Framing the Dialogue

Posts Tagged ‘intrigue’

A Game of Thrones

I am not sure how I missed this book for almost fifteen years because this is the type of book that I lived no growing up.  I’ll chalk it up to having seven, five, and two year old children. A Game of Thrones is in the genre of Lord of the Rings, Chronicles of Narnia and perhaps most closely to The Once and Future King by T.H. White.  Knights and valor abound with evil queens and betrayal.  George R. R. Martin has created a masterful world where the game of thrones is played with real men, real thrones, real blood, and real intrigue.

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Spycatcher

In his debut thriller, Matthew Dunn introduces us to Will Cochrane an elite MI6 operative code named Spartan.  Dunn is a former MI6 field officer himself so that gives him some credibility regarding the spy game and his first novel was thrilling though not quite up there with Daniel Silva and Brad Thor yet.  The action is there, the intrigue is there, and he has developed a very good hero in the vein of Scot Harvath and Gabriel Allon.  I think the title of the book, Spycatcher, is a little misleading though since the book is more about trying to stop a terrorist plot though spies are involved. What I like about the Will Cochrane character is that he is different than the more well known characters mentioned above. He is similar in his determination and skill, but he is different.

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Spy Catcher

The book’s inscription says “One of my gifts, January 14, 1989.”  The gift was given a year or so after Spy Catcher was first published and I found it on a shelf at the End Of The Line bookstore (a charity bookstore in a train car).  The selection is vast, but is hit or miss as far as any particular book.  I have found some rather unusual and old books.  Spy Catcher caught my eye and I thought it was a novel about the world of espionage.  Had I paid attention to the cover I would have noted that it was subtitled “The candid autobiography of a senior Intelligence Officer.”  Author Peter Wright was indeed a “spy catcher” or perhaps more accurately a spy suspecter. 

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Separation of Power

Separaton of PowerI just cannot get enough of Vince Flynn to satisfy my thirst for “edge of my seat,” thrilling action.  Flynn combines Washington backstabbing (AKA politics) with a world-wide crisis in which most of the world is unaware to keep us up far into the early morning reading.  In my case I was awake until after 2:00 AM reading Separation of Powerstarring CIA operative Mitch Rapp. 

There is a strong connection between this book and Flynn’s previous novel, The Third Option as Rapp works to find out who tried to have him killed.  The intrigue reaches the top of American and foreign governments while the President wrestles with the confirmation of a new CIA director and the fact that Saddam Hussein is close to having three nuclear weapons. 

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