I'm a huge DeMille fan, but only thought this one was okay. It started off really jumbled, meaning, a lot of characters got introduced relatively quickly, and a lot of the "spy talk" and double talk made the intent sort of hard to grasp. Although, as you keep reading everything gets easier to understand and the characters easier to keep straight. All in all it was a good spy novel, although the ending kind of fell short to me, but that might be because the middle to end was so action packed the end just kind of felt like a let down. A few notes which may contain minor spoilers but I will do my best not to ruin too much, but if you haven't read it yet, you might want to stop reading my review here....Ok here goes: Thorpe should have met a better end! Abrams was a good character, liked him a lot, but he's no John Corey, I knew we'd see the guy who turned out to be the third Talbot again, just didn't know it would be in that capacity...would love a Talbot Sequel, to see what become of everyone in the aftermath.
Having recently finished DeMille's newest novel, the disappointing Radiant Angel, I thought I would read my 14th DeMille novel and one of his earliest. I had to read, reread, and reread almost half of the 422 pages of The Talbot Odyssey before I could understand exactly what was going on and who each character was. I was definitely confused. Once past the half-way mark, I discovered a typical, DeMille nail-biter!The Talbot Odyssey involves a group of former American OSS agents who are convinced a Russian mole is still active and planning something disastrous for the USA. Each of them thinks perhaps another of them is that mole (Talbot). A young man is asked to join this group to help them find this mysterious mole Talbot. I must say I thoroughly enjoyed the last half of this book. It was full of action, intrigue, and DeMille witicisms! Not as good or satisfying as The Charm School or Lions Game, but still enjoyable.
What do You think about The Talbot Odyssey (1991)?
SUBJECTIVE READER REVIEW FOLLOWS:I just finished reading 'The Talbot Odyssey' for the second time (four years between readings) and was blown away with Nelson DeMille's writing ability. And I'm an author! The storyline for The Talbot Odyssey is totally believable and is entertaining to a fault. I know I originally gave it four stars, based on the other novels in DeMille's catalogue, but it really gets four and a half stars. This is an edge of the seat thriller that combines all of the usual DeMi
—Will
I read the John Corey novels (Plumb Island, The Lion's Game, Night Fall and Wild Fire) first. I enjoyed them so much that I went back and started to read all of DeMille's other novels. Tony Abrams really reminds me of John Corey, with his witty smart-assed comments. The book was a bit uneven. There were parts that dragged, and other parts that I couldn't wait to turn the page. The agent, double agent, triple agent scenarios seemed a bit contrived. I never felt that I was bought in to the motives of why they flipped (sometimes multiple times).
—John
It's funny, rating this. I would describe this book as "OK" but if I give it two stars it would give the wrong impression. This is "OK" for a Nelson DeMille book. But that just means it isn't his best - and, like pizza, even when it's not the best, "It's still pizza man! And who doesn't love pizza? Right?" My point is that Nelson DeMille is awesome and bits of his sarcasm and humor and wit and smarts and sly political statments and laughing at bureaucrats and such are on display here, but not enough. If you want to skip this one to read all his other books, I won't mind. If you're reading through his entire oeuvre, as am I, just know that this story doesn't hold up quite as well as all his others. But it's still fine.
—Linda
