The Oktober Projekt [Kindle Edition]

god this author loves the sound of his own voice. he could function as the new dickens taking three pages to describe a ten minute car ride. every motion cataloged analysed and explained as if the reader was too dim to understand. not reccomended.

I almost passed this over, based on the solitary negative review. But the "Look Inside" feature persuaded me to take the risk. My first discovery was exceptionally professional writing, and a hook that compelled me to push the button and buy the book. This is indeed the thinking person's spy story. The plot is indeed intricate, and were it a bit less populated with subplots, the story would be smoother. I also found Dillon's strange use of punctuation distracting, but not enough to cause me to lower the rating. His imagery is outstanding. Nick, the protagonist, is a hero not without flaws. But he knows his weaknesses. What starts out as a mole hunt and a search for evidence of a secret Russian project that did not end with the end of the cold war becomes much more personal to Nick when his estranged wife becomes a pawn in the intrique. And there is, of course, a twist at the end. But Dillon scatters enough clues to avoid creating a story with an ending that does not fit. This is not, however, a book for the reader who likes his action figures rough and rugged. Nick is not a one man Seal Team,and he is not Mitch Rapp. But he is a better than average British intelligence operative who does not let the politics that thwart him drag him down. This is a relatively lengthy book and there are a couple of places where it drags, but the crisp dialogue, the distinct characterizations and the sensible division of the chapters brings the reader back on track. I may reread this just to clarify some obscurities in the plot. Overall, I rate this book better than a four and not quite a full fledged five. I will buy other books by this author.

I can't remember when I last didn't finish a book as I usually wade through a spy book until the end in hopes that it will eventually all come together. However, The Oktober Projekt totally lost me about half way through. I persevered in my usual fashion, but have to say I felt the author was just trying too hard to write a spy book because there was plot after plot which had no meaning, people came and went for no reason and nothing was getting tied together or coming to a point. Mr. Dillon did have some wonderful flourishes in his descriptive passages which proved he is a good writer, but they went on and on and then we went back to our boring plot. It was almost as though he wrote these wonderful passages separately and then decided to hook them together for a spy book. You never felt connected to the "hero" either and wondered all the way through as to whether he was 'good' or 'bad'; or what he was trying to do; or in what country he was doing it for. Altogether a disappointing read.