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Harry's Game
A British cabinet minister is gunned down by an IRA assassin, leaving an undercover agent to track down the killer before he himself is killed. In the wake of a national outcry, Harry Brown is sent in to find out what he can, with the killer having disappeared in the city of Belfast. For Harry Brown, suspicion is cast upon him from as soon as he arrives in Belfast, during the height of The Troubles, where a single wrong move could result in your immediate danger.
281 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1975
About the author
Gerald Seymour
96 books252 followersGerald Seymour (born 25 November 1941 in Guildford, Surrey) is a British writer.
The son of two literary figures, he was educated at Kelly College at Tavistock in Devon and took a BA Hons degree in Modern History at University College London. Initially a journalist, he joined ITN in 1963, covering such topics as the Great Train Robbery, Vietnam, Ireland, the Munich Olympics massacre, Germany's Red Army, Italy's Red Brigades and Palestinian militant groups. His first book, Harry's Game, was published in 1975, and Seymour then became a full-time novelist, living in the West Country. In 1999, he featured in the Oscar-winning television film, One Day in September, which portrayed the Munich Olympics massacre.
Television adaptations have been made of his books Harry's Game, The Glory Boys, The Contract, Red Fox, Field Of Blood, A Line In The Sand and The Waiting Time.
The son of two literary figures, he was educated at Kelly College at Tavistock in Devon and took a BA Hons degree in Modern History at University College London. Initially a journalist, he joined ITN in 1963, covering such topics as the Great Train Robbery, Vietnam, Ireland, the Munich Olympics massacre, Germany's Red Army, Italy's Red Brigades and Palestinian militant groups. His first book, Harry's Game, was published in 1975, and Seymour then became a full-time novelist, living in the West Country. In 1999, he featured in the Oscar-winning television film, One Day in September, which portrayed the Munich Olympics massacre.
Television adaptations have been made of his books Harry's Game, The Glory Boys, The Contract, Red Fox, Field Of Blood, A Line In The Sand and The Waiting Time.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 118 reviews
July 16, 2018
The printing of this special twentieth-anniversary edition has been restricted to five hundred numbered copies, this is copy 363, signed by its writer Gerald Seymour.
When a cabinet-ranking politician gets shot in London in front of his wife and children the Prime Minister decides that this will have consequences and he wants the killer.
Enter Harry Brown successful in an earlier undercover assignment and utterly unknown to the fighting parties in Northern Ireland. He is prepared rather quickly for the job and released into a war in his own country he is not really prepared for at all. His is bound to fail in his job because of the situation he is being send into.
We see the mess that is Northern Ireland in Belfast through the eyes of Harry who has to find his way through the maze without having one of the regular parties knowing about him and his goal. When they find out it starts a interdepartmental row that in the end leads to a shoot out in the streets.
The writer has shown us an insight in the world of Northern Ireland and nobody in this book comes off looking good, it is perhaps the best mirror of the situation it was in the seventies when the terror and killing in Northern Ireland was destroying lives. Both sides in this book come off as calculating and offering men for causes.
When I studied in Northern England I remember one morning walking out of the house where i rented a room and I ran into a man wearing a anti-bomb suit and was ordered back inside the house because there had been a call about a bomb. I was afterwards being questioned by the police about anything I might have seen. While for me the whole situation was somewhat outlandish I found the attitude and grim determination of the police in this case truly scary. It wasn't until later when I talked about it with fellow students form England, Ireland and Northern Ireland that I found out how much it wrecked their lives and the insanity they experienced because of this still ongoing conflict.
A very well written book that does tell you about the troubles and actually does not take sides, well worth your while even if the book is now more than 40 years old.
When a cabinet-ranking politician gets shot in London in front of his wife and children the Prime Minister decides that this will have consequences and he wants the killer.
Enter Harry Brown successful in an earlier undercover assignment and utterly unknown to the fighting parties in Northern Ireland. He is prepared rather quickly for the job and released into a war in his own country he is not really prepared for at all. His is bound to fail in his job because of the situation he is being send into.
We see the mess that is Northern Ireland in Belfast through the eyes of Harry who has to find his way through the maze without having one of the regular parties knowing about him and his goal. When they find out it starts a interdepartmental row that in the end leads to a shoot out in the streets.
The writer has shown us an insight in the world of Northern Ireland and nobody in this book comes off looking good, it is perhaps the best mirror of the situation it was in the seventies when the terror and killing in Northern Ireland was destroying lives. Both sides in this book come off as calculating and offering men for causes.
When I studied in Northern England I remember one morning walking out of the house where i rented a room and I ran into a man wearing a anti-bomb suit and was ordered back inside the house because there had been a call about a bomb. I was afterwards being questioned by the police about anything I might have seen. While for me the whole situation was somewhat outlandish I found the attitude and grim determination of the police in this case truly scary. It wasn't until later when I talked about it with fellow students form England, Ireland and Northern Ireland that I found out how much it wrecked their lives and the insanity they experienced because of this still ongoing conflict.
A very well written book that does tell you about the troubles and actually does not take sides, well worth your while even if the book is now more than 40 years old.
March 3, 2010
"Cock-up" appears to be a delightfully beguiling British phrase to describe what we Americans would call a major "fuck-up." Both of those euphemisms apply to the events described in this book. Seymour writes well and has a decidedly jaundiced view of virtually every layer of society except perhaps the little guy who finds him/her-self squeezed between forces beyond their control.
Ordinary people, pawns, politicians interested in public relations, generals concerned with intelligence but not always acting with same, the man in the field, independent, having to make snap decisions, constantly at risk, things never going the way they were planned. These are the ingredients of a Seymour spy novel. They are very good.
I have no idea what it must have been like to live in Ireland during the "Troubles." This book seems to provide an authentic look at Ireland from the point of view of an IRA assassin and the British agent sent to find and kill him. There are all sorts of plot summaries around for those interested in spoilers. One warning: if you are looking for blue sky at the end of the rainbow, you will be sorely disappointed.
The book was written in 1975 and recently reissued. I suspect many of the youngsters around today have no memory of the constant terror that must have existed between the Catholics and the Protestants, the incessant killing and reprisals, the brutal repressive tactics of the British authorities, and the efficiency and savagery of the IRA cells.
It's ironic that terrorism has become such a public concern in this country when terrorism on a grand scale was being conducted by both sides in Ireland, a country held in such esteem by many enclaves throughout this land.
This is quite a superior thriller, very realistic and on a par with Le Carre, if a bit less introspective.
Ordinary people, pawns, politicians interested in public relations, generals concerned with intelligence but not always acting with same, the man in the field, independent, having to make snap decisions, constantly at risk, things never going the way they were planned. These are the ingredients of a Seymour spy novel. They are very good.
I have no idea what it must have been like to live in Ireland during the "Troubles." This book seems to provide an authentic look at Ireland from the point of view of an IRA assassin and the British agent sent to find and kill him. There are all sorts of plot summaries around for those interested in spoilers. One warning: if you are looking for blue sky at the end of the rainbow, you will be sorely disappointed.
The book was written in 1975 and recently reissued. I suspect many of the youngsters around today have no memory of the constant terror that must have existed between the Catholics and the Protestants, the incessant killing and reprisals, the brutal repressive tactics of the British authorities, and the efficiency and savagery of the IRA cells.
It's ironic that terrorism has become such a public concern in this country when terrorism on a grand scale was being conducted by both sides in Ireland, a country held in such esteem by many enclaves throughout this land.
