The Kill List by Frederick Forsyth

The new book from Frederick Forsyth’s stable does justice to his genre of thrillers. It has all the standard elements of spying, suspense, action, vengeance, etc. The title of the book has no major relevance to the story. The author does mentions the what and how of the kill list. There are two main characters in the book: preacher and tracker. The story revolves around these two characters.

There is surge in jihad, perpetrated by unsuspecting individuals. The big brothers, US and UK, are worried as this new phenomenon of jihad was never heard off. Individuals who have no history in violence are taking to jihad, to target equally unsuspecting citizens. There is a pile of bodies. The governments realize this sudden outburst is only because of one person and he is identified as the preacher. Then we get to know about the tracker, the person who is assigned the task of eliminating the preacher. The story talks about how these two primary characters evolve; how the tracker outsmarts the preacher; how the good triumphs over the evil. We get to know how these two individuals are supported by individuals who share the same ideologies.

There is also a subplot about the Somali pirates and their business of hijacking ships. My personal opinion is that the sub plot does not add substance except for stretching the novel by a couple of ten pages. There may be arguments that this subplot is the means by which the preacher is lured out of his den. I tend to disagree.

The readers are kept in the dark about the details of one important communication between the tracker and the preacher. We can only second guess the contents of this communication. This mystery remains a mystery.

Overall the book is a good read and also good to have in your private library. What is lacking is the direct dual between the two main characters. It seems that one character is not even aware of the danger lurking for him whereas the other character has all the resources and means to accomplish his task. The vengeance angle is also very subtle. Anyhow enjoy the book!