The best thing you can say about an espionage thriller is to wonder aloud who would play the main character in the movie version of the novel. If you want to see the movie version of a thriller, then you know the book got all the important stuff right. The Deadfall Project is terrific thriller in all of the right places.Complicated leading man who is in it for love of country, fighting to save the world? Check, yeah we got that. Drop dead good-looking female partner? Yeah, we can check that one off too. Interesting international locales? Sure, that too. A plot that is as exciting as piloting a fast car with faulty brakes down a steep mountain pass? Let's check that one off too.So let’s get back to who would play the leading character Grey Stark, a CIA agent put out to pasture in France for a mistake that he made during the Cold War? My money is on Liam Neeson. A few years ago, Harrison Ford might have been an ideal choice, the only choice really, but he never projected the vulnerability necessary to pull off the Grey Stark character. Throughout The Deadfall Project, we find out that Stark’s better days are behind him. Most espionage writers would not have had the guts to create a main character who is, frankly, too old for the job.One of the problems in reading Robert Ludlum or Clive Cussler novels is that the alpha male is just too damn perfect, the kind of guy who could kill a Siberian tiger before breakfast after a long night of drinking and debauchery. John leCarré had it right, depicting ordinary men playing mind games for world domination.leCarré’s trump card in the espionage thriller writer vein has always been his ability to write about the tradecraft, the way spies to the things that they do, the everyday things. Brett James gets all those things right in The Deadfall Project, which makes his characters so much more believable in the multi-continent action more realistic than the cartoonish master spy characters who populate modern movie fare.To be sure, James slips with a few lines and clichés in The Deadfall Project that make you realize that he has a little way to go before matching leCarré at his best, think of the Smiley trilogy. But really, LeCarre was the master that stuff and to even be mentioned in the same sentence as the genre’s acknowledged master is an accomplishment.Since the fall of the Berlin wall, leCarré has stumbled trying to make his writing relevant. What do spy writers do in the absence of a good Cold War? Well for one thing, they could follow James’s lead and try to stop war from breaking out in the Middle East.The beauty of James’s perfectly paced plot is that it's all realistic. No leap of faith is necessary. James has you hooked from the opening chapter and holds your attention until the credits roll at the end. Characters go whizzing by, each well-crafted with back story and motives that make them look people you would encounter in the modern espionage world not super villains. And critically in this genre, James gets the language right. He has a well-stocked cabinet filled with metaphors and similes destined to please. Plus he can turn a phrase, like when he says of one man that working late to him meant answer questions on his way out the door.The only real issue that I have a James's writing is that I want to see the sequel. Suffice it to say I won't accept an offer of a free book to read again. Unless its from a proven author.I also admit I couldn't finish this book. I literally couldn't read another paragraph so loaded with metaphors and similes. I pulled out a paragraph at random that wasn't actually describing anyone or anything and it had 2 metaphors and 3 similes in it. I'm not a writer, but I would much rather see someone who's starting out as a novelist to try and be honest to their own language and their story, rather than fill out 400 pages with poor and unneccesary descriptive writing. Also start with what you know, don't try and depict scenes of people from other cultures if you're going to assume they have your outlook on the world.I'm afraid this isn't at all like LeCarre. For a start, LeCarre is a brilliant writer of prose, and for another he would never devise a plot where the heroes are the imperialists defending the world.Enough said. I hate to write a bad review of a free copy, but I think I've learned my lesson.
What do You think about The Deadfall Project (2009)?
A amazing,well written book! I'd suggest this book to any bookworm out there!
—max4leafclover1180
Good read. Now looking forward to Brett James' second book.
—livres
Great book. Full of excitement and mystery.
—lidija1
