The Shepherd

This short story is like so many other "mysteries" that are always popular around the holidays, of how a ghost or spirit acts to save someone's life or business or something. Predictable from the first page on, it is still a pleasant story and fulfills the basic objective to make the reader feel good. Mr. Forsyth probably wrote the outline on the back of a paper napkin while dining after seeing the movie A Guy Named Joe, but it is well written and thus worthy of the three stars I rated it.

Frederick Forsyth is the mast researcher, the king of plots and when he writes you can get your teeth into it for the full duration...and wow you can learn a great deal along the way. However, in this shortish book it's none of the normal Forsyth delivery. It's interesting and it does make you think but its not the Forsyth we know and expect. Perhaps he never penned it for us but I read it and have an opinion. You may feel very differently.

I am a big Frederick Forsyth fan, but was disappointed in this book. This book is very short, about like a chapter in a regular Forsyth book. The story is pretty limited in scope. Evidently it is popular among some airplane pilots, for reasons that are obvious if you read it. Just don't expect it to be like a more typical Forsyth book involving espionage.

Forsyth wrote this little book long ago and it is very different from his much longer and very well-researched books.
Because I predicted the outcome I was disappointed as I prefer the author letting me in on it at the end.

Great story with a stunning conclusion at the end. It just ends in a way that you don't expect, and this is from a writing point; you can probably guess what the ending actually is. Since the author has practical knowledge of aircraft, the details provided were different and intimate. For instance, the way that the plane takes off in the first scene. It is a story like this which draws the line between those who have done and those who have never done. Really good writing.

Unfortunately, could not give the novel full marks as it felt like I had paid for illustrations rather than the novel. Could have done with a lower price for an edition without. I found the illustrations nice enough, but sometimes they detracted from the flow of the story. And honestly, was it truly necessary to 'translate' the whole story into American English? I know I bought this copy from the store.com, but seriously! There must have been less than a handful of words that 'deserved' this kind of attention.

This book is truly a wonderful book and inspiring story. But I'm spoiled and a bitter. I have an old book on tape cassette version, and the narration is just wonderful. I've been trying to find that original version on CD or MP3 since then. No luck. And I can't find anyone that owns the old tape cassette version of it. The book is magnificent! I would truly recommend it. I just keep trying to find the audio version from 1989. :P

A rare Frederick Forsyth short story written many years ago and quite a good read. Not a patch on his well researched novels such as 'The Afghan', 'The Icon', 'Day of the Jackal, etc.

'The Shepherd' is a quality short story, albeit, now a bit dated.

I have just returned this ebook for a refund - first time I have ever done that.

I was so disappointed to discover that it was in fact just a short story rather than a full length novel.
Certainly a captivating little story - most enjoyable.

However, when I pay $9.99 for an ebook - I do expect a substancial read. Although it was good, it was not
worth paying the price of a full size book. I enjoy my reading very much but expect value for money.

Thankyou the store for the normally very good value books that I do purchase.

Waste of money for the price. Until I received it, I did not realise how short the story was (55 pages), yet it was priced the same as the 300+pg books. The copyright of 2013 was misleading as the book was actually released in 1975, this was just a reprinting. In addition, the font was unreadable. The words were missing ink in the center of each letter, so letters were unidentifiable. It gave me a headache trying to read it.

I bought "The Sheperd", downloaded and read it in less than 40 minutes. Why, you ask? It weighs less than 100 pages, some 40% of which are photographs that don't come across on the Kindle screen. And, yes, it costs the full $ 9.99; and, no, there was nothing in the advertisement that alerted you to this fact. But now I figured out why the the store marketeers came up with this strange name for an eReader: it rhymes with Swindle!

A rather nice little story with an interesting but predictable ending. Far too short for the price so I would not recommend it to serious readers of Frederick Forsyth unless combined with some of his other excellent short stories.