This is quite a superior thriller, very realistic and on a par with Le Carre, if a bit less introspective.
March 8, 2024
Belfast during the Troubles. An unidentified IRA assassin in hiding. An English undercover agent on the hunt. Clearly an away game for Harry. With a fanatic homecrowd. A thriller that reads like a docudrama. Seymour keeps the game clean and to the point, thus giving it a high sense of realism. Effective storytelling that results in a very strong finish. Excellent book.
July 24, 2016
If Irish crime writer Stuart Neville's 2010 novel THE TWELVE (US title: The Ghosts of Belfast) is touted to become a fictional classic about The Troubles of Northern Ireland, British thriller writer Gerald Seymour's 1975 HARRY'S GAME is the seminal novel of urban guerilla warfare and espionage bureaucracy in the early days of The Troubles. Neville's protagonist tells his haunting story after an early release from Long Kesh prison following the "Good Friday" agreement of 1998. Seymour's hero is undercover agent Harry Brown sent to Belfast to infiltrate the terrorists...and find the IRA assassin who gunned down a British cabinet minister on a London street in the early 1970's.
Gerald Seymour was perfectly capable of writing this thriller, this tension-filled story of a manhunt. Before he wrote HARRY'S GAME he was a successful British television news reporter whose work involved him directly in Vietnam, the Mideast wars, the Munich Olympics massacre...and six years of reporting the guerilla warfare in Northern Ireland. In the early pages of this debut novel, Seymour writes of a telephone directive received by a Dublin newsroom:
"Listen carefully. I'm only going to say this once. This is a spokesman for the military wing of the Provisional IRA. An active-service of the Provisional IRA today carried out a court-martial executive order on Henry DeLacey Danby, an enemy of the people of Ireland and servant of the British occupation forces in Ireland. During the eighteen months spent in Ireland, one of his duties was responsibility for the concentration camp at Long Kesh. He was repeatedly warned that if the regime of the camp did not change, action would be taken against him. That's it."
And Seymour the journalist turned writer calls a spade a spade yet tries to remain neutral. Harry Brown's superior tells of sending him to "infiltrate the most successful urban terrorist movement in the world over the last 25 years." And a now popular phrase is coined as Harry ponders the words of a Red Cross man from Switzerland on another assignment: "One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter." Neville tries to persuade his readers that his Irish killer is a freedom fighter. Seymour calls his IRA assassin The Man...well, an assassin for a terrorist movement. And he calls Long Kesh prison a concentration camp in the Provisional IRA directive.
HARRY'S GAME is a fascinating tale told by a master storyteller with two of the most exceptional characters of suspense fiction. If the title of the book sounds familiar, the novel was made into a successful British TV series in 1982. The theme music was provided by the Celtic band Clannad. "The Theme from Harry's Game" became their breakthrough title.
History buffs interested in Long Kesh prison, the old RAF base in Belfast that later became The Maze, may enjoy the first half of Sam Millar's autobiographical On the Brinks and his infamous stay in Cell Block H there "on-the-blanket" for eight years. Thriller readers like me, who prefer gritty realism without high-tech trivia, wild car chases, and shoot-outs, may be interested in Seymour's other Irish thrillers The Journeyman Tailorand Field Of Blood.
Gerald Seymour was perfectly capable of writing this thriller, this tension-filled story of a manhunt. Before he wrote HARRY'S GAME he was a successful British television news reporter whose work involved him directly in Vietnam, the Mideast wars, the Munich Olympics massacre...and six years of reporting the guerilla warfare in Northern Ireland. In the early pages of this debut novel, Seymour writes of a telephone directive received by a Dublin newsroom:
"Listen carefully. I'm only going to say this once. This is a spokesman for the military wing of the Provisional IRA. An active-service of the Provisional IRA today carried out a court-martial executive order on Henry DeLacey Danby, an enemy of the people of Ireland and servant of the British occupation forces in Ireland. During the eighteen months spent in Ireland, one of his duties was responsibility for the concentration camp at Long Kesh. He was repeatedly warned that if the regime of the camp did not change, action would be taken against him. That's it."
And Seymour the journalist turned writer calls a spade a spade yet tries to remain neutral. Harry Brown's superior tells of sending him to "infiltrate the most successful urban terrorist movement in the world over the last 25 years." And a now popular phrase is coined as Harry ponders the words of a Red Cross man from Switzerland on another assignment: "One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter." Neville tries to persuade his readers that his Irish killer is a freedom fighter. Seymour calls his IRA assassin The Man...well, an assassin for a terrorist movement. And he calls Long Kesh prison a concentration camp in the Provisional IRA directive.
HARRY'S GAME is a fascinating tale told by a master storyteller with two of the most exceptional characters of suspense fiction. If the title of the book sounds familiar, the novel was made into a successful British TV series in 1982. The theme music was provided by the Celtic band Clannad. "The Theme from Harry's Game" became their breakthrough title.
History buffs interested in Long Kesh prison, the old RAF base in Belfast that later became The Maze, may enjoy the first half of Sam Millar's autobiographical On the Brinks and his infamous stay in Cell Block H there "on-the-blanket" for eight years. Thriller readers like me, who prefer gritty realism without high-tech trivia, wild car chases, and shoot-outs, may be interested in Seymour's other Irish thrillers The Journeyman Tailorand Field Of Blood.
September 4, 2018
The passage of time does little to detract from this brilliant tour de force novel set in the blood soaked streets of Belfast in the mid 1970's. Henry Danby government minister is murdered in front of his wife and children by professional hitman Billy Downs....."Others determined the morality. Others turned his work into victories. He did as he was told, expertise his trade mark. The soldier in his army"...... Once his mission is accomplished Downs returns post haste to Belfast losing himself in the working class republican enclaves of the Ardoyne and the Falls. Harry Brown fresh from intelligent work in Aden and Albania is tasked with the job of going undercover in Belfast in order to seek out and eliminate Downs. He is well suited to the venture being a native of the province born and bred in the county of Armagh. His cover is that of merchant seaman Harry McEvoy back in the "auld country" after a long absence. The locals very quickly become suspicious and find his accent somewhat unconvincing. As the hunter and hunted circumnavigate each other they set the scene for the final bloody conflict and it soon becomes apparent that death may well be the inevitable outcome for Harry and his nemesis Billy Downs.
Harry's Game was first published in 1975 and in my opinion possibly the best book that the author Gerald Seymour wrote in his long and distinguished writing career. He brilliantly shows Belfast in the mid 70's when the "troubles" was at its highest......"It was the adventure playground par excellence for the urban terrorist"....... You can feel the tension, the hatred, the parochial entrenched attitude of both catholic and protestant inhabitants, as they go about their normal day committing murder and mayhem against their fellow neighbour, all in the name of misguided religious and political beliefs. Highly Recommended
Harry's Game was first published in 1975 and in my opinion possibly the best book that the author Gerald Seymour wrote in his long and distinguished writing career. He brilliantly shows Belfast in the mid 70's when the "troubles" was at its highest......"It was the adventure playground par excellence for the urban terrorist"....... You can feel the tension, the hatred, the parochial entrenched attitude of both catholic and protestant inhabitants, as they go about their normal day committing murder and mayhem against their fellow neighbour, all in the name of misguided religious and political beliefs. Highly Recommended
June 24, 2021
It's a perfectly ordinary London morning for Henry Denby: a spot of breakfast, a flip through the newspaper, then out the front door to see his wife and children off before the chauffeur arrives to take him to work. Unfortunately for Henry, it's the last time his wife and children will see him alive. Stalking Denby from across the road, an assassin from the military wing of the Provisional Irish Republican Army raises an AK-47 and calmly opens fire. He escapes, leaving behind a screaming widow and her two now-fatherless children.
