The Cobra - Softcover

Forsyth, Frederick

3.77

10,156 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0552162604 ISBN 13: 9780552162609

Publisher: Corgi, 2011

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A WAR WITHOUT END

Cocaine is worth billions of dollars a year to the drug cartels who spread their evil seed across Western society. It causes incalculable misery, poverty and death. And slowly, gradually, its power is spreading...

A MAN ON A MISSION

Ex-CIA special ops, Paul Devereux, intellectual, dedicated and utterly ruthless, is given what seems like an impossible task: Stop the drug barons, whatever it costs. At his disposal, anything he wants - men, resources, money. He must assemble a team equal to the lawless men who control this deadly trade.

AN UNTHINKABLE SOLUTION

Up to now the drug cartels have had it their way. Up to now, the forces of law and order have played by the rules. That is about to change. Those rules no longer apply - and a dirty war is about to get a whole lot dirtier...

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Review:

Writers such as Lee Child may be brand names these days, but the name of Frederick Forsyth is something special in terms of conveying a certain kind of thriller to the reader. The technical brilliance of his debut The Day of the Jackal (with its forensically researched documentary style) virtually changed the face of the modern thriller, and its follow-up, the almost equally compelling The Odessa File (dealing with the still all-too-current themes of the Arab-Israeli conflict and chemical weapons), demonstrated that Forsyth had forged a very individual style. Subsequently, The Dogs of War utilised the author’s own African experiences, and his take on the ruthlessness of mercenaries and the corrupt states that employed them made for some blistering reading – that book was topical at the time, and has remained so. Frederick Forsyth admirers are aware that he can’t attain Olympian heights with every trip to the post, but know that he is always worth our attention.

As is the case with his new book, The Cobra, a globe-trotting thriller that evokes memories of the author's vintage work. Cultivated ex-CIA man Paul Devereux is handed a tough assignment: write finis to the lethal activities of the worst of the drug barons, and inflict damage on an industry that is worth billions per annum. He is given unlimited resources: money, weapons and manpower, and his ace-in-the-hole is the tough Calvin Dexter, who becomes executive officer of the new Project Cobra. It’s a highly dangerous business for everyone involved, and the team Devereux puts together is obliged to match in ruthlessness their pitiless drug-dealing opponents.

With the customary massive panoply we expect from him, Forsyth reminds us how this kind of thriller should be delivered. --Barry Forshaw

Review:

"The Cobra creates a vividly cinematic picture of the worldwide cocaine trade. Forsyth has recharged his batteries, producing his most ambitious novel in years by reproducing the minutely organised detail of his most famous book." (Barry Forshaw Daily Express)

"As ever with Forsyth, there is an impressive command of armed weaponry as well as an utterly believable story that moves along at a breakneck pace...Extraordinarily impressive." (Daily Mail)

"This new blockbuster from one of the world's sharpest authors is everything a modern thriller should be and more!" (Bury Free Press)

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