series of four stories around a central character (mc cready)
The first story is set in berlin during the time of the berlin wall I wont go into detail about it but found it the most riveting story of them all and wasnt disappointed .
Second is about a defection of a russian to america found it good to begin with but also a little dragged out .
Third is about the ira obtaining arms from libya. As an irishman I found this story mildly amusing at times because it mentions places in ireland that will be familiar to anyone from dubllin the story itself was ok one thing I really liked was forsyth mention of a priest involved in the ira .
Last is a murder on an english colony and a plane shot down this story (still reading ) im currently struggling with dosent seem like a forsyth story at all tbh .
Overall id give it three stars and my advice would be not to read the book in one go . -
I have always enjoyed Frederick Forsythe novels and this was no exception. His attention to detail but economy of style keeps the narrative rolling along at a spanking pace, especially helpful in this book since it's really a review of British SIS operative Sam McCready's career before he is pushed into retirement.
Reading old reports of his exploits takes us to East/West Berlin where a handover of Soviet military secrets is due to take place but is compromised by the courier's mental breakdown; a high-ranking Russian defector who is in fact, a plant; an arms deal in Libya which involves skimming off product for the IRA; a clever bid to take over an old British protectorate in the Caribbean as a drug hub disguised as a political election.
Each is a short story in itself and McCready has already come to terms with his future but he enjoys making his old Chief squirm when faced by the unalterable facts that his career has been nothing short of spectacular.
A great read.
