The Foot Soldiers: A Sunday Times Thriller of the Month (Jonas Merrick series)

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Gerald Seymour is one of my 'go to' thriller writers. You know the writing will be good and often there is a link to his previous career as a journalist. As a sign of respect for the memorable times we spent together I promise to be understanding, I swear. But this wasn’t our best encounter. And, I’m afraid to say it’s all you, not me; I read in the same iPad, on the same armchair as I read all my other books. A boon of Gerald’s novels is that he manages to thrill readers without being unrealistic. Though his fast-paced novels are full of suspense, they are down-to-earth. Gerald uses his experiences to make the ongoing military conflict in the places where he has worked real for his readers. The Glory Boys was another 3-part miniseries produced by Yorkshire television in 1984. It starred Anthony Perkins as Jimmy, the alcoholic ex-British Government agent who tries to protect Israeli Professor David Sokarev, played by Rod Steiger. Aaron Harris starred as IRA agent Cillian McCoy, while Gary Brown took the role of PLO assassin Famy. Critics complimented the competent acting, but did not relish Yorkshire Television’s slow, mediocre adaptation of Gerald’s novel.

I persisted with my reading because memorable times spend together, etc. Also, I could see characters intersecting and the circumstances were intriguing, More so than the characters. The three British masters of suspense, Graham Greene, Eric Ambler, and John le Carre, have been joined by a fourth - Gerald Seymour * New York Times on The Outsiders * The book begins with a Russian Defector handing himself over to MI6 in Denmark and it soon become obvious that the Russians are not only coming for their man but know exactly where he is, with a "Mole" within MI6 being the only explanation.

TV Adaptations

A brilliant, suspenseful and contemporary thriller . . . A wonderfully complex and unputdownable tale of defectors, traitors, internal politics . . . and assassination’ I've made this sound quite simple, but of course it is much more complex and with a second storyline running alongside. At the end of the first chapter, I was a little confused and struggling with all the characters and who everyone was but I know that if I keep reading it will all slot into place. Gerald Seymour is a master storyteller in my opinion and I love the fact that finally, after many years of writing, he has started a series. Keep them coming please! The plot, characters and arc of this story are most excellent. I read it in 3 sittings and it held my attention well. You find yourself rooting for some characters, despising others, and being frustrated at still more of them but; ultimately, they all play their parts perfectly. What you need, in a great tale.

The cast of characters are all top grade. The smallest part to the big players - all walks of life and levels of genius, or not; you invest thought in them, think about what’s happening - brilliant stuff, yes? Seymour produces the most intelligent writing in the thriller genre * Financial Times on Beyond Recall * This is multi-layered spy-fi at its best, with Seymour showing that even after thirty-seven novels he has lost none of his talent for thrilling plots and creating credible and sympathetic characters, nor his journalist's eye for modern espionage tradecraft and techniques * Shots Magazine * The thrilling, yet pragmatic nature of his books continues to draw readers in. The spine-chilling, fictional events he describes, based on his journalistic encounters, are situations readers relate to easily. TV Adaptations

Summary

In Denmark a Russian GRU agent Igor approaches an MI6 officer stationed in the country and says he wants to defect. This is a headache for MI6 as they are not benefiting from any intelligence he would have gathered for them as a double agent. Instead there is suspicion as to if he is a genuine defector or not. This is multi-layered spy-fi at its best, with Seymour showing that even after thirty-seven novels he has lost none of his talent for thrilling plots and creating credible and sympathetic characters, nor his journalist's eye for modern espionage tradecraft and techniques - Shots Magazine Brown’s task is to arrest the assassin, Billy Downes, who is an IRA gunman. By the time Brown arrives in Northern Ireland, Downes has escaped to Belfast. A cleverly nuanced climax in which tables are unexpectedly turned more than once . . . marks this as a novel of real quality. Top brass * The Times * This was a mixed bag for me. One could define The Foot Soldiers as deliciously complex and multilayered, someone else as annoyingly fragmented and disjointed; I found the line between the two a rather fine one. The story follows two very separate and parallel threads, and one presumes they will connect in so e way before the end; except they don't...