What do You think about Spy Line (1997)?
As utterly atrocious as this book's predecessor, Sky Hook, was -- and it was horrible -- this book is a serious improvement on it. The last book left the reader with all sorts of unanswered questions and was obviously written for the sole purpose of getting readers to buy the sequel, which really pissed me off. So I bought the sequel, which pissed me off even more, and a lot of these questions were finally answered. British spy Bernard Samson is back and remains largely clueless about so much. He's still obsessed with his wife, Fiona, and her defection to the KGB and misses her a lot, even though he's got a great new girlfriend in Gloria, who is hot, young (at 22, half his age), smart, loves him and his kids, dotes on him, is good at parties, etc. He's an idiot. The book generally starts with him being on the run from the Service, who has set him up, but he later comes in and returns to work, only to be sent to an Austrian stamp collecting auction. Yep. And there's a murder. Yep. Weird. Later, he's taken through the Iron Curtain, where he meets Fiona for the first time in a long time and she tells him she's still working for the Service and is about to come back out of Russia, back to Britain. This leaves him in a quandary. Still, later his boss and Fiona's sister go to Berlin and insist he go with them to act as a cover for their affair. While there, he's supposed to bring someone out of Russia and he realizes it's Fiona. There's a gunfight, and I never figured out why. Totally arbitrary. Then there's the reappearance of Bret from the previous book. Annoying prick. At least Samson's dry wit is on display here, something which was lacking in the previous book. This is the fifth book in what is either a six or nine book series. As okay as this book was, I don't think I'll pick up the next book. I'm thoroughly unimpressed with this author and I think I'll stick with Forsyth for my spy books. Not really recommended, and certainly not as a stand alone book.
—Scott Holstad
The second book in the second Bernard Samson trilogy, in which Samson manages to get out of the trouble he got into in Spy Hook, and is sent to Vienna to pick up a package from a stamp auction. As usual, what is supposed to be a straightforward assignment turns out to be far more complicated – in this case, to the point of taking one of the central points of the series storyline and turning it completely on its head. This installment really delivers the goods as a spy yarn, to include some genuine surprises and an exciting ending, albeit one that raises more questions for the next installment, which I’m looking forward to reading.
—John Defrog
Spy Line is the fifth of the nine book set featuring Bernard Samson. Various loose ends which hung prominently in view in Spy Hook were tied up in a most dramatic manner in this book.Bernard proves again that he is the coolest man on the planet, and despite the fact that he says he is afraid at times, we don't really believe it. This book reveals some of the Le Carre like twists and turns of the plot, and London Central proves to be even more Machiavellian in its thinking than either Bernard or we, the readers, believed possible.
—Victor Gibson
