Old Enemies

Starts off a little too dramatically: Two goodies bumped off (literally) in the first couple of chapters. Confession: I had thought there were two Michael Dobbs the elegant and very British House of Cards etc. and then the B grade thriller writer the American Dobbs. No. Michael Dobbs is Anglo-Americ......more

It was difficult to decide whether I liked this book or not. It read well, good pace and a nice turn of phrase. To start with, I didn't warm to Harry, I thought he was a paper-cut-out, James Bond, but it was the introduction of Sean that really put me off. There was so much bad cliche Irish about hi......more

As a novel of its' genre it does have some of the aspects that would make it successful. It has the hero, Harry, a 100% sure-fire war hero, it has a fast pace with something new in every chapter, it has some dastardly foreigners for the reader to dislike. But those attributes are not enough to rate i......more

An easy read but I find it difficult to rate this book. It's written in the usual Michael Dobbs style, and I enjoyed it. However, the characters are a bit too stereotypical and Harry Jones didn't feel convincing as an action hero. Maybe I just prefer the political intrigue that Harry Jones is usuall......more

This is an extremely run-of-the-mill thriller. It starts ludicrously slowly but speeds up (and becomes more interesting) near the end. The dialogue is clunky and the plot is inconsistent (Harry Jones, the hero, is severely beaten up about half way through the book but the incident is barely mentione......more