Gerald was not used to living a settled life without constantly boarding planes, but soon produced outstanding novels like Red Fox, The Contract, Kingfisher and Archangel. He has since garnered committed fans who love his spine-tingling thrillers. Simply put: This is vintage GS. I found the first book in the series somewhat ‘difficult’. I can’t clearly say ‘what’, but it wasn’t the usual, the way it’s liked best. 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 story is about counter-intelligence and MI5, which is inherently duller than espionage and MI6 (catching spies is mmore boring than spying), but that was not the problem - the plot was good enough. What I had a hard time to bear with was the protagonist’s characterisation; with the aim of making him look smart and unconventional, the author stretches the protagonist’s habits, customs and idiosyncrasies to such an extreme that he becomes a caricature (almost an OCD type); except that making your dude look like a weirdo does not make him more interesting - to me, at least. By continuing to disguise himself as an idiot, he ends up looking like one. 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.

It’s not necessary to read the previous book to enjoy this one (but I recommend you do as it is just as good), but, inevitably, there are spoilers for it in this book as Jonas’ story continues. This is a wonderfully complex and unputdownable tale of defectors, traitors, internal politics or "high jingo" as Michael Connelly would describe it and assassination both actual and character. 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 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 Glory Boys, published in 1976, was Gerald’s second thriller. It focuses on the ongoing conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians in the Middle East. The novel, which won a nomination for the Edgar Award, begins with three terrorists from the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) on their way to London to kill Israeli nuclear scientist David Sokarev, who is there to give a lecture. Only one member of the group, Abdel-El-Famy, survives a brush with a three-man hit squad sent by Israeli Intelligence to ambush them. But then again, all the characters of the book are mediocre people, bored, tired people just wanting out of whatever they are in; maybe that's the world the author wanted to paint. If so, so be it, but the effect for the reader is certainly not uplifting. I have found a blurb for a new novel called the Foot Soldiers, due for publication on 31 March 2022. But while Jonas’s colleagues regard him as scratchy, fastidious, old, he is also ruthless, cunning and brutally pragmatic. And he has a man on the inside: a would-be money-launderer on that wild Spanish coast. A man who has been undercover for so long, he has almost forgotten who he really is.

I was completely gripped by the plot and interdepartmental jealousies and rivalries. I couldn’t put it down!’Long time readers of Seymour's fabulous secret service novels will remember early books that had sad and depressing endings. When the final chapters became more upbeat I thought somebody must have told Mr. Seymour that he could make the story as dreadfully depressing as he liked but the denouement was to be cheerful or his books would not be published. Also, it was one of the rare times this reader has read a novel and finished it without really liking any of the characters in the story! Yet, even though it was a character driven story, this person still enjoyed the novel immensely. The author , this person thought, was trying to show the grim side of counter-intelligence work (MI5) and the cost it has on their lives. It was through Seymour's powerful writing that he could take a simple storyline and, even with a predictable conclusion, still give the reader a spellbinding story. 4 STARS. There are two main issues with this book. The first is the lead characters are not very likeable. The second is Seymour's current practice of fixating on a motif which comes across as heavy handed in this novel. 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. If he finds out who the mole is, perhaps Igor can be used as a tethered goat to lure the Russian assassins to make another attempt at a time and place of his choosing in Denmark.

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! Seymour produces the most intelligent writing in the thriller genre * Financial Times on Beyond Recall *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... Maybe I'm just burned out on counter terrorism themed thrillers but the Crocodile Hunter is my least favorite Seymour novel that I've read. Not to say it's bad or anything. The novel is certainly above average for the genre but I didn't enjoy it as much as some of his other work. Gerald Seymour has found a good formula for churning out novels almost, it seems, at will. This reader has read many of them over the years and has usually found them current, realistic and well researched. Each are different from one another and on this occasion, this reader thought that even though it was a bit slow in places, the novel itself felt authentic, quite believable with realistic characters and situations. This person thought that he was actually on the bus (in chapter 16) looking over at the park where Jonas and the surveillance team were stationed with Sadie Jilkes badgering the bus driver to stop. Quite an accomplishment by the author.