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

Great Story - Wierd Narration

This is a unique "what if?" concept story, and should have been intriguing, but the narrator sounded as if his goal was to calm down an excitable audience. High seas hijinks, drug lord double cross and high political intrigue was delivered with the enthusiasm of a technical conference white paper. I recommend that you READ the story rather than listen to this rendering.

Another Good Read by Forsyth

Reading through the other reviews, I do share a number of opinions with other reviewers. Here's my take:

1. Another great Forsyth story. A little slow to start, but once it gets going, it's a nice ride.

2. Don't get the criticisms of the reader. Other than a few mispronounced words, he was fine.

3. While I would agree that it's not Forsyth's best, it is certainly not his worst. It was an enjoyable read, and based on how well Forsyth usually researches his topics, it is likely you'll learn something about the drug smuggling problem in the process of reading. To me, Forsyth's mediocre books are better than other authors' best offerings, so it was worth my time and money.

4. I liked the fact that he used characters from a previous book. I may be wrong, but I don't remember this in previous Forsyth books, and it was a nice touch.

5. I do agree that the ending seemed a bit rushed and while probably realistic, I also would have preferred (as another reviewer stated) a "happier, but less realistic ending".

All said - don't shy away from this one. If this is your first venture into Forsyth's novels, I'd recommend you read "The Day of the Jackal" or "Avenger" first.

good tale

reading with beautiful. story was a good one. I liked the ending.

Really?

This book lays out a wonderful narrative around a theoretical strategy to disrupt the drug trade. The concepts and ideas are interesting, the narrative is appropriately paced, and the voice acting was wonderful...

The ending was truly disappointing. I won't spoil it but it nearly makes me question why I bothered to read the story.

Excellent book

This is your typical Forsythe book, which is to say, excellent in all respects. Detailed research and a terrific plot makes this book worth anyone's time.

Not his best

The book was ok better than some books I've listened to but not Forsyth best, not even close. He earlier books are excelent if you haven't read/listened to them yet.

Wish we would do it

The story is about taking a war to the drug lords that destroy millions of lives. Having seen a couple of college friends back in the day go from normal students working towards a future to hooked dug addicts in what seemed like very little time, it is not a theory. One was able to get off it eventually but that was only after the other killed herself. I liked the idea of not going after the poor people who harvest but at those who make the profits. They belong in the darkest of Dante's levels of hell.

A step backwards for this Author

As a consumate fan of Forseyth, this story was disappointing due to its lack of detail or rather errors in several places that were hard to overlook while finished the book. I was surprised by this and felt the work was written for a cheezy B movie rather than some of his previous work.

Attention to details matter.

I was bored

Gotta tell you, this was more like listening to a disertation of the history of the cocaine trade than anything else. No real character development. Quite honestly, I got bored very quickly and didn't even finish the book.

Terrible

I gave it a one star but it was shown as two stars The book is so bad it should have never been published. And I normally like Frederick Forsyth. Could not bear to finish it!!!