Product Description
Sifting through reams of seemingly unrelated intelligence, CIA analyst Katherine Rule discovers a chilling pattern: an ultrasecret Baltic submarine base…a crafty Russian spy-master in command…a carefully planned inva… More >>
Deep Lie
Written by admin on August 31st, 2010 in Mystery & Thrillers.
Tags: Deep
About 15 years ago, before the genesis of his Pat Conroy-esque Lee Family series and his equally successful Stone Barrington books, Stuart Woods apparently decided he liked the ground Tom Clancy was beginning to tread. After this book, he decided one was enough, which makes this effort the stronger for all that. Woods has proven that if you don’t get too gee-whiz in the Clancy fashion, you can still get the job done. Keep the story simple, avoid Ludlum-style mazes of subplots and gobbledegook, and your reward will be that not that many people will call you a dilletante or a poseur. There’s even a bit of Clive Cussler-style huge-evil-plot. Heroine Kate Rule comes off more as a contemporary of Clancy’s Jack Ryan than a ripoff in this sort-of prequel to “Grass Roots”. She can kick butt when needed without becoming a cartoonish Wonder Woman clone (as she proves when she nails a guy who’s been shadowing her). The Russians as the bad guys aspect of this book can be attributed to the fact that the Cold War wasn’t over yet when it was written. We get to see Will Lee as a supporting character while he’s still only in a casual relationship with Kate. Plus Will’s boss Senator Ben Carr while he still has his health and vitality. So this book is also consistent with the character development we’ve come to expect of Woods. I love the Lee Family series. I also love Clancy’s Jack Ryan books. This book is a fusion of the two that isn’t really that incongruous, especially since Woods did it only once.
Rating: 5 / 5
This is one of, maybe the first of, Wood’s books with Will Lee and Kate Rule as the main characters. This one leans more on Rule, her role in the CIA to uncover a Russian plot, and the attempts by Company agents to prevent her discovery from coming to light. I didn’t know this one existed and was glad to add it to my Stuart shelf. A good read.
Rating: 4 / 5
This was just a damn good book. I enjoyed it from start to finish. Well written. I had to laugh when they were talking about the new computers with 20 Meg Hard drives. Makes me wonder what I’ll be laughing about ten years from now (I just hope I have the opportunity). I highly recommend this book to anyone who just wants to have a fun read.
Rating: 5 / 5
Mysterious submarines prowl the coast of Sweden, while a young an ambitious Soviet submarine commander receives new orders. A not so young, but even more ambitious Soviet general plans spy-missions from a secret base made to look like any prosperous town in the western world. Meanwhile, Kathryn Rule, a non-nonsense intelligence analyst, sees growing signs of Russian focus in the Baltic…
“Deep Lie” isn’t the deepest of the submarine technothrillers that invaded bookshelves in the late 1980′s (whether inspired by “Red October” or written earlier but reissued to cash in on the craze), nor is it particularly loaded with the sorts of arcane info that only Clancy was able to divine out of military technology (remember, this was pre-internet.). Yet “Deep” is still shallow fun in the way it develops disparate storylines and ties them together. Definitely a fun if forgettable read.
Rating: 3 / 5
This book was my first exposure to Stuart Woods. I read it when it first came out in paperback in the late 80′s. Since then I have read all of Woods’ books and have without fail enjoyed all of them. In recent years his books seem more cranked out based on the quality of the writing, but I really can’t complain since I still can’t put ‘em down once I start reading.
Rating: 5 / 5