Act of Betrayal: A Will Cochrane Novel by Matthew Dunn (William Morrow,
2017, 320 Pages, $18.35/12.99) is a spy thriller from the macho, uber
male, perspective of super-spy Will Cochrane, who, for reasons I
can't understand, has reached the seventh volume of an apparently
popular series. After reading the first few chapters of this book, I
decided it wasn't for me. I don't generally read thrillers heavy on
the U.S. spy system, special forces, or other gung-ho, macho
adventures featuring shooters, shooting, and graphic violence.
Nevertheless, I asked myself, why don't you consider continuing to
read, mostly in order to affirm your preconceived ideas about this
kind of novel. Surprise! While still not finished and having reached
the "desire to see how this all works out" stage, I started
to became really engaged by the ambivalence and complexity of this
novel, so that around 25%, the beginning of Chapter 11, into the
book, I decided to stay to the end. However, by the time I finished, I was sorry to have given so much time and credability to
a world view I abhor.
Act of Betrayal is filled with
action, lots of heroics, and, particularly lots of spy, CIA, and FBI
talk. Also, featuring unlikely heroics, and an increasingly awkward
convoluted plot that becomes too garbled with
characters and too violent to approach plausibility, the novel begins
to drag. Never having read a novel focused on this particular
audience before, I wished better to understand the appeal beyond the
action. It seems to engage the orientation towards conspiracy,
admiration for doomed assassins working for “truth” and willing
to use huge amounts of violence to achieve it. Also, the character of
Will Cochrane stands beyond any sort of verisimilitude. Alliances
extend to men (and women) of achievement beyond reasonable alliances,
as a secret power within the CIA, a former Israeli agent, and a Russian,
combine their efforts to stop the villain(s). The evil encountered
rises all the way to the oval office.
The story opens
as Will Cochrane, the finest shot of any assassin in the world,
undertakes, successfully, to shoot at 3000 yards,a mysterious, but certainly evil,
uber spy traveling along the autobahn at high speed.
Of course, his head shot obliterates with one shot the man identified to him, and then he disappears. Three years later he appears to
have committed suicide by jumping off the Brooklyn Bridge after
having murdered a number of “innocent” people. The top agents of
both the FBI and the CIA have long since stopped seeking him, until
certain familiar habits begin to re-assert themselves, and it becomes
obvious that Cochrane is, indeed, alive and back at work. There
follow 300 pages of twists and turns as Cochrane seeks to set matters
right with little concern for his own life, committed to exposing the
“truth.”
In the world of
Act of Betrayal the ends always justify the means, even when
they include the violent death of ill doers without anything
approaching due process. The hero, no... protagonist, is the purest
of the pure. Comments about him by others point to his always doing
“what's right.” Will Cochrane is beyond competent, a deadly
killer with a perfect body, super reflexes, and completely under his
own control. He never hesitates to instantly obliterate every person
he concludes is guilty. His actions are justified because they are
“right.” Legality has little or nothing to do with his choices,
because his own motives are “pure.” He's accountable to no one
but himself.
Matthew Dunn
The following profile of Matthew
Dunn is provided by the publisher: “As an MI6 field officer,
Matthew Dunn recruited and ran agents, coordinated and participated
in special operations, and acted in deep-cover roles throughout the
world. He operated in highly hostile environments, where, if
compromised and captured, he would have been executed. Dunn was
trained in all aspects of intelligence collection, deep-cover
deployments, small-arms, explosives, military unarmed combat,
surveillance, and infiltration. Medals are never awarded to modern
MI6 officers, but Dunn was the recipient of a very rare personal
commendation from the secretary of state for foreign and commonwealth
affairs for work he did on one mission, which was deemed so
significant that it directly influenced the successful conclusion of
a major international incident. During his time in MI6, Dunn
conducted approximately seventy missions. All of them were
successful. He lives in England.” Wikipedia, however, places this
description into doubt by preceding it with, “according to his
publicity agents,” casting the entire bio into question.
Act of Betrayal: A Will Cochrane Novel by Matthew Dunn (William Morrow,
2017, 320 Pages, $18.35/12.99) portrays
a perfectly corrupt government salvaged only by a few hidden “true”
rebels who, deeply embedded in various agencies, manage to save us
from our own self-destruction. In this fictional world, there are a
few “good” men and women with incomparable skills willing to
endure the privation and suffering necessary to save the rest of us
from the worst of us. I cannot recommend this novel to any reader
save those already addicted to such tripe. I read the book in digital
format supplied to me by the publisher through Edelweiss on my Kindle app.
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