Denby's crime? He'd just returned to London after an eighteen-month stretch overseeing Long Kesh, a prison run by the British to house and detain those suspected of terrorist activity in Northern Ireland. The sixties have stopped swinging, and The Troubles are afoot.
Unwilling to allow Denby's murder to go unanswered, British intelligence has little to go on except the knowledge their target has returned to Ireland. Their hope now lies in Harry Brown, a long-serving military captain who specializes in undercover operations. Tapped by his government due to his Irish heritage, Harry is taken to a safe house and given a crash course in the geography, politics, and accent of the region he's to insinuate himself into in order to track the fugitive.
The scheme is completely mad -- everyone, including Harry, understands this -- but the longer Denby's killer remains at large, the chance of further political assassinations increases. Harry has, at best, three weeks to catch the unknown gunman. Any longer and the relatively weak cover story concocted for him will stop holding up. For Harry, getting caught will mean game over.
* * * * *
Holy shit, y'all: it's only June, but I've found my front-running candidate for best read of the year. Harry's Game is one of those first novels that you look at with seething jealousy, because it has no right to be as good as it is. Every page of it drips with authenticity. How is this author so intimately familiar with the situation, the politics, and the area?
Then you look into the author's background and suddenly it makes complete sense. Before he turned to writing full-time in the late 70's, Gerald Seymour worked as a journalist for ITV in the UK where he specialized in coverage of military and political violence. He reported on the war in Vietnam, covered the 1972 massacre at the Munich Olympics, spoke with the Baader–Meinhof Group in West Berlin, was on the ground during the Years of Lead socio-political turmoil in Italy, and (most apropos to this novel) spent time embedded in Northern Ireland during the start of The Troubles. Seymour knows it because he was literally telling the rest of the world about it on location.
What's most impressive about Harry's Game is how well Seymour represents all sides of the conflict. In most thrillers, there's a clear demarcation between the "good guy" and the "bad guy". This is, after all, the easiest way to tell the story. Look at Tom Clancy: Jack Ryan's the good guy working for the good guys in the US to bring down the Bad Guys of the Soviet Union, or the Eastern Bloc, or Japan, or whoever's threatening US soil this week. There's nothing wrong with that. Makes for fine, easy reading, doesn't it? Good guy shoots the bad guy, and we can all go home.
But Seymour isn't content to produce 'easy'. Yes, the extra-judicial murder of a political figure is obviously a heinous crime. Then again, so's detaining hundreds of Irish in the British equivalent of Guantanamo without trial. Just because Denby never personally abused someone housed there doesn't absolve him (or the British government, for that matter) of responsibility, and his killing is a vicious reminder of that. "One man's terorrist," Seymour has one character wryly note, "is another man's freedom fighter."
Speaking of our terrorist: we're introduced to him only as "The Man" in the book's opening pages. This nameless, faceless killer blends in with the rest of the early morning London foot traffic, shoots Denby, flees the scene, discards his weapon, and carries out a convoluted series of border crossings, followed by nighttime neighborhood hopping across Northern Ireland to prevent capture. His entire itinerary, from start to finish, has been plotted down to the minute. But while he obviously thinks of himself as a stone-cold killer, it doesn't take long for us to learn he's not the emotionless assassin he wants to be. He has a wife and children back home, and when he's gone away on a mission, their frayed nerves and fears are the price he pays for being good at what he does. We don't learn his name until almost halfway through the book; by the time we do, it's the last piece of the very humanizing puzzle Seymour has spent so many pages letting us put together, which is why I'm not revealing it.
And Harry Brown? Well, Harry's his mirror image: wife and children of his own, called away for long stretches on work he dares not discuss, leaving behind a family who greets every morning with the dread that today they'll receive the news he won't ever be returning home. And make no mistake, Harry's no saint. He's killed before, probably more times than The Man, and not in self defense, but because someone higher up the chain of command ordered it.
But there are more than two sides to this story. It isn't just Protestants and Catholics. Side three is the people who aren't directly involved in The Troubles, but merely trying to survive them. The innocents on the street. The men and women, captured and detained, frisked and humiliated, arrested and released, caught up in sweeps and nets cast wide, who see their friends and family abused by the British military. No matter how hard they try, neutrality is impossible to maintain. As one young woman comes to realize during the course of an interrogation, her life is forfeit either way. If she tells the police what they want to hear, the IRA will see her as a turncoat and kill her to set an example. If she withholds the information (which she never sought out, yet discovered anyway), then she spends what could be the rest of her life in a detention facility, subject to interrogation until she breaks, which brings her back to option one.
Side four is the rank-and-file members of the military, stationed in Northern Ireland because that's where the luck of the posting landed them. Mainly teenagers themselves, hated by the population they're ostensibly there to protect, frequent targets of thrown rocks and Molotov cocktails, shot by snipers while walking down streets, killed to "send a message" which always results in more crackdowns, which in turn result in more "messages" being sent. They're soldiers in an undeclared war, and it's clear their county is perfectly willing to sacrifice them.
Side five is Ireland herself: her streets, cities, towns, and countryside, carved into jagged-edged territories demarcated by miles of corrugated iron fencing, but united in the sounds of marching soldiers, breaking glass, and gunfire which no barriers can keep out. In Seymour's text, there's no sign of the Ireland of the tourist brochures and travel documentaries, the blue skies and poem-inspiring churches. There's only the war-torn hellscape of bombed out buildings, collapsed roofs, burnt lorries, and smashed windows. Seymour's atmosphere of urban guerrilla warfare is a character unto itself, forever lurking in the background, threatening all who come near.
But above all that, there's the tension, the "thrill" part of the thriller. Only in bad television does one single stunning revelation blow the case wide open. Instead, both sides are afflicted by a torturous death of a thousand cuts: a small piece of information let slip by someone innocently results in another thread plucked which threatens to unweave the whole tapestry. Both Harry and The Man are subject to dozens of these -- minor mistakes, none by itself sufficient to do lasting damage, but each one more pebble in an inevitable landslide that could bury them both.
If anything keeps you turning the pages in Harry's Game, it will be this. Watching Seymour laying the bricks and mortar, building up a plot we instinctively sense is not structurally sound enough to protect both men for long, is agonizingly delicious. This is a game for which a positive outcome is forever in doubt, and when Seymour strikes his climax and the jaws of the trap gnash shut, you're left with the feeling there's no other way it could have ended. The conclusion is disturbingly satisfactory in its unsatisfactory-ness, because no other end would be, even could be, appropriate, no matter how much we wish otherwise. The Troubles, after all, didn't reach their ostensible conclusion until the Good Friday Agreements were signed in 1998, while Harry's Game was published in 1975. Only in bad television does one man triumph over insurmountable odds and retire home in time to catch the final reading of the Shipping Forecast.
I am in awe of Gerald Seymour's cold, calculating assuredness of every aspect of this novel. To read Harry's Game is to receive a guided tour through history, a lesson in urban combat, and a first-hand look into the early days of a thirty year conflict which wasn't even a footnote in my education here in the United States. It's a brilliant realization of misery within the printed word, captivating and unrelenting in the way it tortures its reader as much as its characters. Top marks all around.
