Dogs of War: A Spy Thriller

Quite the suspenseful adventure of mercenaries and their attempt to overthrow a powerful dictator. For their efforts, a fortune of money assuredly will be made. The ruthless dictator is ignorant to the fact that one of the mountains located in his West African country, bearing the name "Crystal", is laden with billions and billions of dollars worth of plutonium. This precious metal has yet to be mined, so top-secret shell games are employed to rejuvenate a flailing mining company, taking it out of obscurity and placing it in the hands of an arrogant, wealthy Englishman by the name of Sir James Manson. What could possibly go wrong? The author, Frederick Forsyth, lays out the end game and the intricacies involved to pull off such a heist in this fictional banana republic.

First you need to topple the corrupt potentate, then install a puppet government you control, so that you have unfettered access to Crystal Mountain. Of course to overthrow such a robust and hated dictator you'll need mercenaries to do your bidding. If all goes as planned, the tycoon, Sir James Manson, will increase his net worth by billions.

This was a fun and adventurous read. The ending was diabolical and a real shocker for me. If you like suspenseful and unpredictable novels, this one's for you. Enjoy!

This story is one of the most unique suspense novels I have ever seen because you simply have no idea how it is going to turn out in the end. Although all of Forstyh's book grab your attention (I found I have to take notes while I am reading them!) you still have a basic idea about how things are going to turn out in the end, even with Forsyth's patented twists. Take for instance "Day of the Jackal"...I am not presenting any spoilers in saying the reader knows from the start that President De Gaulle is going to walk away breathing at the end. In "Dogs" however, one has no idea who the good guys and the bad guys are, if the elaborate plans are going to work, and what everyone's real motivations are.
Although some complain there is too much detail and too little action, I reject that view.I found all the details in illegal arms purchases, setting up shell companies, how geological surveys are conducted and how "big business" and the political and financial Establishment work in Britain to be fascinating and enlightening, and ultimately, disillusioning..
One thing I have learned about Forsyth by reading his novels is that he is extremely politically INcorrect. No moral relativism for him. No pretending that all people around the world are basically the same....i.e. Swedish Social Democratis,as the "progressives"are always claiming. He likes civilized people and nations and despises the brutal and barbaric. He points out ethnic differences in values and behavior, for instance, he states in this book that many, but not all Africans, are not good soldiers, but with proper training they can be.
In summary, this book really grabs the reader's attention but it is important to go slowly and absorb the numerous details, in order to really appreciate the unfolding story.

Whilst as always I can admire Mr Forsythe's researching of his subject(viz the world of the mercenary or should I say "Soldier Of Fortune" to use the "politically correct" phrase), I must(and this is a repeated observation) say: "nice book, shame about the politics!"
Let's get one thing straight, I am no pacifist- I fault no man for wearing his country's uniform in wartime( although I can do have issues with the government behind a given country) or like the volunteers in the Spanish Civil War, fighting a cause that they genuinely believe, but I have always had my doubts about mercenaries-who by definition fight not out of patriotic or dieological zeal for a given country or cause but simply because they are going where the pickings are best-as we saw the Britons and Americans who fought in the Angolan Civil War and were executed by that government in 1976 as war criminals.
Also Forsythe ignores the fact by definition mercenaries are inherently less disciplined that conventional troops(who can at least be court martialed under Queen's Regulations or the Uniform Code of Military Justice), still his tory of mining magnate Sir James Manson and his sidekick Simon Endean plot to use "Cat" Shannon and his fellow "mercs" to topple the (admittedly tyrannical) government of Zangaro and plunder its mineral wealth is a rattling good read.

Terry

Fascinating. Every detail to overthrow a government in an African country is arranged and executed by a bunch of very savvy mercenaries. The dangers and treacheries they encounter are very well thought out, as well as the costs of the enterprise at all stages. I found the details incredibly accurate and followed through. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and learned how complicated overthrowing a small government can be.(;.
The ending is spectacular!

