What do You think about Harry's Game (1999)?
Blurb........... A British cabinet minister is gunned down on a London street by an IRA assassin. In the wake of a national outcry, the authorities must find the hitman. But the trail is long cold, the killer gone to ground in Belfast, and they must resort to more unorthodox methods to unearth him. Ill prepared and poorly briefed, undercover agent Harry Brown is sent into the heart of enemy territory to infiltrate the terrorists..But when it is a race against the clock, mistakes are made and corners cut. For Harry Brown, alone in a city of strangers, where an intruder is the subject of immediate gossip and rumour, one false move is enough to leave him fatally isolated....I have recently expanded my scope of fiction reading to encompass the “thriller” and as Gerald Seymour has on occasion been touted as the best thriller writer working today in the UK, why not give him a go?Harry’s Game was his debut novel, first published in the mid-70’s and probably never out of print since.Whilst the politics in Northern Ireland have moved on in the last thirty years, the novel stands the test of time. Seymour offers the reader a perspective from both the Nationalist viewpoint and those involved on the British side, both on the ground locally and those, slightly more remote in government in London.I enjoyed this first venture into Seymour country. He manages to convincingly drive the story forward, conveying a sense of realism and fear for Harry as the other side close in to try to shut him down.Just as well really because I recently bought a 20 strong Seymour book bundle second hand on E-Bay!4 out of 5. Read back in October, 2012http://col2910.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11...
—Col
British Minister Henry Danby is assassinated by IRA gunman Billy Downs on the steps of his home and an international manhunt is set in motion. Factions of the British Ministry under direct order from the Prime Minister send a lone operative, Harry Brown into the heart of the IRA to find and terminate the killer.It's been years since I've read this fast paced and riveting thriller set in the time of "The Troubles". It's stood the test of time.The two main characters are fascinating. Billy Downs who is filled with conviction until the near fatal shooting of an enemy's child tips him over the edge, to Harry Brown a cold, hard and determined man.It's the women of the story who stood out though, Billy's young wife, downtrodden, exhausted and anxious, she knows what the outcome will be for her husband. Harry's wife, who has no idea where her husband is or what he's involved with. It's the burden that these women face that was so well portrayed in this book.It's a "cracker" of a story, thrilling, edgy, fast flowing but also poignant and bittersweet. There are no winners.
—Cphe
Frankly stupendous. Seymour's first novel and it addresses that strangely underrepresented subject in literature, the Troubles in Northern Ireland.It centres around an undercover agent's hunt for an IRA assassin, centred in the heart of Republican areas of West Belfast at the height of the "conflict" in the 1970s. If that premise does not excite you, well heaven help you.Brilliantly evocative of the period, of the world of thousands of British troops, of in effect Martial law imposed on the small, nationalist communities. It creates the strange dynamics between the British government, the army, the RUC, the intelligence services so effortlessly, it is all in there but nothing laboured.Masterly tense, the ending makes you weep. There feels no side to Seymour, it just reads like the truth. As hopefully the Troubles are now maybe a matter for historical record, read this and understand how in our lifetimes a city in a democratic, modern European power can descend into urban guerilla conflict, with 10,000s of military personnel deployed, to little positive effect. The book did it justice. It felt an important work, so rare in a thriller. I would give it 6 stars if I could.
—Henry