Harry's Game received a three-part television adaptation in 1982, where the Clannad song embedded above first appeared, though it showed up in 1992's Patriot Games, which also involved the IRA. To my knowledge, it's never been officially released in the US, although in Canada it was distributed on video under the title Belfast Assassin, and it's obviously available in the UK. As if that's not confusing enough, the three-part serial was later edited into a single two hour and ten minute feature which is missing around 30 minutes of footage, making it a less-optimal viewing experience. It makes some minor tweaks and changes from the book (including the ending), but otherwise remains reasonably faithful to the source material. Some of it was shot on location in Belfast and other areas of Ireland, which gives an extra sense of veritas since it was produced only seven years after the book's publication, and I recommend seeking it out even if you aren't interested in reading the novel.
Denby's crime? He'd just returned to London after an eighteen-month stretch overseeing Long Kesh, a prison run by the British to house and detain those suspected of terrorist activity in Northern Ireland. The sixties have stopped swinging, and The Troubles are afoot.
Unwilling to allow Denby's murder to go unanswered, British intelligence has little to go on except the knowledge their target has returned to Ireland. Their hope now lies in Harry Brown, a long-serving military captain who specializes in undercover operations. Tapped by his government due to his Irish heritage, Harry is taken to a safe house and given a crash course in the geography, politics, and accent of the region he's to insinuate himself into in order to track the fugitive.
The scheme is completely mad -- everyone, including Harry, understands this -- but the longer Denby's killer remains at large, the chance of further political assassinations increases. Harry has, at best, three weeks to catch the unknown gunman. Any longer and the relatively weak cover story concocted for him will stop holding up. For Harry, getting caught will mean game over.
* * * * *
Holy shit, y'all: it's only June, but I've found my front-running candidate for best read of the year. Harry's Game is one of those first novels that you look at with seething jealousy, because it has no right to be as good as it is. Every page of it drips with authenticity. How is this author so intimately familiar with the situation, the politics, and the area?
Then you look into the author's background and suddenly it makes complete sense. Before he turned to writing full-time in the late 70's, Gerald Seymour worked as a journalist for ITV in the UK where he specialized in coverage of military and political violence. He reported on the war in Vietnam, covered the 1972 massacre at the Munich Olympics, spoke with the Baader–Meinhof Group in West Berlin, was on the ground during the Years of Lead socio-political turmoil in Italy, and (most apropos to this novel) spent time embedded in Northern Ireland during the start of The Troubles. Seymour knows it because he was literally telling the rest of the world about it on location.
What's most impressive about Harry's Game is how well Seymour represents all sides of the conflict. In most thrillers, there's a clear demarcation between the "good guy" and the "bad guy". This is, after all, the easiest way to tell the story. Look at Tom Clancy: Jack Ryan's the good guy working for the good guys in the US to bring down the Bad Guys of the Soviet Union, or the Eastern Bloc, or Japan, or whoever's threatening US soil this week. There's nothing wrong with that. Makes for fine, easy reading, doesn't it? Good guy shoots the bad guy, and we can all go home.
But Seymour isn't content to produce 'easy'. Yes, the extra-judicial murder of a political figure is obviously a heinous crime. Then again, so's detaining hundreds of Irish in the British equivalent of Guantanamo without trial. Just because Denby never personally abused someone housed there doesn't absolve him (or the British government, for that matter) of responsibility, and his killing is a vicious reminder of that. "One man's terorrist," Seymour has one character wryly note, "is another man's freedom fighter."
Speaking of our terrorist: we're introduced to him only as "The Man" in the book's opening pages. This nameless, faceless killer blends in with the rest of the early morning London foot traffic, shoots Denby, flees the scene, discards his weapon, and carries out a convoluted series of border crossings, followed by nighttime neighborhood hopping across Northern Ireland to prevent capture. His entire itinerary, from start to finish, has been plotted down to the minute. But while he obviously thinks of himself as a stone-cold killer, it doesn't take long for us to learn he's not the emotionless assassin he wants to be. He has a wife and children back home, and when he's gone away on a mission, their frayed nerves and fears are the price he pays for being good at what he does. We don't learn his name until almost halfway through the book; by the time we do, it's the last piece of the very humanizing puzzle Seymour has spent so many pages letting us put together, which is why I'm not revealing it.
And Harry Brown? Well, Harry's his mirror image: wife and children of his own, called away for long stretches on work he dares not discuss, leaving behind a family who greets every morning with the dread that today they'll receive the news he won't ever be returning home. And make no mistake, Harry's no saint. He's killed before, probably more times than The Man, and not in self defense, but because someone higher up the chain of command ordered it.
But there are more than two sides to this story. It isn't just Protestants and Catholics. Side three is the people who aren't directly involved in The Troubles, but merely trying to survive them. The innocents on the street. The men and women, captured and detained, frisked and humiliated, arrested and released, caught up in sweeps and nets cast wide, who see their friends and family abused by the British military. No matter how hard they try, neutrality is impossible to maintain. As one young woman comes to realize during the course of an interrogation, her life is forfeit either way. If she tells the police what they want to hear, the IRA will see her as a turncoat and kill her to set an example. If she withholds the information (which she never sought out, yet discovered anyway), then she spends what could be the rest of her life in a detention facility, subject to interrogation until she breaks, which brings her back to option one.
Side four is the rank-and-file members of the military, stationed in Northern Ireland because that's where the luck of the posting landed them. Mainly teenagers themselves, hated by the population they're ostensibly there to protect, frequent targets of thrown rocks and Molotov cocktails, shot by snipers while walking down streets, killed to "send a message" which always results in more crackdowns, which in turn result in more "messages" being sent. They're soldiers in an undeclared war, and it's clear their county is perfectly willing to sacrifice them.
Side five is Ireland herself: her streets, cities, towns, and countryside, carved into jagged-edged territories demarcated by miles of corrugated iron fencing, but united in the sounds of marching soldiers, breaking glass, and gunfire which no barriers can keep out. In Seymour's text, there's no sign of the Ireland of the tourist brochures and travel documentaries, the blue skies and poem-inspiring churches. There's only the war-torn hellscape of bombed out buildings, collapsed roofs, burnt lorries, and smashed windows. Seymour's atmosphere of urban guerrilla warfare is a character unto itself, forever lurking in the background, threatening all who come near.
But above all that, there's the tension, the "thrill" part of the thriller. Only in bad television does one single stunning revelation blow the case wide open. Instead, both sides are afflicted by a torturous death of a thousand cuts: a small piece of information let slip by someone innocently results in another thread plucked which threatens to unweave the whole tapestry. Both Harry and The Man are subject to dozens of these -- minor mistakes, none by itself sufficient to do lasting damage, but each one more pebble in an inevitable landslide that could bury them both.
If anything keeps you turning the pages in Harry's Game, it will be this. Watching Seymour laying the bricks and mortar, building up a plot we instinctively sense is not structurally sound enough to protect both men for long, is agonizingly delicious. This is a game for which a positive outcome is forever in doubt, and when Seymour strikes his climax and the jaws of the trap gnash shut, you're left with the feeling there's no other way it could have ended. The conclusion is disturbingly satisfactory in its unsatisfactory-ness, because no other end would be, even could be, appropriate, no matter how much we wish otherwise. The Troubles, after all, didn't reach their ostensible conclusion until the Good Friday Agreements were signed in 1998, while Harry's Game was published in 1975. Only in bad television does one man triumph over insurmountable odds and retire home in time to catch the final reading of the Shipping Forecast.
