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

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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. If le Carre had written about spies on the front line . . . Seymour makes more than le Carre of treachery's potential impact on frontline personnel. [A] masterly novel - The Sunday Times Ask aficionados who is Britain's finest thriller writer, and many would answer the veteran Gerald Seymour * Guardian on Beyond Recall * A British writer, Gerald Seymour is most famous for describing reality-based, war-time conflict. He is the best-selling author of over 30 thrillers.

Initially a journalist, Gerald joined the Independent Television Network (ITN) in 1963, and forged a successful career. He covered controversial situations such as the Munich Olympics Massacre and Palestinian Militant Groups.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. 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. 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.

How he does it and maintains his forensic knowledge of tradecraft and the inner working of the murky world of spies and traitors I hate to think but it is hard to think of many other writers who can match his overall body of work. GS has produced a book of quality, tenacity and cunning. The ‘hero’ is all manner and levels of many characteristics - too many to list. But, he’s believable, durable and, now, enjoyable. 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 *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... He has never lost his journalist's eye for the stories behind the news * The Sunday Times on The Crocodile Hunter * 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 * An alcoholic, former British Intelligence agent, Jimmy, comes out of retirement to hunt the two of them down and protect the scientist. Lethal, but drunk, he tries to contain inevitable bloodshed. Review It’s the first book I’ve read by Gerald Seymour. I chose the book because I’ve heard so much about his previous writing. Unfortunately, the book left me underwhelmed.

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. 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. 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? These are some of the questions facing MI6 when a Russian agent hands himself in to them in Denmark. 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 AdaptationsI was completely gripped by the plot and interdepartmental jealousies and rivalries. I couldn't put it down!' 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 have found a blurb for a new novel called the Foot Soldiers, due for publication on 31 March 2022.

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. I was completely gripped by the plot and interdepartmental jealousies and rivalries. I couldn’t put it down!’

Publication Order of Jonas Merrick Books

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. 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.