Library's review
This is the first book written by someone (Peter James) whom I'd never heard of but who apparently has written a metric ton of crime and suspense novels, many of them quite successful. Or, as his homepage declares: "International Bestselling Thriller Writer".
Dead Letter Drop wasn't terrible but it
Still, the writing isn't terrible and the plot certainly keeps moving. I might be inclined to sample another James book, if only to try to catch a glimpse of what made him an international bestseller. The one thing I know for sure is this one wasn't it.
Dead Letter Drop wasn't terrible but it
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was pretty clearly a first novel. It's a spy yarn featuring a British MI-5 (or is it 6? I can never keep them straight) agent operating in New York City, who has to figure out who is trying to kill him and why before they succeed. It was written around 1980, so the bad guys are Russians, of course (although I suppose that particular trope is coming back into vogue these days). Overall, it's pretty sloppy with regards to details, leaving me to wonder if Mr. James had ever actually visited New York City before writing it. He sends one potential assassin out to sea in a rowboat off Fire Island (which is the south shore of Long Island) and writes that his next landfall would be Nantucket. Which, no; Nantucket is north of New York. Another gaffe concerns the hero walking into a convenience store in Boston in the middle of a late November snowstorm and watching a baseball game on the television behind the counter. Yeah, no. And the timeline in general is wonky all to hell and back: the book opens the week before Thanksgiving and even though no more than a few days seem to pass before the book ends it's already Christmas. Just weird.Still, the writing isn't terrible and the plot certainly keeps moving. I might be inclined to sample another James book, if only to try to catch a glimpse of what made him an international bestseller. The one thing I know for sure is this one wasn't it.
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Max Flynn, undercover agent, has the unenviable job of spying on his own side. When to kill, who to kill, whether to kill are all questions which have to be answered at great speed if he wants to stay alive. But why does an innocuous airline ticket No. 14B matter so much? Who has gone to the trouble of committing suicide? And could Flynn's beautiful companion be a spy? The hazy, murky world of counter espionage leaves no room for errors of judgement and Flynn knows he's finished if he makes one false move.
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English