I am in awe of Gerald Seymour's cold, calculating assuredness of every aspect of this novel. To read Harry's Game is to receive a guided tour through history, a lesson in urban combat, and a first-hand look into the early days of a thirty year conflict which wasn't even a footnote in my education here in the United States. It's a brilliant realization of misery within the printed word, captivating and unrelenting in the way it tortures its reader as much as its characters. Top marks all around.
Harry's Game received a three-part television adaptation in 1982, where the Clannad song embedded above first appeared, though it showed up in 1992's Patriot Games, which also involved the IRA. To my knowledge, it's never been officially released in the US, although in Canada it was distributed on video under the title Belfast Assassin, and it's obviously available in the UK. As if that's not confusing enough, the three-part serial was later edited into a single two hour and ten minute feature which is missing around 30 minutes of footage, making it a less-optimal viewing experience. It makes some minor tweaks and changes from the book (including the ending), but otherwise remains reasonably faithful to the source material. Some of it was shot on location in Belfast and other areas of Ireland, which gives an extra sense of veritas since it was produced only seven years after the book's publication, and I recommend seeking it out even if you aren't interested in reading the novel.
October 3, 2021
A first class thriller.
June 3, 2017
This is a superb political/espionage/military thriller and the author is as good as any top thriller writer you care to mention, so I can hardly believe it has taken me so long to discover him. During the 70s and 80s I devoured Le Carre, Deighton and Forsyth, and Gerald Seymour is in the same category — realistic, hard-hitting, revealing and exciting — how did I only start reading him a year ago?
Harry’s Game was Mr Seymour’s first published novel and, quite frankly, is hard to beat on any level. Set in the mid-70s, it tells the story of the assassination in London of a Cabinet minister by an IRA gunman and the British government’s response, which is to train and send in an undercover agent to sniff him out and kill or capture him.
The agent will have to live among the enemy in the highly-charged and violent atmosphere of IRA-controlled Belfast, among people who are constantly on the lookout for suspicious strangers in their midst.
To make the story even more complex and, I would suggest, more realistic, the agent is to be run direct from London because they suspect that an IRA sympathiser is leaking information from Army HQ in Lisburn to the Provisionals. This causes resentment among the army in Ulster against the ‘we know better’ attitude of their mainland colleagues in Intelligence. Only a very people know about the mission in an attempt to protect the agent, Harry Brown but this means, of course, that the squaddies in the streets don't know who he is any more than do the Provos.
That is the plot and Seymour weaves the story around a number of characters, all of whom have depth and feel real: the agent and his handler, the permanent under-secretary in charge of the operation, the prime minister, the IRA assassin, his wife, the IRA chief, people Harry interacts with and various others. Seymour (who was an ITN journalist for fifteen years before turning to writing) must have known Northern Ireland well or did extensive research because he shows us the feelings of the people on both sides of the conflict, reveals their motivations for their actions and loyalties and doesn’t judge or take sides. He shows respect to all involved in The Troubles, which I imagine satisfied readers whether they follow the Union flag or the Irish Tricolour.
Reading this book you get a real sense of the continual fear, anxiety, hatred and distrust felt by ordinary people in an extraordinary situation — a state they lived in for years, as well as the horrific violence that was never far from the surface. This took many forms, from IRA intimidation, knee-cappings and killings to British Army search raids on people's houses - kicking in doors, pulling up floorboards and generally making them feel violated and intimidated, children included.
I will re-read this book because it is a powerful story with no flaws I could detect. I have read three of Gerald Seymour’s novels now and I loved them all. Anyone who loves a good espionage/military/political tale will love it.
5 stars.
Harry’s Game was Mr Seymour’s first published novel and, quite frankly, is hard to beat on any level. Set in the mid-70s, it tells the story of the assassination in London of a Cabinet minister by an IRA gunman and the British government’s response, which is to train and send in an undercover agent to sniff him out and kill or capture him.
The agent will have to live among the enemy in the highly-charged and violent atmosphere of IRA-controlled Belfast, among people who are constantly on the lookout for suspicious strangers in their midst.
To make the story even more complex and, I would suggest, more realistic, the agent is to be run direct from London because they suspect that an IRA sympathiser is leaking information from Army HQ in Lisburn to the Provisionals. This causes resentment among the army in Ulster against the ‘we know better’ attitude of their mainland colleagues in Intelligence. Only a very people know about the mission in an attempt to protect the agent, Harry Brown but this means, of course, that the squaddies in the streets don't know who he is any more than do the Provos.
That is the plot and Seymour weaves the story around a number of characters, all of whom have depth and feel real: the agent and his handler, the permanent under-secretary in charge of the operation, the prime minister, the IRA assassin, his wife, the IRA chief, people Harry interacts with and various others. Seymour (who was an ITN journalist for fifteen years before turning to writing) must have known Northern Ireland well or did extensive research because he shows us the feelings of the people on both sides of the conflict, reveals their motivations for their actions and loyalties and doesn’t judge or take sides. He shows respect to all involved in The Troubles, which I imagine satisfied readers whether they follow the Union flag or the Irish Tricolour.
Reading this book you get a real sense of the continual fear, anxiety, hatred and distrust felt by ordinary people in an extraordinary situation — a state they lived in for years, as well as the horrific violence that was never far from the surface. This took many forms, from IRA intimidation, knee-cappings and killings to British Army search raids on people's houses - kicking in doors, pulling up floorboards and generally making them feel violated and intimidated, children included.
I will re-read this book because it is a powerful story with no flaws I could detect. I have read three of Gerald Seymour’s novels now and I loved them all. Anyone who loves a good espionage/military/political tale will love it.
5 stars.
February 21, 2016
I read this because the music from the TV series hunted me even though I never got to watch the program.
The book is exciting and horrifying (especially for someone brought up with The Troubles featuring on the news every night) and tragic.
It probably feels quite dated now but is worth reading.
The book is exciting and horrifying (especially for someone brought up with The Troubles featuring on the news every night) and tragic.
It probably feels quite dated now but is worth reading.
November 27, 2016
Classic thriller first published in 1975, I found this to be well written with lots of action and a realistic seeming look at Belfast during The Troubles.
April 18, 2018
Seymour is in his groove with this one and once again he's got it right with his characterization, situation and the plot. War isn't really about our morals and higher values, Queen and Country, Mom and apple pie and making the world always a better place. War is like that highschool rugby, hockey or football game, only with weapons that are just a bit more nasty and deadly. I like the way Harry puts it several times during the book when he explains the "Why?" of his situation and the hunt to kill the IRA assassin of British Social Services Minister, Mr. Henry Danby. "They put the glove down----to make us react and see how effectively we could counterattack. ---- We have to get the man and the team that did it----or they've won." The words ring so true as we look at the selection of our military officers, the men and women who didn't know when to quit on the field even when they were in that soccer game and down two goals. The Americans see it in the strategy of the Vietnam and Iraq wars. The Brits see it in Malaysia, Dunkirk and the Kyber Pass. The collateral damage doesn't really matter to those who are in the driver's seat. You lose a man or 50? "He's already had the MC---we could make it a bar to that---- personally I would favor the OBE----the George Cross is a bit more than we usually give in those circumstances---" This is a book we need to ponder. One that should be discussed in our war colleges on the why, or is it still a part of JFK's "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you----" Read it enjoy it, but internalize the message. That's what makes Gerald Seymour a great author.
