He shares one peculiarity with Ian Flemming: repeated "product placements", in this case de Viliers favors Brietling wristwatches, Tattinger, Chivas Regal and various Japanese automobile manufacturers, right down to the specific model SUV being driven at the moment.ĭe Villiers has been accused of racism, sexism, anti-Semitism and just about every other -ism that might be the bane of modernity.
De Villiers has a few annoying stylistic affectations (figurative "angels" fluttering past at opportune moments, this as a vehicle for emphasizing contrasts or highlighting paradoxes), recurrent references to various characters by their full names (Louis Carlotti this and Louis Carlotti that Mourad Trabulsi this and that, etc). Scenes are set and tension builds and action unfolds, but he avoids artifice and contrivances in so doing. He can be charmingly blunt in his pithy characterizations: "Une grosse bête au visage de crapaud libidineux" about sums up the appearance of a fat woman viewed in a bar. The author's writing style is both sparse and unadorned. In this respect, he appears to be a much more believable and realistic depiction of a prudent spy than the majority of his fictional counterparts. Malko is perfectly capable with his Sig-Sauer but he is careful to avoid danger and quick to call for help from Ray Syracuse, the fictional CIA station chief. This is not to say that he isn't quick to take advantage of a willing woman (the demure Samira Toufic, Sybil Murr and, most notably, a Saudi nymphomaniac princess in the first 140 pages).
In fact, he lacks just about all the affectations the heros of this writing style have accrued with the passage of time. He isn't cynical (George Smiley), ambivalent (just about all modern fictional spies), introspective (everybody nowadays), smart (most), a martial arts expert (who isn't?), a polyglot (nearly a prerequisite) or even especially urbane (Bond?). and most famously James Bond), the protagonist, Malko Linge, is not omnipotent. Many of the individuals that appear in the book were, as the "Times" article indicated, later implicated in the Hariri assassination: evidently they appeared here, first and some sources indicate that de Villiers had privileged access to closely guarded reports long before details became public. It's equally obvious, as subsequent disclosures confirm, that much of his information was, for the general public at least, "prescient". It's immediately obvious that de Villiers has intimate acquaintance with Beirut and Damascus (the former the primary and the latter the secondary setting of the novel).
In short, de Villiers succeeds brilliantly. Why this particular book out of such a prodigious library? I follow the Middle East situation fairly closely, so the setting and facts (now widely published) seemed reasonable for perspective into not only the author's writing style (compelling and generally both unaffected and unembellished) but also into the covert world. So, with that background, I picked "La Liste Hariri" as an introduction to his work. The reason for his adulatory NYT profile? Intelligence and diplomatic sources from many countries choose to share choice tidbits with the author that, had they been published by a reporter in the US, would have landed the journalist in a cell adjacent to Bradley Manning. This belated discovery is not too surprising as, in spite a prodigious literary output, one spanning about 5 decades and a significant international readership, his books have (so far as I know) not been translated into English. In fact, that's how I first learned of his existence. Apparently, the stars have finally aligned as Gerard de Villiers was the subject of a recent adulatory article in "The New York Times" (January 30, 2013) by Robert Worth.
I'll begin with an unqualified accolade: the SAS books are brilliant and perhaps they are the best adventure series penned to date. SAS 181 La Liste Hariri French Edition edition by Gérard de Villiers Literature Fiction eBooks Impossible, même en donnant de furieux coups d'épaule.ĭes flammes commençaient à lécher le capot. Instinctivement, il tenta d'ouvrir la portière pour s'échapper du véhicule qui commençait à brûler. Malko, sonné, aperçut à travers le pare-brise gondolé un mur de flammes. La Cherokee blindée fut balayée comme un fétu de paille et projetée contre une pile de containers.
SAS 181 La Liste Hariri French Edition edition by Gérard de Villiers Literature Fiction eBooks Download As PDF : SAS 181 La Liste Hariri French Edition edition by Gérard de Villiers Literature Fiction eBooks