Frederick Forsyth had originally vowed that he would only write three novels, and this was the third one. Thankfully for us thriller readers, he broke that vow, but even if he hadn't, Mr. Forsyth would've gone out with a bang, as "The Dogs of War" is a humdinger of a novel. Arguably the best mercenary novel ever written (although admittedly I still have to read "The Wild Geese"), and, in true Fred Forsyth fashion, is suspenseful, engrossing, richly detailed, with well-developed and fascinating characters, slam-bang action scenes (there aren't many, but they're well-done all the same) and the author's witty writing style.

Moreover, I can relate to this book on a personal level. Speaking myself as a Private Military Contractor (PMC), I'm not technically a true "mercenary" per se (though one might reasonably make the case that I'm a privateer, as I work on government-sanctioned contracts), although (1) I jokingly tell my friends & fam that I am one, and (2) bleeding heart liberals in the media and academic circles probably would consider me a merc. In any event, there are multiple passages in this novel that perfectly capture the spirit of off-the-books mercs and on-the-books PMCs alike do what we do, and how and why we find "safer" domestic (home front) work so bloody boring and depressing, particularly this spot-on truth from Cat Shannon on page 189 of the Nook edition:

"'Yes, and I could live on, like a battery hen, in one of these futile cities. Filling in futile forms, paying futile taxes to enable futile politicians and state managers to fritter it away on electorally useful white elephants. I could earn a futile salary in a futile office and commute futilely on a train, morning and evening, until a futile retirement. I prefer to do it my way, live my way and die my way.'" PREACH IT, BROTHER CAT, AMEN!!!

This is the mercenary counterpart to what is an anatomy to an assassionation in the Day of the Jackal.
A closely-guarded secret discovery of rich platinum deposits in the Crystal Mountains in a tiny African state led a British entrepreneur Manson to finance a coup in the state to obtain control of the deposit. Keeping himself anonymous and working only with 2 greed-motivated underlings, Manson sought out a notable mercenary leader Cat Shannon who just returned from an unsuccessful mission from Africa.
Unwilling to be pawn to an unseen mastermind, Shannon initiated his own counter-espionage to learn more about his paymaster and the interest in the apparently insignificant African state. To add spice to the game, the Russians, who had the major influence in the state, also learned that a British survey completed several months before in the Crystal Mountains which reported no significant tin deposits (the original object of the survey) may not have been completely truthful ...
The start of the tale focus on the cat-and-mouse game Manson and his underlings played to keep their discovery a secret while trying to launch a military takeover, finding the suitable men to fight and another to be the puppet head. The middle of the tale looks at the mercenary acquiring, financing and transporting the necessary hardware from various sources in Europe. The narration is well-detailed, showing for the right price, anything can be bought from the street hoodlums or from the your own government.
Manson and his underlings were well-constructed, appearing to be more mercenary than the soldiers of fortune. Shannon, on the other hand, a man who after his earlier African experiences could not adapt to a cog-in-the-wheel life in civilised Britain, showed such sharp mettle and acumen that one could not help but wonder what a splash he would have made if he had found the determination to make his mark in the business world. The other mercenary characters were also colourfully potrayed, though sometimes their identities became mixed.
Another aspect well-written was Shannon's inner self who found himself always fighting a war whose ultimate beneficiaries were the people he despised bitterly. An entertaining moment was found in Manson's daughter, beautiful model well-versed in the ways of the world, a barracuda to break men of wealth, becoming almost innocent and childlike when confronted with Shannon's world.
Unfortunately, unlike the promise of the book's introduction at the backcover, the Russians never did was played to their full potential.
This book offered an alternative perspective to the 60s & 70s, contrasting the concerns and motivations of Europe then to the really dark times in Africa. Certainly an interesting book, enough to occupy for a long journey, best read uninterrupted if one does not want to lose track of the details.

There are numberless tiresome paperback "action novels" about mercenaries. Most of these are fairly predictable and very comicbook-like in their quality. This is not one of them!

