I should start with the disclosure that I didn’t read all of Gerald Seymour’s 2017 publication, “Jericho’s War”. About half way through I started to skim. It takes 470 pages, shuttling at head-spinning speed between the stories of several groups of characters. Why does it take 470 pages to tell a story ( British agents in Yemen assassinate a couple of jihadis who are plotting to blow up a passenger plane) that could have been told in detail in less than half that number? One reason is that each time we return to one of the characters, we get a recap of their personality and they recall their back story. This may be entirely true to life, reflecting the way people actually think, but my vote is for less gritty realism in the interest of moving the story along.
Speaking of gritty realism, there’s plenty of graphic violence as people are beaten, shot, and in one instance crucified, and at least one of the “good guys” is a truly nasty character.
After all my efforts to find out what happens in the end, it was left up in the air. The MI6 agent who is more or less the main protagonist may have died in Yemen, or just possibly he survived and is living there to this day. Living out one’s life in a subsistence level village in Yemen might suit some people very well, but since this fellow didn’t seem to be the type, it wouldn’t really be a happy ending.
The Daily Telegraph called Seymour “The best thriller writer in the world.” I’m not convinced