November 11, 2020
My copy was picked up in a Charity Shop, but I read the book for the first time, probably when quite new. I had just finished his latest Battle Sight Zero, which had same theme to do with undercover work but with new potential enemies. Both heroes broke some of the same rules of such work, but with different outcomes.
January 27, 2020
Amazing thriller about the Troubles. No, an astounding book on the Troubles in its own rights
September 7, 2014
This is a book that I've known about for some time but picked up only recently, thanks to it being mentioned in a local article related to Belfast's One City One Book earlier this year.
Seymour, I know, is now a well established and respected thriller writer, but this book was his first, and tells the tale of Harry Brown, British soldier, born in Portadown, who is sent back to Belfast to go undercover and catch the killer of a British govt minister assassinated in front of his family in London. The book is pretty fast paced, particularly as the story progresses, has a number of exciting twists and turns involving various characters and finishes in an unexpected way at the end-all the hallmarks of a successful genre piece.
Well known local authors who came out of Belfast in the 80s and 90s have been critical of the type of novel that this book helped spawn, with 'outsiders' coming in, spending a short time, then writing about the city in a way that showed no knowledge-it was only when the likes of Glenn Patterson came along and with the end of the troubles that we saw this genre of cheap thrillers peter out and more measured literary works emerging-but in this book, Seymour definitely knows the physical and sectarian geography of the city and the time. He gets a few place names wrong spelling wise etc, but as someone who knows the city well, I was pretty impressed with what I read.
As regards to how accurate a portrayal of how things were at the time, I can't comment, as it was published in the year I was born, but while I'm sure things were exaggerated a little, some of the areas about which he was writing were like war zones from my historical reading, and it was interesting for me to see his portrayal of what was then a contemporary Belfast.
I have ordered the Channel 4 adaptation of the novel on the strength of this enjoyable read, and while I might not rush back to read much more of Seymour's work, I'd definitely recommend this book as an easy read to anyone with an interest in NI at the time.
Seymour, I know, is now a well established and respected thriller writer, but this book was his first, and tells the tale of Harry Brown, British soldier, born in Portadown, who is sent back to Belfast to go undercover and catch the killer of a British govt minister assassinated in front of his family in London. The book is pretty fast paced, particularly as the story progresses, has a number of exciting twists and turns involving various characters and finishes in an unexpected way at the end-all the hallmarks of a successful genre piece.
Well known local authors who came out of Belfast in the 80s and 90s have been critical of the type of novel that this book helped spawn, with 'outsiders' coming in, spending a short time, then writing about the city in a way that showed no knowledge-it was only when the likes of Glenn Patterson came along and with the end of the troubles that we saw this genre of cheap thrillers peter out and more measured literary works emerging-but in this book, Seymour definitely knows the physical and sectarian geography of the city and the time. He gets a few place names wrong spelling wise etc, but as someone who knows the city well, I was pretty impressed with what I read.
As regards to how accurate a portrayal of how things were at the time, I can't comment, as it was published in the year I was born, but while I'm sure things were exaggerated a little, some of the areas about which he was writing were like war zones from my historical reading, and it was interesting for me to see his portrayal of what was then a contemporary Belfast.
I have ordered the Channel 4 adaptation of the novel on the strength of this enjoyable read, and while I might not rush back to read much more of Seymour's work, I'd definitely recommend this book as an easy read to anyone with an interest in NI at the time.
September 30, 2013
This novel, first published in 1975, tells a two-sided tale of terrorism and counter-terrorism on the desperate and brutal streets of Belfast.
In London, a British cabinet minister is shot dead in front of his wife and children by an IRA assassin. The gunman escapes, returning to obscurity in Belfast, but the British security services can't afford to let the IRA thumb their noses at them like that. The Prime Minister steps in, ordering a new face, a man unknown in Belfast, to go undercover and find the assassin. Enter Harry Brown, a captain in the British Army with previous experience of infiltrating hostile territory.
Seymour weaves the story between the two men. We follow IRA man, Billy Downs, through the assassination and subsequent flight from the British mainland, and back in Belfast as he tries to resume his life. Then we meet Harry as he's plucked from duty in Germany for intensive preparation for an undercover mission sanctioned from the very top, but known about by very few.
Seymour is very good at setting the scene. He makes you feel the tension, the fear and the danger rife in Belfast during the Troubles. He shows both sides of the story, but never comes down on any one side. Throughout the book, Seymour shows how the smallest slip-ups lead to secrets on both sides coming out and the tragic consequences of that happening.
The story is tautly written and that helps carry the momentum through to the final confrontation. I didn't think the book needed some of the clean up at the end, where Seymour ties up loose ends for some of the minor characters, but on the whole he didn't waste time with unnecessary detail. This is well worth a read.
In London, a British cabinet minister is shot dead in front of his wife and children by an IRA assassin. The gunman escapes, returning to obscurity in Belfast, but the British security services can't afford to let the IRA thumb their noses at them like that. The Prime Minister steps in, ordering a new face, a man unknown in Belfast, to go undercover and find the assassin. Enter Harry Brown, a captain in the British Army with previous experience of infiltrating hostile territory.
Seymour weaves the story between the two men. We follow IRA man, Billy Downs, through the assassination and subsequent flight from the British mainland, and back in Belfast as he tries to resume his life. Then we meet Harry as he's plucked from duty in Germany for intensive preparation for an undercover mission sanctioned from the very top, but known about by very few.
Seymour is very good at setting the scene. He makes you feel the tension, the fear and the danger rife in Belfast during the Troubles. He shows both sides of the story, but never comes down on any one side. Throughout the book, Seymour shows how the smallest slip-ups lead to secrets on both sides coming out and the tragic consequences of that happening.
The story is tautly written and that helps carry the momentum through to the final confrontation. I didn't think the book needed some of the clean up at the end, where Seymour ties up loose ends for some of the minor characters, but on the whole he didn't waste time with unnecessary detail. This is well worth a read.
February 1, 2015
Frankly stupendous. Seymour's first novel and it addresses that strangely underrepresented subject in literature, the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
It centres around an undercover agent's hunt for an IRA assassin, centred in the heart of Republican areas of West Belfast at the height of the "conflict" in the 1970s. If that premise does not excite you, well heaven help you.
Brilliantly evocative of the period, of the world of thousands of British troops, of in effect Martial law imposed on the small, nationalist communities. It creates the strange dynamics between the British government, the army, the RUC, the intelligence services so effortlessly, it is all in there but nothing laboured.
Masterly tense, the ending makes you weep. There feels no side to Seymour, it just reads like the truth. As hopefully the Troubles are now maybe a matter for historical record, read this and understand how in our lifetimes a city in a democratic, modern European power can descend into urban guerilla conflict, with 10,000s of military personnel deployed, to little positive effect. The book did it justice. It felt an important work, so rare in a thriller. I would give it 6 stars if I could.
It centres around an undercover agent's hunt for an IRA assassin, centred in the heart of Republican areas of West Belfast at the height of the "conflict" in the 1970s. If that premise does not excite you, well heaven help you.
Brilliantly evocative of the period, of the world of thousands of British troops, of in effect Martial law imposed on the small, nationalist communities. It creates the strange dynamics between the British government, the army, the RUC, the intelligence services so effortlessly, it is all in there but nothing laboured.
