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The reader will find themselves in post Cold War Europe where the Wall has fallen, Europe has changed, new allegiances have been formed and where the German Intelligence service (the BND) has now teamed up with England (MI6) and the US (the CIA). The central figure in the story, James Mason, has been set on assignment to investigate the death of Charlie Foster, but by about half through the book the reader is presented with a drastic change in the story.
Whilst there are a vast array of characters there were actually only a handful of important ones to remember. These were: Mason, Alteri, Maguire and Rosen. In this instalment, Allbeury wished to emphasise the relationship between Mason and Rosen and the conflict that a secret service agent has between the job and being human. Can you do your job properly, while at the same time showing empathy and compassion for innocents (maybe) and people caught in the middle?

Whilst an authentic read, it felt a little tired like the Director- General Sir Peter Crombie. Also, Allbeury didn't present a great deal of knowledge of the high-tech industry that is now used by the intelligence agencies and wasn't convincing that the far-right were, in fact, the new evil of the 21st century. John Le Carre, “Absolute Friends” and "A Most Wanted Man" and the six Joe Herron’s, 'Jackson Lamb' books were all better than this read. Even, Richard Flanagan's,"Short Black 1 The Australian Disease: On the Decline of Love and the Rise of Non-Freedom" which was about many things, but also about the far-right is also worth a read. They were all four to five star reads while this one gets a solid three and a half. This was not bad, though.

Ted Allbeury wrote a staggering 42 novels and used two other pen names ~ Richard Butler and Patrick Kelly as well. Here are 29 other read’s from Allbeury, all rated accordingly:

THE GOOD (Four to Five Stars): 'The Lantern Network', 'A Wilderness of Mirrors', 'A Time Without Shadows' aka 'The Rules of the Game', 'The Only Good German' aka ‘Mission Berlin’, 'The Dangerous Edge', ‘Palomino Blonde’ aka 'Omega- minus','The Lonely Margins', ’The Crossing' aka ‘The Berlin Exchange’, 'Seeds of Treason', 'Other Kinds of Treason', 'Special Forces' aka 'Moscow Quadrille', the feel good, 'The Girl From Addis', 'Pay Any Price' and the rather exceptional, and this person's favourite, 'The Line-Crosser' (published in 1993).

THE AVERAGE (Two or Three Stars): Some other novels that this person thought were either average or only okay were: 'Show Me a Hero', 'No Place to Hide' aka ‘Hostage’, ‘The Reckoning’, ’The Twentieth Day of January’ a.k.a. ‘Cold Tactics’, 'Shadow of Doubt', ‘Deep Purple’ and 'The Long Run'.

THE UGLY (One or two stars): It’s, however, probably best to stay away from: ‘Aid and Comfort’, ‘The Assets' aka “Due Process’, 'The Secret Whispers’, 'The Alpha List', ’Consequences of Fear' aka ‘Smokescreen’ and ’The Spirit of Liberty', 'The Reaper' aka 'The Stalking Angel' and he also wrote, ’The Choice' which is not espionage and this reader thought not a good one. Cheers.