Review by Booklist Review
Why was Saddam Hussein so confident in the face of U.S. and UN military might? Did he perhaps have a secret weapon to unleash on the armies defending Kuwait? Espionage-master Forsyth (The Day of the Jackal) raises such questions in his intriguing new novel, in which Saddam (who appears throughout at meetings of his Cabinet) does not seem to mind if thousands of his people are killed in battle. He's banking on the American and British traditional abhorrence of casualties. British brothers Mike and Terry Martin are experts in spying, and since Mike can easily pass for an Arab, he goes undercover, first into Kuwait, and then, in a particularly bold move, into Baghdad itself. Terry handles the organization of an elaborate mission to find Saddam's secret weapon, dubbed the fist of God. The information about the weapon comes to them from Jericho, a highly connected source in Saddam's inner circle. Meanwhile, a dowdy Viennese bank secretary is wined and dined by an Israeli spy posing as an Arabic student in order to get at her boss' vital information and cash. As usual, Forsyth's research is impeccable; his characters, though thinly drawn (Mike Martin is something of a superman), are winning; his cameos of world leaders such as Bush, Thatcher, Schwarzkopf, Gorbachev, and Saddam himself help put the behind-the-scenes war in context; and Forsyth's ending, despite the obvious coalition victory, still offers a spectacular surprise. (Reviewed Mar. 1, 1994)0553091263Joe Collins
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
The Gulf War is the setting of Forsyth's brilliantly plotted ``what if'' thriller in which historical facts are turned into gripping fiction. Hero Mike Martin is a British Special Forces agent sent to Kuwait after the Iraqi invasion to assess the situation and build a resistance movement. When the British discover the existence of Saddam Hussein's double agent, Jericho, who had been feeding information to Israel, Martin is smuggled into Baghdad to contact Jericho and learn about Saddam's battle plans. What Martin finds out is that Saddam has a doomsday weapon he is planning to use against the Coalition Allies when they launch Operation Desert Storm, information that propels the book to an explosive climax. And this is just the main plot line of Forsyth's detailed, epic-length story, which begins with the killing of a gun merchant in Brussels and eventually includes such real-life characters as George Bush and Norman Schwarzkopf. It's the mark of master Forsyth ( The Odessa File ) that characters and background information are introduced so cleanly and precisely that impossibly complex events are never confusing, and the story develops its grip so surely it's almost impossible to put the book down. This one has bestseller plastered all over it. BOMC main selection. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
In yet another espionage thriller from the best-selling author of The Fourth Protocol (Viking, 1984), the good guys are out to prevent Saddam Hussein from using a most powerful weapon. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Readers who are intrigued by behind-the-scenes machinations of the Gulf War can eavesdrop on the major players as well as some fictional creations in this workmanlike thriller from the author of The Day of the Jackal (1971) and The Odessa File (1972). Saddam Hussein has invaded Kuwait, and the British send Mike Martin of the elite Special Air Services into deep cover in Kuwait City on an intelligence-gathering mission. Martin speaks fluent Arabic and, with his dark hair and eyes, easily carries off his disguise as a poor Bedouin. With aplomb, he establishes a network of informers and molds young Kuwaiti resistance fighters into a fearsome terrorist unit. But the Allies need the kind of information they can get from only one source--the long-untapped Iraqi mole, code-named Jericho, who is one of Saddam Hussein's inner circle. The British recall Martin and assign him to Baghdad for the dangerous job of reestablishing contact with Jericho. All goes well until Jericho comes up with a nugget of information so unlikely that the Allies think they are being duped and order Martin to close down the operation. From there, the pace quickens as the Allies belatedly discover the truth of the intelligence--and realize their desperate need to act on it. The novel ends in a blaze of top-notch military action, finely wrought descriptions of the gadgetry of destruction, and a twisty revelation of Jericho's identity. Despite some lingering loose ends and a trail of extraneous coincidence, The Fist of God--with its mix of secret war councils, confidential memos, super sleuthing, and military fireworks--should satisfy die-hard fans of espionage yarns. (Book-of-the-Month Club main selection)
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