Mr. Forsyth, who actually researched what he writes about, has created a very realistic scenario of a modern-day mercenary action, and the powers that be that brought it about.

A geologist finds evidence of massive ore-deposits in a typically unstable African republic (its description is very much like Liberia) whose major industry is mining. A British corporation has mining interests already in country, and wants to capitalize off of this find. However, the current president, is a corrupt and eccentric despot of questionable sanity...and he is favoring political and economic ties with the Soviet Union. The solution: the British corporation hires a team of professional free-lance soldiers to stage a coup, and put a new president in place, one who will favor the corporate interest!

The major part of the story is the complex procedures in which the mercenary team makes its preparations in a year prior to the action, emphasizing secrecy. The actual action on objective is short, sharp and decisive...but with an outcome that the corporate sponsor didn't quite expect!

The whole idea of a group of mercenaries going on a covert mission to invade another country to overthrow the government, insert a puppet dictator and then exploit the natural resources sounded fascinating and realistic to me. I expected a lot of drama and intrigue but that's not what I got. I would describe most of the book as bland or lukewarm. There were simply too many monotonous details written about the organizing of the covert operation than the operation itself. I don't mind reading about details of events before an operation or attack, it's just that the organizing of this operation went a little too smoothly. It seemed like the hero of the story (a mercenary) didn't have too many worries. There was just one big problem he had but it was delt with very quickly like magic. How a certain event unfolded was not explained very well as it could have been. While reading, I was wondering "Where was he and how did he know?" and "Exactly how did that happen?". Some may not pay that much attention to it but I think the sub-plot could have been drawn out more, it was resolved too easily.
The little twist at the end was effective and made sense. I actually thought that it was kind of funny.
Forsyth fans will find this book enjoyable, but not nearly as gripping as his other books like "The Fist of God" and "The Day of the Jackel".

A routine analysis of an African Republic's mountain's ore content uncovers a motherlode of one of the most rare metals on the planet, platinum. However the African Republic's government is a ruthless dictatorship, rabidly anti-western and pro-communist. Facts that do not intimidate Sir James Manson, chairman/managing director of Manson Consolidated Mining Company Limited, in the least. Not surprising when, even at dirt cheap prices, the mountain is worth ten billion dollars. Eager to snag the mining rights, Manson quickly sets forth a rather unique plan. Hire mercenaries to help overthrow the government, replace it with a pro-west puppet dictator, have a shell company buy up the mining rights to the mountain, have ManCon buy the shell company, and rake in the cash by the basket full. Easier planned than done, as others quickly get their eyes on the same prize.
Frederick Forsyth narrates with a reporter's deadpan voice and backs up the seemingly outlandish story with a huge amount of detail that makes it all seem credible. While the book does crackle with energy and keeps the pages turning, it lacked that something special to lift it up above the average page turner. But fans of Cold War era Men of Adventure tales will be sure to love this, recommended.

And once again, a book is leaps and bounds better than the movie. Given Forsyth's background in Africa, this book is perfect. My advice - read the memoir first...yup will understand a hell of a lot more!

This was a really really good book. I will understand, although, how some people might get turned off. It is very detailed on the 'how to' of building a mercenary operation amongst other things (banking and setting up front companies), which I really enjoyed.
It seemed to be almost a manual for the mercenary soldier. In fact, if you are thinking of becoming one you should probably read this book.

Don't get me wrong here either. There was a very good story, and with a surprising end (and surprising middles too).

Very well written. Anyone know of other books detailed like this?

This was a really really good book. I will understand, although, how some people might get turned off. It is very detailed on the 'how to' of building a mercenary operation amongst other things (banking and setting up front companies), which I really enjoyed.
It seemed to be almost a manual for the mercenary soldier. In fact, if you are thinking of becoming one you should probably read this book.

Don't get me wrong here either. There was a very good story, and with a surprising end (and surprising middles too).

Very well written. Anyone know of other books detailed like this?

