The Cobra - Frederick Forsyth

A new Forsyth thriller -- I was delighted! However, this solution to the cocaine problem, using one ingenious, ruthless man to mastermind the whole project (carte blanche, no holds barred) didn't turn out so well as the author intended. Essentially, it was good guys against bad guys, and no character development of anyone in the story. (The amoral leaders of both sides were purportedly devout Catholics. Did Forsyth run afoul of a nun or cleric at one time? Sounded like he had an axe to grind.)

The first two thirds of the story was finely tuned plotting, so I could hardly wait to see where it all was going to go.

The last third of the story just fell apart. No telling where or how the solutions developed, so it lacked coherence. Maybe I was reading too fast or something. I would go back and read it over again to see what I missed, but it wasn't that good.

The best part was just at the beginning, the ten-thousand word summary of the cocaine business -- that was informative.

My favorite books by this author were "The Fist of God," "The Day of the Jackal," and "The Eye of the Needle," all way much better storytelling than The Cobra.