Stephen Coonts' Traitor

Book review
Coonts, Stephen 2006, Traitor, (London: Orion Books)

Tangle within tangle, plot and counter-plot, rue and treachery, cross and double-cross, true agent, false agent, double agent, gold and steel, the bomb, the dagger and the firing party, were interwoven in many a texture so intricate and yet true. The Chief and High Officers of the Secret Service reveled in these subterranean labyrinths, and pursued their task with cold and silent passion.

This quotation by Sir Winston S. Churchill aptly described Stephen Coonts’ latest spy thriller, Traitor.

The plot is about an Al-Queda attempt to blow up the government leaders attending a G-8 summit in Paris. Jake Grafton has moved up from being a top gun pilot in Flight of the Intruder. He is now a retired admiral and on the payroll of the CIA.

Jake is the new CIA head of European Ops. The CIA suspected the Direction Generale de la Securite Exterieure (DGSE) i.e. French Intelligence has a mole in the top Al-Qaeda leadership and they wanted to have access to this person. So Grafton was sent to Paris and he took along Tommy Carmellini, a CIA ‘fix it’ man along. Carmellini was involved with Grafton in previous Coonts novels when he was an admiral in the navy.

There are enough twist in the plots and subplots to keep the reader’s head spinning. After a couple of break-ins, bugging and surveillances and a trail of bodies, it was revealed that the spy handler had became the ‘handlee’; there was a reversal of roles. Of course, the plot failed.

The novel was packed with action and fast moving enough to keep the reader interested. However Coonts’ characters were rather 2 dimensional. It would be interesting to have more depth to the character of the Al-Qaeda double agent and his DGSE handler. The Islamist terrorists came across as rather stereotyped. It will nice to be allowed to have a glimpse into the mind of these Jihadists. Why do they do what they do? Why the disregard for innocent lives? Why is their faith so strong that they are willing to strap explosives to their bodies and blow themselves up? How do they develop such a faith?

No spy thriller will be complete without its array of technological gadgets. Here, there are the usual audio and video surveillance bugs, computers code breakers and Interlink. Interlink –S is a US government internet network that contains classified information and Interlink-C is the internet network where the US, Britain, Australia and Canada shared intelligence. The best gadget in my opinion is a wireless Taser. This gadget is like a pistol. Instead of shooting a bullet, it shoots a laser beam to mark the target and then a few thousand watts of electricity ride along the beam of light to fried the target!

As usual, Stephen Coonts delivers a good spy thriller and a pleasant way to spend an afternoon.