Aaron Fletcher is a writer I know nothing about. My internet
searching determined he is an unknown quantity in the ether-sphere, too. I know
his name is on the cover of the successful Outback
historical series and he wrote a few suspense novels in the 1960s and 1970s,
but otherwise…nothing.
Frank Keeler is a British MI-6 agent, cast in a broken
mold of James Bond, with a history of getting the job done. Fresh on the heels
of a successful mission in Cairo, Keeler is tasked with disposing of a Nazi plot
to kill Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Josef Stalin at a secret
summit set for Tehran in 1943. An assignment that is anything but easy since Keeler
has to deal with the German spy apparatus, Abwehr, the Soviets, a German
Brandenburg detachment led by a hate-filled and industrious Polish officer, and
at least two beautiful women. One married, the other a former prisoner in a Russian
gulag. It isn’t easy, but Keeler makes it look like another day at the office.
Project Jael is an enjoyable, overly long World War Two
thriller, with a smoothly executed and easy to read style without many
surprises or anything to raise it above the standard. An original paperback published
by Leisure Books in 1985, it is a comfortable yarn that blends Jack Higgins’ The Eagle Has Landed and Ken Follett’s The Key to Rebecca without the
originality of either. The Tehran setting is nicely rendered and the competitive
nature of the intelligence services, especially between the British / American
and the Soviets, is neatly detailed. An entertaining diversion, but not one
that you should spend much effort seeking out.
2 comments:
This is definitely my kind of novel. Thanks for the review, Ben.
Sounds like something I would like, too, Ben. I'd not heard of Fletcher, either. And welcome to the FFB crowd!
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