Frederick Forsyth weaves a brilliant tale about European mercenaries ousting a brutal African dictator for the benefit of a massive British mining company. Forsyth looses the readers in the minutia of planning the ouster. Too much detail about user certificates, tunics, smuggling, etc could have easily been replaced or deleted all together.

All in all, this is an excellent book.

I liked a lot of things about this book; sometimes that enjoyment continued for several pages at a time. Frederick Forsyth would be a great writer even if he were writing stereo instructions. The problem is, with all the attention paid here to logistics, "Dogs Of War" doesn't feel that far removed in dryness from a Sony manual.

Frederick Forsyth had his mojo working in the early 1970s, when he launched his fiction career with the magnificent "Day Of The Jackal" and followed up with a totally different, equally absorbing work in the same vein, "The Odessa File." He had contracted for a third book, and evidently drawing on his experiences as a journalist covering the Biafran civil war in Nigeria, decided to write about a group of mercs hired to topple the leader of a small African nation.

As a premise, "Dogs Of War" is very promising, and Forsyth's familiarity with the sights and smells of Africa feeds a backdrop that at times is presented quite well. A cynically world-weary tone predominates, and that works well in the context of the story. The problem is there isn't much of a plot, and a core group of main characters that, while presented as hard-bitten desperados, don't exactly give Pike, Dutch, and the rest of the Wild Bunch a run for the money in terms of characterization. One guy is called Tiny because he's large. Another strops his knife whenever there's a lull. When these characters finally face danger, we don't know them well enough to care about their fates.

You know there's a big problem when there's only a few pages left in the book and the mercenaries haven't even hit the beach of the country they are about to take over. Forsyth takes his time getting to the central action of the story, and though he writes with his usual flair, the final showdown is perfunctory and unconvincing.

You can see some positive developments in Forsyth's writing here, such as the emergence of humor, especially with a subplot about some scummy capitalists who set up a shell corporation for their illicit scheme with the unknowing help of a balmy Scottish widow. He works in a lot of fascinating commentary on the nature of the world though the eyes of the main protagonist, Cat Shannon.

"The truth is, the Establishment is on the side of the big battalions, because it created and armed them in the first place," he tells a lady friend. "It never seems to occur to the millions...that maybe God, if there is one, has something to do with truth, justice, and compassion rather than sheer brute force, and that truth and justice might possibly be on the side of the little platoons."

But not all the side routes Forsyth takes justify the time and attention, and there are too many ideas that either are left half-baked (a Russian interest in the African nation, a rival mercenary homicidally jealous of Shannon) or that cry plot convenience, like how Shannon gets the inside track on his employer's intentions.

In the end, "Dogs Of War" is not so much a bad book, but a frustratingly incomplete one. It's got that classic Forsyth style for those (like me) who admire it, but it lacks a sense of purpose. It's not a surprise Forsyth took a few years off before penning his next, far better novel, "The Devil's Alternative."

I agree with the other reviewers who have given this book a low rating. This is definitely not one of Forsyth's better books. There is a very good short story lurking here, but the book is padded out with excessive amounts of non-essential logistics and accounting (and the fairly trivial sums involved make it seem extraordinarily dated). Promising plot twists - the murderous rival mercenary Roux, the competing Russian interest in African minerals, the factions competing for power in his fictional country - are given short shrift. The author was clearly deeply affected by his experiences in Biafra, but the story emphasizes only the incompetence and corruption of sub-Saharan Africa, and only in the very brief denouement do we get any hint of the idealism that also exists in the continent. Perhaps if the author had developed these and other sub-themes to their full potential the book would have justified its length. As it is, it looks very much like something written to satisfy contractual obligations.

This is my favorite forsyth, i found this book extremly enjoyable. Sir james manson discovers platinum in a remote corner of africa. how to gain a monopoly? answer: in return for toppling the present goverment, the sucessor will allow full mining rights to manson's company. Cat shanon the mercenary in charge decides to foil the scheme. Forsyth did his homework well on this one.

The language is not that great, the story is somewhat dated, some of the developments are half-baked, but nevertheless the book captivates you and makes an entertaining reading.

