The Cobra

By: Frederick Forsyth

Narrated by: Jonathan Davis

Length: 12 hrs and 31 mins

Publisher's summary

An extraordinary cutting-edge thriller from the New York Times-bestselling grandmaster of international suspense.

Meticulous research, crisp narratives, plots as current as today's headlines - Frederick Forsyth has helped define the international thriller as we know it. And now he does it again.

What if you had carte blanche to fight evil? Nothing held back, nothing off the table. What would you do? For decades, the world has been fighting the drug cartels, and losing, their billions of dollars making them the most powerful and destructive organizations on earth. Until one man is asked to take charge. Paul Devereaux used to run Special Operations for the CIA before they retired him for being too ruthless. Now he can have anything he requires, do anything he thinks necessary. No boundaries, no rules, no questions asked.

The war is on-though who the ultimate winner will be, no one can tell...

©2010 Frederick Forsyth (P)2010 Penguin Audiobooks

Enjoyed listening

Another riveting Forsyth read. More of his books should be movies. Well crafted story, and great narration.

A very good yarn!

I have a question for the American people, and for all the people of the world, as a matter of fact: What is the most important thing to a politician? His country's best interests, or his election or re-election? Is there anyone reading this who doubts the answer?
Apparently, Mr. Forsyth agrees with us. He is a superb story teller and does himself proud with this one, though the narration does irritate at times, but this is the fault of the audio producers and not the author. I listen to good stories several times over, and I'm already looking forward to hearing this one again. It is well worth the money, though I'd prefer a happier, though less realistic, ending. But then, we'd have to kill all the politicians to get it!

Forsyth does not disappoint

I do not understand the criticism of the narrator. I enjoyed listening to him..The details of the process and the plot kept my interest throughout.

Thoroughly Enjoyable!

Very contemporary theme of stopping the flow of cocaine from S. America to the United States and Europe. The plot was fascinating starting with a history synopsis of how the cocaine drug system operates. Next, exciting characters were developed together with an action packed story to defeat it. I listened to this book twice and I'm sure in the future I will enjoy it many more times. Frederick Forsyth is one of my favorites.

Kind of a remake of a Clancy Novel

In some respects I felt like I was re-reading Tom Clancy's "Executive Orders". This is not the best novel I have read by Frederick Forsyth. I had troubles getting past how he portrays Obama in this one, maybe I think too much when reading fiction.

One interesting thought to ponder is what would happen if we were able to win the drug war?

"Ruthlessness, Work It!"

What made the experience of listening to The Cobra the most enjoyable?

I loved the "Day of the Jackal" when it was turned into a movie. This is my first listen to this author,and for me his work is best translated to film.
I purchased this book as I love Jonathan Davis reads. He did such a good job on this listen.
Like a good movie editor, this book could have used a bit more editing as it was a bit longer than it needed to be.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

I loved the ending! Perfect.

What about Jonathan Davis’s performance did you like?

I love and have purchased author's just because Mr Davis reads them. He is outstanding! His command over any latin pronunciation is superb as he is fluent in Spanish. He can switch from english or an accent to a latin word so smoothly.
If you like romance/mystery try Sandra Brown's Mean Streak read by Jonathan, Yum!

Who was the most memorable character of The Cobra and why?

Cal Dexter stood out for me. He never took anything at face value.

Wonderful

I couldn't stop listening. It kept my attention, and was very exciting. Now looking for more by this author.

Hmmm, not his best

I've read just about everything Frederick Forsyth has done. He has become rather predictable down the years. Nowadays, he spends a little too much time praising the extraordinary skills of the military. I'm sure they are, but they are not gods and the occasional flub would be better for the fiction.

His druggies are very bad, as no doubt they are, but I suspect they would not fall over quite so fast in real life as Freddie makes 'em go down.

As usual, his work requires a close listen, there is the usual attention to detail and that is something I do like. I suspect his sources were rather better in the past than they are nowadays.

The split-strike ending is downright peculiar, and while he does usually wrap a surprise up, I just got the feeling that this ending was rather constructed to fit his usual patterns.

The readers pronunciation of some Scottish terms was off here and there, but it was a perfectly competent read. Just not Freddie's best.


brendan

Enjoyed the story but not the narrator

I listen to many audio books but this narrator and his oddly placed pauses took away from this story

Asleep at the wheel

Sorry, but the narration is so bad that I fall asleep when I start to listen to the book. I have no idea if the actual story is worth the read. I've decided to abandon the book rather than crash the car.