The Cobra

I was disappointed by the author's previous book, The Afgan, which I felt was inferior in plotting to his many excellent thrillers that I've enjoyed in the past. The Cobra has more in common with the latter, though the theme is very different. In past books the quarry has usually been a political figure or regime, whereas in this book the adversary is the cocaine drugs trade based in Columbia. As with other books by the author there's a lot of detail about aircraft, guns, bombs and admiring references to the SAS and its US equivalent. Women hardly figure: it's real 'boys own stuff', yet, surprisingly, as a woman I enjoy these books. The technological detail gives a sense of authenticity and usually it's not so overdone as to be boring.
It's an intriguing story that starts in the present day, with obvious references to President Obama and PM David Cameron, though they are never mentioned, and carries on into the future for a couple of years. A retired spy is coaxed out of retirement and given leave, and an enormous budget, to create an audacious plan to destroy the network of the cocaine trade fanning out from South America into the USA and Europe. Real and fictitious characters are interwoven in this pacy thriller with some surprises along the way that I won't spoil by describing. The author has obviously done a great deal of research into the drugs trade and it is a chilling story of corruption, vicious violence fueled by the gigantic profits to be made between the crop in the jungle to the streets of the West.
It's interesting how the fall of Communism has caused the likes of Forsyth and Le Carre to find other adversaries for their 'heros' to tackle.

What a fabulous book typical of Frederick Forsyth that will keep you listening to the end. Full of fascinating twists and turns it will give you an insight into the cocaine trade. I would think the information on how cocaine is processed would put you off the drug for life. Thoroughly recommended.

A thriller with a plot that could be a solution to many of today's ills. However, the narrator's lack of education regarding foreign language pronunciation and the misplacing of letters in foreign words really spoils the credibility of the author's knowledge. This narrator should only be given American stories and stay well clear of international novels. Infuriating for anyone with even a basic knowledge of Spanish, Italian or Portugese!

A reasonable book, not really a page turner and the value is in the mystery rather than the quality of the writing so it's not a book I'll listen to a second time. The Jack Reacher books for example I do listen to multiple times.

Excellent new book form Forsyth. He still tends to list events in a long stream, one event after another with not enough narrative. But it is a great story and well worth the 'read'.
The character of the Cobra is very reminiscent of Le Carre and you could just see Smiley doing something similar !

I chose this from the write ups and thoroughly enjoyed it. Not read any of his books before so wasn't ready for the twist at the end. Easy listening and would recommend.

I'm actually working my way through all of Forsyth's books, and didn't know this features a couple of previous characters (from the Avenger story), you can listen to it without having prior knowledge as i did.

Its well written as you would expect, however i felt that all the parts did not fit together as well as they have in some of his other stories. I would recommend The Devil's Alternative over this . its a better story and the David Rintoul is great as a story teller.

Entertaining Book special stuff about the drug trade. I would recommend it to those how are interested about how american government is fighting drug trafficking in to the US.

the book could have been half the length, constant successes against the baddies repeated over and over again, with the expected twist in the tail ending. Did not really like the narration much, the voice was rather monotone. Agreed with another reviews regarding pronunciation of words in other languages, surely that is so easy to rectify.

Well narrated and an excellent story. It's a little different to many books in that it's doesn't hinge on a main character.
It seems very plausible and seems really well researched.
Perfect to listen to on the commute to work.
This book would probably appeal more to men I think, because there's a lot of geeky description of guns, airplanes etc.