Masterly tense, the ending makes you weep. There feels no side to Seymour, it just reads like the truth. As hopefully the Troubles are now maybe a matter for historical record, read this and understand how in our lifetimes a city in a democratic, modern European power can descend into urban guerilla conflict, with 10,000s of military personnel deployed, to little positive effect. The book did it justice. It felt an important work, so rare in a thriller. I would give it 6 stars if I could.
July 24, 2008
"A British cabinet minister is gunned down by an IRA assassin. The police trail goes cold, and undercover agent Harry Brown is sent to infiltrate the terrorist organization and get the killer. It's a race against the clock, and one false move will be enough to leave him dead before he reaches his target."
I really dig these 70's adventure novels a la Desmond Bagley, Alistair Maclean, Hammond Innes, etc. This one turns out to be the first novel by Gerald Seymour, an ex TV reporter who covered Ireland and the Troubles for years. All that knowledge served him well in this book. As Harry penetrates deep into the heart of the IRA you get a real sense of how it felt in that time both from the British soldiers perspective and the IRA one. The other interesting thing about this book is that he writes almost as much about the perspective of the IRA assassin as he does about Harry. We see him come home after the hit and try to reintegrate with his family as well as with the military structure of the IRA. All in all, a great book about an era that is quickly fading from the collective memory.
I really dig these 70's adventure novels a la Desmond Bagley, Alistair Maclean, Hammond Innes, etc. This one turns out to be the first novel by Gerald Seymour, an ex TV reporter who covered Ireland and the Troubles for years. All that knowledge served him well in this book. As Harry penetrates deep into the heart of the IRA you get a real sense of how it felt in that time both from the British soldiers perspective and the IRA one. The other interesting thing about this book is that he writes almost as much about the perspective of the IRA assassin as he does about Harry. We see him come home after the hit and try to reintegrate with his family as well as with the military structure of the IRA. All in all, a great book about an era that is quickly fading from the collective memory.
April 28, 2016
An excellent first novel by my current favorite thriller/spy novelist, Gerald Seymour. In the 90's, toward the end of the 'troubles' in Northern Ireland, an IRA killer assassinates a British official in London. The Brits insert Harry, an experienced undercover agent, into the local Belfast population in an attempt to identify and eliminate the assassin. The remainder of the book is a great description of the cat and mouse game, with high stakes, the characters played.
I've read Seymour's work out of sequence due to the (often lack of) availability of his novels at our local library. Reading his first effort so late in my experience with his work has been enlightening. He was great at the beginning and improved, in my opinion, exponentially from there. Harry's Game has it all: excellent writing, great pace, believable dialogue, and a wonderful plot. I don't think the 'tradecraft' was up to the standards that he set later in his writing career, but it was still quite good.
If I had to do it all over again, I'd begin my reading of Seymour's work with this one so I could appreciate his growth as I went along. This was great stuff!
I've read Seymour's work out of sequence due to the (often lack of) availability of his novels at our local library. Reading his first effort so late in my experience with his work has been enlightening. He was great at the beginning and improved, in my opinion, exponentially from there. Harry's Game has it all: excellent writing, great pace, believable dialogue, and a wonderful plot. I don't think the 'tradecraft' was up to the standards that he set later in his writing career, but it was still quite good.
If I had to do it all over again, I'd begin my reading of Seymour's work with this one so I could appreciate his growth as I went along. This was great stuff!
August 18, 2013
Not in anyway a perfect novel, I saw the ending coming because it telegraphed it too obviously, but that didn't detract from the impact as I realised I was right. The tension definitely built throughout and I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys a fantastic thriller.
The fact it is built around a real life conflict (although the events are fictional), in a British city, within living memory, also only makes this even more powerful and haunting.
The fact it is built around a real life conflict (although the events are fictional), in a British city, within living memory, also only makes this even more powerful and haunting.
February 28, 2014
I'm on this quest to find great novels about Belfast during the Troubles. This book gives a vivid sense of place, a bit of physical texture to the desperation of the city. But this is a thriller at heart. I guess it had to end the way it did. I am still looking for THE novel about Northern Ireland during the Troubles.
July 19, 2014
Not what I was expecting at all, and a genuinely eyebrow-raising (in a good way) conclusion. Excellent thriller about the Northern Ireland troubles.
September 8, 2023
In London fällt ein Kabinettminister einem Anschlag der IRA zum Opfer. In dem Chaos, das nach der Tat herrscht, kann der Täter entkommen und es wird schnell klar, dass ihm die Flucht nach Belfast gelungen ist. Deshalb gibt es nur eine Möglichkeit: man muss einen Agenten einschleusen, der sich vor Ort auf die Suche macht. Dafür wird der beste Mann ausgesucht: Harry Brown. Aber auch der beste Mann ist nur so gut, wie seine Aufgabe vorbereitet wurde und dafür ist nur wenig Zeit geblieben.
Gerald Seymour schreibt seinen Thriller zu großen Teilen aus der Sicht der Protagonisten. Auf der einen Seite der Attentäter, der lange nur "the man" genannt wird. Dadurch hat er auf mich wie ein normaler Arbeiter gewirkt, der nur seinen Job gemacht hat. Wahrscheinlich war es das für ihn auch, denn er wirkt sehr distanziert von seiner Tat.
Auch sein Gegner Harry Brown zeigt nur wenige Emotionen. Die Jagd nach dem Attentäter ist auch für ihn ein Job wie alle anderen auch. Er dient seinem Land und hinterfragt nicht die Aufgaben, die man ihm stellt. Harry macht sich auch nur wenige Gedanken über den Nordirlandkonflikt, was ihn ausgelöst hat und welche Rolle sein Land darin spielt. Für ihn ist es nur ein weiterer Kriegsschauplatz, an dem er gebraucht wird. Was den Krieg ausgelöst hat, ist ihm egal. So ist die Suche nach dem Mann kein Kampf Gut gegen Böse, sondern es sind einfach nur zwei Männer, die ihren Job erledigen. Ich muss sagen, dass mir Harry manchmal sogar unsympathischer war, denn er hat bei seiner Arbeit Menschen ausgenutzt und in Kauf genommen, dass sie zu Schaden kommen.
Interessant fand ich die Frauen der beiden Protagonisten. Harrys Frau hat keine Ahnung, was ihr Mann wirklich macht, während die Frau des Attentäters sehr wohl darüber Bescheid weiß. Aber für sie ist er nur Ehemann und Vater ihrer Kinder, alles andere will sie nicht sehen.
Auf der einen Seite merkt man der Geschichte ihr Alter an. Heute wäre Harry wahrscheinlich direkt aufgeflogen, weil seine Tarnung mehr als durchsichtig war. In den 1970er Jahren hat es aber gereicht. In der Zeit vor den sozialen Medien war man auf genaue Beobachtungen und kleinste Bemerkungen angewiesen, um ein Puzzle zusammenzusetzen. Die hat Gerald Seymour immer wieder eingestreut und obwohl ich die Geschichte der beiden Männer kannte, habe ich sie manchmal auch übersehen.
Aber auch wenn der Thriller fast fünfzig Jahre auf dem Buckel hat, ist er nicht langweilig, Im Gegenteil: vielleicht gerade wegen dem eher langsamen Tempo hat er für mich einen starken Sog entwickelt. Ich habe vor Jahren die Verfilmung gesehen und wusste, wie er ausgehen würde, trotzdem ist mir die Lektüre nie langweilig geworden.
