I had to check to see when this was written, because it is so devoid of current technology, it could easily have been written in the 60s or 70s. The villain, Dr. Goslar, is one of those all-powerful shadowy figures usually seen in pulp fiction (e.g., Fu Manchu). If he is so powerful and such a threat with some new biological weapon, why are there only a few agents attempting to bring him down? And why does Goslar fail again and again to kill them? There is also a plot twist involving sisters which I saw coming at least three hundred pages early. Weak, especailly when stacked up against say, Frederick Forsyth or Andy McNab.

Ah, but we love Colin Forbes for this! His books are so entertaining. This is his latest thriller(at least until RHINOCEROS comes out) and is up to his usual standards! The main characters are once again Britain's best MI6 agents Tweed, Paula Grey and Bob Newman. Along witb ace sniper Marler and also heavies Pete Nield and Harry Butler, they are up against the evil genius Dr Goslar who has perfected a bio-chemical weapon of mass destruction. France, hungry for Euro-domination, wants this weapon, and sends agents of their own after Goslar. America's military is also after it - who will reach Goslar first? Along the way, Paula Grey is kidnapped, a former British Army weapons expert Brigadier Adam Burgoyne helps out - but whose side is he really on? The action of this story takes place in Geneva and also the French town of Annecy. Forbes describes his locations authentically, I have visited Annecy myself when Inter-Railing five years ago and could relate to these parts of the book well. The climax and final twists in the plot are well unexpected too. Add to all this two token ladies also trying to get to Goslar, Serena Cavendish and Judy Warner who Tweed cannot trust and you have a real top potboiler of a novel! In typical Forbes vein, the narrative does contain some unintentionally funny lines. For instance:

(p.1) Tweed, talking to a police inspector: 'I told you Roy. Because of the message that came into SIS headquarters in London. From that evil genius, Dr. Goslar!'

(p.45) Tweed: 'La Defense? That's the amazing business centre in Paris with incredibly tall buildings.'

(p. 341) The main rotor blade struck him just below the jaw, sliced off his head.(poor grammar!) It flew through the air like a melon, a leaking red melon.

Not to mention Goslar's mansion called GARGOYLE TOWERS. But it's all great. clean fun. And of course, they all get to stay in the best hotels and drink litres of champagne and wine in between tracking the baddies. Hugely entertaining.

I usually pick up a book for three reasons: 1) to read becasue it's a good one and I can't put it down 2) because I need to learn something or study something and 3) because I have a habit of reading a book while I have a snack. This latest one by Colin Forbes definitely falls into the third catergory. Why? Well, you can eliminate the 2nd catergory for sure. Let me explain. For years I have picked up books by Colin Forbes - our library has a huge collection of his books. After reading this one I think he'd better definitely stick to the Tweed & Paula Gray series. Golden Ape disappointed me - Arabs again! The rest of the family agreed with me on this point - there are definitely too many novels and stories with Arabs being the bad guys because of oil prices and deals made through OPEC etc. Enough is enough! Why add another? They tend to bore. Golden Ape was no exception. I expected something else after the hijack of the oil tanker - but nothing! I was left very disappointed. The supposed climax of the story - well, it wasn't much of a climax. But I do admire Forbes for how much depth he created in his characters - I find that that seems to come easy to him and in this case - Winter was a great success on his own but as part of the book - well, there was a big difference in the characters. A lot like a bar graph: when it came to the characters, the bar would shoot up, when it came to the plot and story line it would hover below zero. Minus points for originality, plus points for character. It sounds like someone definitely ran out of oil or gas or petrol on this one and it wasn't the US or UK.