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

Frederick Forsyth never leaves you uninformed

In addition to the storyline that is always compelling, the attention to detail and information disseminated keeps me reading and rereading his books. Dogs of war is probably one of my favorites

Vicarious gratification

As usual, I greatly enjoyed this novel by Forsyth. The vicarious gratification I experienced in the clever destruction of the cocaine cartel was a bonus. I don't know or much care whether this is Forsyth's best: I'd take his second best any day over the vast majority of other novels in the genre.

The ending leaves us with an important question: how far are we willing to sacrifice certain values in order to defend others and their continued existence in our world? At what point do we resort to war (innocent people will then invariably get hurt or killed)? The question will become increasingly relevant with the appearance of ever greater threats.

OK, but not as good as his other books

It was good, but the ending was a little less impressive. As usual, Forsyth does a great job developing his characters and building a story, but I thought the ending was a little flat compared to his other works.

One of the best ever.

Excellent pacing. Great story. Masterful perormance. This is one of the best geopolitical thrillers concerning the global drug trade ever written. The setup and execution are great. Very engrossing.

Great Listen

Love Forsyth attention to detail and storytelling you feel you are there in the story.

Really good book.

Very good. I wish this fictional story could be true, and we would have the strength and guts to do what's described in this novel. Unfortunately and as usual, our politicians are so self-serving that they would never permit it.
Everything Forsyth writes is excellent. The narrator did a very good job. Only criticism would be that narration can sometimes be a bit monotone -- and droning -- and therefore boring.

Well researched

Well researched, quality writing, limited swearing (albeit gratuitous), no grotesque violence or trashy sex narratives

great premise/so so execution

A lot of imagination went into this book and Fosyth is a fine writer. He also gives you an extraordinary window into the world of cocaine production and distribution. Still, the characters don't really hold up and there are plot holes that are too big to be reasonably set aside. Read it if you love his work, otherwise, there's better stuff out there on Audible.

oopsie

At 6Hrs and 19 min in part 1, Forsyth refers to the assault on Qal-i Janghi, and the killing of Johnnie Spann and says in was in 1991. Not so, that actually happened in Nov 2001. I don't see a fictional purpose to moving the time back ten years and expect it is a typo or a research error. Now if he had read the "Horse Soldiers" assiduously he would have known that.

Good Book, Movie Material.

Good story line that actually fits today's society and around the world. This would make a good movie.