Interesting take on how the coups are accomplished in small African countries, and I suspect Forsyth is not that far away from reality.

Forsyth uses actual places and possible events to create a plan to take over a country. The characters are interesting and the main character Cat Shannon makes you think twice about mercinaries. The plot twist is terrific and just knowing there is one keeps you guessing till the end.

Thoroughly enjoyed this read. I specifically enjoyed the historical aspects regarding England's colonial ties to Africa-2 stars. Additionally, the attention to detail regarding the nature of correspondence at the time of the story's setting added to it's authenticity and actually helped build excitement-another star. This book received the 4th star from me for not using some sort of storm as a background for the climactic ending.

The ingredients for a vintage Forsyth novel are there. However, the mix is not optimal. At times, the reading becomes tedious. Notwithstanding that, it's still a good read, even if it's just for the sake of increasing your general knowledge.

If you like your books uneventful, characterless, dry and packed with minutae, look no further than the Dogs of War.

When a vein of platinum is found in the mountain region next to a third world dictatorship, plans are put in motion to hire a group of mercenaries to take out the ruler, so fat cat businessmen can put in their own guy and get the mining rights super cheap. That's the first 50 pages.

The next 350 pages are the mercenaries buying boats, guns, clothes, oil, and ammo, with plenty of "something could go wrong, but no, it doesn't" moments thrown in to make you think the book might hold some dramatic tension sometime in its barely endurable length.

The last 30 pages is an attack that can only be called antilimactic.

I didn't care about these people, their cause, or whether they made it out alive or not. It would have been nice to see what they could do with a little more plot.

This book holds together quite well, although is noticably dated at this stage. It is entertaining and is a worthwhile addition to the collection of any Africa enthusiast, if for no other reason than memories of 1970's Africa which it is bound to arouse.

Just having read "The constant Gardener" by John Le Carre, the "Dogs of War" caught me by surprise - and not in a positive way. The book is surprisingly dated, and up to last 40 pages, not much is happening. There are 2 clever twists, and a gripping end. But the rest of the book is not really worth reading. You are better off going for the "Jackal" or the "Odessa files", or, as mentioned above, the "Constant Gardener".

I have always loved this author, but this particular story was very detailed and very descriptive and extremely disappointing. There were a couple of story lines that one expected to turn into something that would change the course of the book, but they just sort of died along the way. I think the story would have been better received by the reader had Forsyth trusted the reader with what was actually going on rather than stringing them along and then surprising them. I will check out future releases as I normally like his writing.

Having read most novels and short stories of Frederic Forsyth, I was disappointed by the dated feeling of this early seventies novel. Usually the detailed writing style adds to the realism of the story, here it just detracts. There is enough material for one of FF's short stories, but the endless descriptions to expand this to full length are largely unnecessary and mostly uninteresting.

Mediocre language. Unncessary details. Too long a book for a plot like this. It is full of stuff that is entirely unrelated to the plot, just adding to the number of pages of the book. And then some routine stuff like hero falling in love with the villain's daughter without any convincing reason whatsoever. There is much better fiction out there.

a great book for those familiar with equatorial guinea and all the turmoil the country has been through. But a great read as far as aesthetic entertainment goes as well. How to stage a coup in a small country...

I always envy Forsyth's ability to not only explain the details of what is happening in his book, but his ability to actually explain in a way that is intriguing. Sure, this book has long sections of nothing but "SCIENCE" and not a lot of action, but the interaction of characters, villainous or super-villainous, is a highlight.

If you like reading about mercenaries using antiquated banking technology, this is the book for you. Couldn't get halfway through it, wS bored to tears reading about the mercy moving money from Swiss banks and depositing travelers checks.

A good procedural for outfitting and planning for coup in Africa.
70’s mercenary story with 90% of the story describing how the merc plans, prepares for the mission...a lot of the book is spent with buying of the supplies, weapons and ship...then the rest of the book is spent getting the cargo to the ship...then a few pages of action