Book Look - #19

ICON by Frederick Forsyth

Plot: A President nominee of Soviet who enjoys a dream pre-poll run has dreadful plans for his fellow country men to be executed after his successful run to the presidential office. But, his secret 'Black Manifesto' is taken by a cleaner and sent to the UK Embassy who realise its seriousness and put a word to the USA. A former US agent and a British SIS man combine to get back into Soviet with the dreaded manifesto and convince responsible high-powered men in the country to ensure loss to the otherwise predictable winner - the author of the manifesto.

Highlights:

• The style adopted or the book-play is engrossing. It shuttles back and forth between the 1980s and the 1990s and relates a person from the 80s to the events set in the 90s. The 80s part is more of an Soviet Information provider and the 90s part is what constitutes the real fiction.
• Jason Monk is a splendidly characterised gutsy hero and the fraud acts adopted by UK,USA agencies wrt Russia as explained are interesting. So is the meticulously planned disintegration of the President Nominee's reputation.
• The butterfly effect shown is not to be missed. A bottle of beer somewhere sometime leads to the downfall of a psychotic leader and the rescual of Russia!
• The theatrical finish that it has is only apt to this terrific tale!

Engrossing stuff; The best of all Forsyth I've read.