The Veteran by Frederick Forsyth

International espionage thrillers have always been the forte for Frederick Forsyth, but with “The Veteran” he surprises us to no end. Basically a collection of five stories one of which is a novella and the other four are short stories with different story telling basics. Short story telling needs an edge and mastery, and surely Forsyth does seems to be comfortable in this zone. What is surprising in this book is that all stories don’t have any country specific espionage background, they are stories from a variety of social backgrounds and yet Forsyth holds our attention to the bull’s eye. In these we will not find his favourite MI5/MI6, KGB or even CIA.

The First short story, “The Veteran” is an incredibly narrated court drama which enfolds into a mystery, beans of which are spilled not until the last line of the story.  It is incredible to note the finer points presented in the story which altogether takes the reader from general court drama to an unknown premise into the very base of the story. Slowly and steadily the finer points are narrated into the story and what had begun as a court drama for normal Britain road side fatal incident transforms into an amazingly narrated revenge drama.

The second short story, “The Art of the matter” is a very interesting revenge act, the basic premise of which revolves around an ancient painting. It has all the ingredients of an amazing film. What makes it interesting is the level of minute details that Forsyth has captured in this story. It makes for compelling read.  The entire chronology of events starting from the manner in which the ancient painting lands with the character to the ultimate swindle is surely worth our time.

 The third short story, “The Miracle” is an entirely funny and witty event which starts with certain events in the turbulent days of the sixteenth century and culminates in the bitter German retreat from Italy. Be sure, perhaps you may never have read Forsyth like this. It is very unlike him, the very basic premise is so different from his usual writings that surely the reader would be surprised by the revelations in the last two lines of the story. Honestly, some may like this and but some may also feel perhaps, they have been taken for a ride. That’s the beauty of writing, isn’t it?

The fourth short story, “The Citizen” is a very entertaining smuggling heist which takes place on an airplane and which the reader would actually not understand until the last paragraph of the story. Remember nothing in concealed, everything is happening in the paragraphs, but the reader has to make the events out from the words and character behavior.

But perhaps the most interestingly built up and the most disappointing part of the book is perhaps the last story in the book, “Whispering Wind”, A Novella. This is perhaps a kind of story which we would never associate with Forsyth. Mind you, it is brilliantly written, not denying that, but perhaps the entire narrative got too mechanical and too much resembling Hollywood flicks of the early nineties. Travelling from the days just after American Independence to the present day, this story needs your patience and perhaps also a knowledge of events and details particularly about places such as Dakota and Montana. It would be very difficult for a reader not associated with ancient American culture and events to identify with details depicted in the story.

In spite of the criticisms it received from some of the critics “The Veteran” as a book is surely an entertaining one and a very good change for Forsyth readers to look into the lighter side of the master storyteller.