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Detective
Inspector Jack Burns then appears on the scene. With the help
of Veejay Patel, he tracks down the attackers. Piece by piece,
strand by strand, the old-fashioned investigator builds a
seemingly watertight case against them. He is sure to get a
conviction, but there is one thing he does not anticipate: the
appearance on the scene of a shrewd and unscrupulous
barrister. Will Veejay Patel be able to hold his own against
the barrister’s sharp cross-examination?
In "The
Art of the Matter" we are introduced to Trumpington Gore,
a film extra who has worked with almost all the greats of
Hollywood, but who is himself languishing in the shadows and
is now out of work. Neglected, forgotten, and stone-broke, he
is perhaps the only man in the city of London who does not
have a phone.
As he broods
over his wretched existence, he remembers he has an old
painting in his closet, a painting that might fetch him a few
score pounds. What follows is his encounter with the ruthless
world of art dealers. He takes his prized possession to the
mighty House of Darcy for valuation. But can he trust anyone
at all? What if the painting he owns is a work of some famed
Renaissance master? Will he get a fair deal?
The "Art
of the Matter" begins rather well, but just as we begin
to like Trumpington Gore, Forsyth soon messes up things with a
range of characters so much so that Gore fades into
insignificance. A potentially great story ruined by
unnecessary detail and twists and turns.
The only
other story that might interest the reader is "The
Miracle", a tale set in the medieval cobbled alleys of
Siena, Tuscany. An American tourist’s wife sprains her leg
as she makes her way through the narrow streets of the ancient
city. Help comes in the form of a German who then tells her
the story of Caterina of Mercy, a ghostly nun and a miracle
that happened during World War II. Again, this story could
have been a masterpiece but for its unsatisfactory ending.
Whether
Forsyth likes it or not, all his later work has been and will
be measured up against his first two books: "The Day of
the Jackal" and "The Odessa File". In the past
three decades or so, he has been trying to give us great
novels like "The Fourth Protocol", "The Devil’s
Alternative", and "The Negotiator", but he
never quite managed to regain his former touch. His
"Icon" and "The Phantom of Manhattan" were
quite bad indeed.
One reason
why Forsyth’s later work is not as impressive is that, after
writing his first few books, Forsyth acquired the habit of
packing his novels with a horde of characters and layer after
layer of subplots so much so that he had at times to print a
list of dramatis personae in the beginning of his novels. He
began to dwell on even minor characters, as a result the
reader often got totally overwhelmed. This book also suffers
from the same problem. Forsyth often forgets that what he is
presenting here are short stories and not his usual 450-page
thriller.
Of late,
Forsyth has also been unable to resist the temptation of using
all the research that was done for his earlier books. For
instance, he describes the procedures paramedics employ in an
emergency, although it has nothing to do with the story. In
the "Day of the Jackal", he describes in detail how
the Jackal manages to get a new identity and a forged passport
for himself, but there it worked because it was essential to
the plot. When your research begins to show, the story
suffers. Not every reader is interested in the instruments
that are in the cockpit of a fighter plane, or the mechanics
of an anti-ballistic missile.
Another habit
that most thriller writers such as Forsyth’s rival Jeffery
Archer find hard to overcome is the twist in the tail
popularised by O. Henry. This technique is wonderful, but it
does not work always, and in the hands of a lesser writer it
just falls flat. At worst, it leaves the reader unsatisfied
and cheated. Forsyth, in the past, has managed the sting in
the tail quite well in stories such as "No
Comebacks", but in this book he does not succeed as well.
He also fails to give us memorable characters such as Peter
Miller and Eduard Roschmann of "The Odessa File",
John Preston of "The Fourth Protocol", and of course
the unforgettable, nameless, faceless Jackal.
Following the
tremendous success of Stephen King’s recent e-novella
"Riding the Bullet", "The Veteran" was
also released as a five- part e-book short story series
through Internet publisher Online Originals. Forsyth told
reporters that he believed the advent of e-books was one of
the most exciting developments in his experience as a
professional writer as it offered the author a whole range of
new opportunities and freedom.
Coming back to the book
itself, the lovers of the thriller genre and Frederick Forsyth
might still find "The Veteran" compelling. But as
you turn the pages of this book, you will find everything,
complicated plots, intrigue, action, suspense, not the veteran
himself.
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The action in
Frederick Forsyth’s "The Veteran", a collection of
five short stories, however, does not begin in Oman but in the
mean streets of London "where a stranger is unwise to
roam". And it is exactly there where a limping man, a war
veteran from Oman, becomes a victim of mugging. Not a match
enough for the two young thugs, the man nevertheless strikes
back before being beaten unconscious. The attackers take what
they can from the unconscious man and take to their heels.
