The assassination plot is the brainchild of the most powerful men in government. It is manned by the most savagely skilled death team money can buy. It is armed with the most advanced weapons and technological systems on earth. It is assembled behind the backs of its own and its allies' intelligence agencies. And it is perfectly calculated to bypass the defenses of its target - President Saddam Hussein. A high-ranking government minister conceives the plan for reasons of state the public must never know. Roger Asher, a flamboyant and shady global financier, takes it over. Sir Peter Dartington, a construction magnate in need of mammoth government contracts, is enlisted to bankroll it. And Ed Howard, a maverick who runs his own super-security organization, accepts the contract and meticulously mobilizes an awesome arsenal and international attack team while working out, in daring detail, a course of action that gives new meaning to this mission impossible. Each step is intricately and ingeniously engineered to from the Highlands of Scotland, where a young deer stalker with a secret motive for murder is recruited for his incredible shooting talent, to the oval office in Washington, where powerful forces are set in motion to derail the plan...from research centers in England, where invaluable esoteric information is gathered, to the plains of Texas, where an American pilot comes aboard...from the Saudi Arabian desert, where a deadly border must somehow be breached, to the most forbidden territory inside Iraq itself...from the most icy and callous conspiratorial minds to the most elemental qualities of courage and endurance. And as the countdown begins on this terrifying master plot to change the course of history, an assassin moves step by step, danger by danger, heartbeat by heartbeat, to the moment when Saddam Hussein moves into the gun sights, and a finger tightens on a trigger.
Το "Σκιά πάνω από τη Βαβυλώνα" είναι το πρώτο μυθιστόρημα του Ντέιβιντ Μέισον (φέτος το βιβλίο κλείνει τα τριάντα του χρόνια!), αλλά αν μου έλεγε κάποιος ότι το έγραψε ο Φρέντερικ Φορσάιθ ή ο Τομ Κλάνσι ή ο Ρόμπερτ Λάντλαμ ή κάποιος άλλος φτασμένος συγγραφέας του είδους, δεν θα μου έκανε καμία εντύπωση. Ναι, το βρήκα πολύ δυνατό, συναρπαστικό, αγωνιώδες και καλογραμμένο για το είδος του, με αρκετά στιβαρή και πειστική πλοκή, και σίγουρα αρκετά ώριμο για ντεμπούτο συγγραφέα. Φυσικά πλέον είναι κάπως ξεπερασμένο, μιας και η ιστορία του διαδραματίζεται λίγο μετά τον Πόλεμο του Κόλπου και έχει να κάνει με τη συνωμοσία για τη δολοφονία του Σαντάμ Χουσεΐν, ενώ όλοι ξέρουμε τι έγινε μέσα στα επόμενα χρόνια στο Ιράκ και τι απέγινε ο Σαντάμ, παρ' όλα αυτά η ιστορία είναι άκρως συναρπαστική και καθηλωτική, με ρεαλιστικές σκηνές δράσης και τεχνικές λεπτομέρειες που δίνουν ένα έξτρα βάθος και μια κάποια πειστικότητα στην όλη στρατιωτική επιχείρηση των πρωταγωνιστών για να φέρουν εις πέρας την αποστολή τους. Λατρεύω τις περιπέτειες τέτοιου είδους και το συγκεκριμένο βιβλίο είναι από τις πολύ καλές που έχω διαβάσει, αν και φυσικά έχει και τις αδυναμίες του (π.χ. στην ανάπτυξη των χαρακτήρων). Γενικά, πέρασα τέλεια διαβάζοντάς το!
When you have an entire day to immerse yourself in a thriller par excellence, go for this book. Written with deep research and well established characters, every page pulls you deeper till the exciting satisfying end.
Really well written, with the different pieces fitting well together. Interesting plot as well. The only reason for not receiving a full rating was because some of the parts were too 'lucky' in my view
I had listened to this as a book on cassette maybe 25 years ago....long enough ago that it was like I was reading it for the first time. Well written with good character development. Enough minutia was included to help you understand things without being so detailed that it bogged you down.
This book was pretty good. There were some parts I thought were better written than others. it was interesting to see how all the different parts came together to complete the mission. I really enjoyed them putting the team together, going on the mission, but after that it seemed harder to believe. Of course part of that could be because it was written in 1992 or so and technology has really moved way beyond where it was back then.
I have read this book twice (once I read a book, generally I can reread it again after 2/3 years). Although events have made the main target in the book irrelevant, it is still a damn fine read. Good plot, character build-up and a great yarn that kept me interested right through.
An excellent book about a assassination attempt during the gulf war, very well written it keeps the pages flying. I first read this book in the 1990's and have just ordered a copy from Amazon because I want to re read it.