Review: Spycatcher

Summary: Matthew Dunn spent years as an MI6 field operative working on some of the West’s most clandestine missions. He recruited and ran agents, planned and participated in special operations, and operated deep undercover throughout the world. In Spycatcher he draws on this fascinating experience to breathe urgent, dynamic new life into the contemporary spy novel. 

Featuring deft and daring superspy Will Cochrane, Dunn paints a nerve-jangling, bracingly authentic picture of today’s secret world. It is a place where trust is precious and betrayal is cheap—and where violent death is the reward for being outplayed by your enemy. 

Will Cochrane, the CIA’s and MI6’s most prized asset and deadliest weapon, has known little outside this world since childhood. And he’s never been outplayed. So far . . . 

Will’s controllers task him with finding and neutralizing one of today’s most wanted terrorist masterminds, a man believed to be an Iranian Revolutionary Guard general. Intending to use someone from the man’s past to flush him out of the shadows, Will believes he has the perfect plan, but he soon discovers, in a frantic chase from the capitals of Europe to New York City, that his adversary has more surprises in store and is much more treacherous than anyone he has ever faced—and survived—up to now. -- William Morrow

Booking Pap Pap has been doing a lot of reading lately (especially after his trip to the beach in August) and he has read some fantastic books. One that he really enjoyed was SPYCATCHER by Matthew Dunn. SPYCATCHER is a contemporary espionage novel and, if I'm being entirely honest, I'm not sure I would appreciate it. However, my father definitely did. Here are his thoughts:

SPYCATCHER is a typical spy thriller except for one thing – first time author Matthew Dunn was actually a real British M16 field officer and his experiences add a real-life aspect to the story.

The main character in SPYCATCHER is Will Cochrane, the ultimate M16 agent. Cochrane is known as Sparta, M16’s special weapon. His skills are so unique that only one agent can carry the Sparta name. To make matters more interesting Cochrane is somewhat of a maverick and a large headache to his handlers. Cochrane reminded me of James Bond without the smoothness.

Cochrane is teamed up with a CIA Special Ops unit to track down the world’s most wanted terrorist, Magiddo, an Islamic Revolutionary Guard officer who’s planning a major attack against the West. Cochrane’s plan is to use a beautiful woman from Magiddo’s past to lure him into a trap. Of course, Cochrane becomes attracted to the woman. Cochrane quickly finds that Magiddo is a formidable adversary that leads him on a chase through several European capitals to New York City where the story ends in dramatic fashion. To add more intrigue to the novel, the hunt becomes personal for Cochrane when he discovers that Magiddo was responsible for an agent’s death many years ago that resulted in a very tragic time for a young Will Cochrane.

SPYCATCHER has all the elements of a good spy thriller including exotic locations, a beautiful woman, shadowy cloak and dagger spies, fast paced action, an obvious villain, several plot twists and plenty of brutality for the reader that likes that feature of a spy thriller. Dunn takes a refreshing approach to his Islamic terrorist, now the standard “bad guys” in the latest thriller novels. He identifies them as such and then avoids constantly telling the reader about their religious and political beliefs. One unrealistic element of an otherwise realistic book is that Cochran continually suffers seemingly life-threatening injuries only to return to the chase after a short recovery period.

If you like an easy to read, action packed spy thriller with a surprise ending then I think you will enjoy SPYCATCHER. This is a very good first effort by Matthew Dunn.

Thanks to the publisher for sending a copy of this novel and to Booking Pap Pap for his review.