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Summary
Summary
When British and American intelligence catch wind of a major Al Qaeda operation in the works, they are primed for action - but what can they do? They know nothing about the attack: the what, where or when. They have no sources in Al Qaeda, and it's impossible to plant someone. Impossible, unless ... The Afghan is Izmat Khan, a five-year prisoner of Guantanamo Bay and a former senior commander of the Taliban. The Afghan is also Colonel Mike Martin, a 25-year veteran of war zones around the world, a dark, lean man born and raised in Iraq. In an attempt to stave off disaster, the intelligence agencies will try to do what no one has ever done before - pass off a Westerner as an Arab among Arabs - pass off Martin as the trusted Khan. It will require extraordinary preparation, and then extraordinary luck, for nothing can truly prepare Martin for the dark and shifting world he is about to enter. Or for the terrible things he will find there ...
Author Notes
Frederick Forsyth was born in Ashford, England on August 25, 1938. At age seventeen, he decided he was ready to start experiencing life for himself, so he left school and traveled to Spain. While there he briefly attended the University of Granada before returning to England and joining the Royal Air Force. He served with the RAF from 1956 to 1958, earning his wings when he was just nineteen years old.
He left the RAF to become a reporter for the Eastern Daily Press, Reuters News Agency, and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). While with the BBC, he was sent to Nigeria to cover an uprising in the Biafra region. As he learned more about the conflict, he became sympathetic to the rebel cause. He was pulled from Nigeria and reassigned to London when he reported this viewpoint. Furious, he resigned and returned to Nigeria as a freelance reporter, eventually writing The Biafra Story and later, Emeka, a biography of the rebel leader Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu.
Upon his return to England in 1970, Forsyth began writing fiction. His first novel, The Day of the Jackal, won an Edgar Allan Poe award from the Mystery Writers of America. His other works include The Odessa File, The Dogs of War, The Fourth Protocol, Devil's Alternative, The Negotiator, The Deceiver, The Fist of God, Icon, The Veteran, Avenger, The Afghan, The Cobra and The Fox.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Forsyth writes as if preparing for the movie or television miniseries he knows will surely follow. His multiple focus in terms of characters and settings makes for thrilling cinema and engrossing reading, but in an audio version, a global smattering of Afghani, Arabic, Pakistani, British, Indonesian and other names can cause a bout of verbal vertigo. Wise listeners will replay the first CD or at least part of it. Once the characters, ships and locales are in place, the narrative is much easier to follow, despite Forsyth's love of minutiae. Powell plods through the novel with all the enthusiasm of a distracted Oxbridge tutor. His presentation is careful and eloquent but ultimately dull. He doesn't understand the nuances of most accents, including those of the Americans, all of whom have gruff voices. Powell does best with his performance of Colonel Mike Martin, the reluctant hero of this tale. The action, when it comes, is too little and too late to hold one's attention on audio. Powell's lethargic pace inflates this particular flaw in Forsyth's novel. It would be better to read the print version or wait for the film. Simultaneous release with the Putnam hardcover (Reviews, June 5). (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
The Forsyth Formula, al-Qaeda version: A sort of post-9/11 apocalyptic western, this thriller pits White Guys against Black Turbans, the daring forces of freedom versus the jihadi doers of evil. Should Hasbro ever decide it needs a new G.I. Joe, Mike Martin's their man. The latest action figure from the Forsyth franchise (Avenger, 2003, etc.), he's a craggy Scot summoned from a wee bit of rest and relaxation at his Hampshire retreat back into the endless global fray. The listening department of Pakistan's Counter-Terrorism Center has, through cell-phone surveillance, unearthed a plot. One of Osama bin Laden's financiers has already, clutching his laptop, hurled himself from a balustrade to protect the plans. Hi-tech British cunning retrieves the info, which reveals schemes for "Al Isra," the biggest potential attack yet. To penetrate al-Qaeda, U.K./U.S. intelligence makes a mole of Martin, passing him off as Izmat Khan, ex-Taliban bigwig serving time in Gitmo. Mirror images of each other, the men are archetypal warriors, Khan a stoic Afghan outraged by the Russian invasion of his country and conned by desperation into bin Laden's service, Martin a 25-year veteran of killing missions--the Falklands, the Balkans, the Middle East. Plus, passing for Khan is easy for multilingual Martin, son of an oil-company executive stationed in Iraq. He even looks the part: "olive-skinned, black-haired and eyed, lean and very hard of physique." Martin's mission earns him martyrdom, but only after all kinds of derring-do involving a ship called The Countess of Richmond, characters screaming "Eject, eject!" and a cameo appearance by John Negroponte. Gun-club porn--packed with stodgily accurate descriptions of weapons and acronymic slang. Hardly subtle, just bang-bang galore. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
In Forsyth's latest novel, British and American intelligence forces learn of an impending al-Qaeda terrorist strike. However, they don't know exactly when or where the strike will take place. Their solution: to have one of their own officers infiltrate the terrorist group, posing as one of its own. It's an inventive story, and Forsyth spins it eloquently and with enough nail-biting suspense to leave readers' fingertips raw. One of the masters of the political thriller, Forsyth writes with a bare-bones, reportorial style that makes his stories feel as realistic as anything one might read in the daily newspaper. He set the standard for political thrillers with 1971's Day of the Jackal, and, although he has myriad competitors today, no one else has managed to make the very flatness of the documentarian's style an effective instrument for generating tension. Forsyth's name doesn't draw a crowd the way it used to, but this one deserves the attention of those who read such modern espionage masters as Daniel Silva. --David Pitt Copyright 2006 Booklist
Library Journal Review
Someone has to infiltrate al Qaeda-if not Taliban commander Izmat Khan, longtime prisoner at the notorious Guant namo Bay prison, then Col. Mike Martin, who will pretend that he's "the Afghan." (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
