A pequena ilha de Natucker, no litoral americano, é palco de um acontecimento histórico. Com imagens transmitidas pela televisão para o mundo inteiro, Mikkail Gorbachev, líder da União Soviética, e John Comack, presidente dos Estados Unidos, assinam um tratado de desarmamento. Nem todos, porém, estão respirando com satisfação os ventos promissores que sopram. Cyrus Miller, um magnata do petróleo tão poderoso quanto racista e reacionário, consegue aglutinar outras forças ortodoxas - empresários conservadores, políticos de direita - para pôr em prática um plano audacioso que culmina no sequestro do filho de Cormacke e que pode comprometer o processo de consolidação da paz. Neste momento entra em cena o senhor Quinn, ex- combatente do Vietnã com uma incrível habilidade para atuar como mediador em processos de libertação de reféns. Só que os sequestradores resolvem subestimar sua inteligência, e é aí que cometem o maior erro: ninguém fica impune quando trai O negociador.

First edition as new

42-11

Not as good as Forsyth's other thrillers. ( )

The first fourth of this book is pretty boring, but then something big happens and things liven up so that it ends up being a first class thriller.

In the book, the US President and Russia’s Gorbachev are about to sign a disarmament treaty that has conservative hard liners TICKED -- enough to do serious damage to derail this treaty and see it go away. And so the president's son is kidnapped over in England. The White House calls in the best hostage negotiator in the world, a retired commando named Quinn, who agrees to do it only if he can do it his way. They reluctantly agree and then start breaking their agreement almost from the beginning.

The first 100 pages or so of the book is a set up leading to this moment. The next, I don't know how many, numerous pages are of Quinn and the hostage taker negotiating and it's excruciating. Truly boring. But necessary to the plot and I understand that. So when, halfway through the book, the president's son is set free, I wondered what Forsyth was going to do to fill up the rest of the pages. Only to see this kid get blown sky high just as he's wandering back to the good guys. Wow! Did not see that coming. Suspicion falls on Quinn, of all people, and he takes off to Europe with Sam, his female FBI lover, to chase after the hostage takers, all of whom are being taken out before he reaches them. But how? And by whom? Something's not right and he has to get to the bottom of it. It turns into a real page turner and I've got to say, I was not disappointed. I tend to love Forsyth books, even with all of the detail. So, recommended. ( )