First of all, I want to mention that this is my 500th blog post here on WordPress. That’s a lot. Thanks to all of you who have been reading me all this time. I guess I’ll continue on. Next….

The Veteran by Frederick Forsyth

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Veteran is a book of five longish short stories by Forsyth, some of which are quite good, some of which are less so. Nearly all of them have somewhat surprising plot twists toward the end which give the reader a pretty good jolt.

The first story, “The Veteran,” is about the murder of an unidentified old man by two young thugs. The police search everywhere for his identity, but to no avail. Then, to everyone’s surprise, the best defense lawyer in London takes these thugs on and wins their case. Then … plot twist.

The second story, “The Art of the Matter,” is a delightful and heavily researched story on the art world and how a young art professional at an auction house gets royally screwed by a big wig there and his story of ultimate revenge. It’s pretty sweet.

The third story, “The Miracle,” is about an American tourist couple in Italy who happen upon an Italian of German origin in a town there who tells them a miraculous story, only to have, ta dah, a plot twist at the end. *** SPOILER ALERT *** I don’t view this story as plausible after thinking about it though. To think that this man and his accomplice could set up their scam in a specific courtyard out of the way in this town and just expect suckers, like these tourists, to happen along and listen to a lengthy tale, only to give up their cash, is beyond belief. Just not realistic.

The fourth story, “The Citizen,” is about drug running, with a mega plot twist at the end.

The final story, “Whispering Wind,” is the one everyone raves about. Everyone seems to love it. I hated it. I couldn’t stand it. It’s novella length and I just couldn’t finish the final 50 pages. I gave up. I was so bored. The story is about the life of the only white man to survive Custer’s last stand, and you would think, interesting premise, right, especially as written by an upper class Englishman. But Custer hardly appears in this story and it turns into a fantasy story, and I hardly view Forsyth as a master of fantasy. Stick to the spy/thriller genre, Mr. Forsyth. Please. I hated this story.

All of this said, it’s a pretty solid book and if you’re a fan, you must read it. If you’ve never read any of his work, this really isn’t representative of most of his work, but it’s not bad. Somewhat recommended.

View all my reviews