Gerald Seymour schreibt seinen Thriller zu großen Teilen aus der Sicht der Protagonisten. Auf der einen Seite der Attentäter, der lange nur "the man" genannt wird. Dadurch hat er auf mich wie ein normaler Arbeiter gewirkt, der nur seinen Job gemacht hat. Wahrscheinlich war es das für ihn auch, denn er wirkt sehr distanziert von seiner Tat.
Auch sein Gegner Harry Brown zeigt nur wenige Emotionen. Die Jagd nach dem Attentäter ist auch für ihn ein Job wie alle anderen auch. Er dient seinem Land und hinterfragt nicht die Aufgaben, die man ihm stellt. Harry macht sich auch nur wenige Gedanken über den Nordirlandkonflikt, was ihn ausgelöst hat und welche Rolle sein Land darin spielt. Für ihn ist es nur ein weiterer Kriegsschauplatz, an dem er gebraucht wird. Was den Krieg ausgelöst hat, ist ihm egal. So ist die Suche nach dem Mann kein Kampf Gut gegen Böse, sondern es sind einfach nur zwei Männer, die ihren Job erledigen. Ich muss sagen, dass mir Harry manchmal sogar unsympathischer war, denn er hat bei seiner Arbeit Menschen ausgenutzt und in Kauf genommen, dass sie zu Schaden kommen.
Interessant fand ich die Frauen der beiden Protagonisten. Harrys Frau hat keine Ahnung, was ihr Mann wirklich macht, während die Frau des Attentäters sehr wohl darüber Bescheid weiß. Aber für sie ist er nur Ehemann und Vater ihrer Kinder, alles andere will sie nicht sehen.
Auf der einen Seite merkt man der Geschichte ihr Alter an. Heute wäre Harry wahrscheinlich direkt aufgeflogen, weil seine Tarnung mehr als durchsichtig war. In den 1970er Jahren hat es aber gereicht. In der Zeit vor den sozialen Medien war man auf genaue Beobachtungen und kleinste Bemerkungen angewiesen, um ein Puzzle zusammenzusetzen. Die hat Gerald Seymour immer wieder eingestreut und obwohl ich die Geschichte der beiden Männer kannte, habe ich sie manchmal auch übersehen.
Aber auch wenn der Thriller fast fünfzig Jahre auf dem Buckel hat, ist er nicht langweilig, Im Gegenteil: vielleicht gerade wegen dem eher langsamen Tempo hat er für mich einen starken Sog entwickelt. Ich habe vor Jahren die Verfilmung gesehen und wusste, wie er ausgehen würde, trotzdem ist mir die Lektüre nie langweilig geworden.
March 3, 2024
This 1970s thriller manages to stand the test of time remarkably well, even as it leans heavily on characters who aren't the most convincing. The opening is great, as "the Man" makes his way through London's morning hustle and bustle, trying carefully to arrive at an appointed place at a precisely appointed time. Carrying a folding-stock Kalshnikov under his overcoat, he's come to London to kill a British Cabinet Minister. This is all spelled out in journalistic descriptive detail, as well as his carefully planned return to Belfast.
The story then turns to the British government's efforts to identify and track down the assassin, but with almost nothing to go on, a desperate plan is hatched to send an undercover man to Belfast to suss out the shooter. And so the story introduces Harry Brown, an Army Captain stationed in Germany who happens to be from Northern Ireland and who did stellar undercover work in Aden. Rushed through preparations, he arrives in Belfast without any of the British intelligence officials there knowing about him.
And so unfolds a gripping cat and mouse game, as the IRA gunman is activated for another high-profile assignment, and Brown struggles to find him before his cover identity is blown. Each man has a wife and kids and yet is driven beyond reason to fulfill his duties. It's a pretty simple premise, but mid-70s Belfast of the Troubles really comes alive. You get sucked into the streets and really feel the oppressiveness and paranoia on both sides. The story doesn't bite off too much, and makes no particular judgements, beyond some predictable skewering of politicians. It builds to a climax that works well and avoids sentiment or valorization. All in all, this has definitely got me interested in reading more by the author.
Note: The book was adapted into a 1982 mini-series for British TV that can be found online, however it hasn't aged particularly well. A much better companion watch is the film "'71"
The story then turns to the British government's efforts to identify and track down the assassin, but with almost nothing to go on, a desperate plan is hatched to send an undercover man to Belfast to suss out the shooter. And so the story introduces Harry Brown, an Army Captain stationed in Germany who happens to be from Northern Ireland and who did stellar undercover work in Aden. Rushed through preparations, he arrives in Belfast without any of the British intelligence officials there knowing about him.
And so unfolds a gripping cat and mouse game, as the IRA gunman is activated for another high-profile assignment, and Brown struggles to find him before his cover identity is blown. Each man has a wife and kids and yet is driven beyond reason to fulfill his duties. It's a pretty simple premise, but mid-70s Belfast of the Troubles really comes alive. You get sucked into the streets and really feel the oppressiveness and paranoia on both sides. The story doesn't bite off too much, and makes no particular judgements, beyond some predictable skewering of politicians. It builds to a climax that works well and avoids sentiment or valorization. All in all, this has definitely got me interested in reading more by the author.
Note: The book was adapted into a 1982 mini-series for British TV that can be found online, however it hasn't aged particularly well. A much better companion watch is the film "'71"
June 11, 2023
Gerald Seymour’s debut novel Harry’s Game (1975) hit the ground running. It’s an accomplished piece of work for a first novel and established him as a top rank thriller writer, and he has yet to disappoint me – though some of his books have a downbeat ending – a reflection of life, of course, though I prefer my fiction to end upbeat.
It’s contemporary – 1974. A British minister is cold-bloodedly shot down in the street in plain view of his children and wife, and the IRA perpetrator gets away. The PM decides that rather than use the regular forces in the mainland and in Northern Ireland, he wants a man-hunter unaffiliated to any official organisation. Of several candidates available, Captain Harry James Brown is selected, flown back from Germany and undergoes three weeks training in Dorset before being sent to Belfast where he is to blend in and attempt to track the shooter and either arrange for his capture or death.
The shooter is Billy Downs. For no good reason Seymour refers to him as ‘the man’ for a considerable chunk of the book. Downs is married with children.
Seymour brings a mass of knowledge and detail concerning the IRA hierarchy, ‘the troubles’, the army in place, and the citizens on both sides of the religious divide. At the time the IRA has suffered several setbacks, with a number of leaders imprisoned, and now rules through fear in order to deter informers. This aspect is conveyed very well indeed.
To a certain extent, Harry views his tracking of Downs similar to a game of chess: some pawns – unsuspecting innocents – might be sacrificed, but the end result is justified. He has no qualms about eliminating a cold-blooded murderer. The danger is real, however: if he is caught by the IRA, he will be tortured and killed – and prove an embarrassment to the British government. Tension builds up to the end of the book.
Cold. Clinical. Thrilling.
It’s contemporary – 1974. A British minister is cold-bloodedly shot down in the street in plain view of his children and wife, and the IRA perpetrator gets away. The PM decides that rather than use the regular forces in the mainland and in Northern Ireland, he wants a man-hunter unaffiliated to any official organisation. Of several candidates available, Captain Harry James Brown is selected, flown back from Germany and undergoes three weeks training in Dorset before being sent to Belfast where he is to blend in and attempt to track the shooter and either arrange for his capture or death.
The shooter is Billy Downs. For no good reason Seymour refers to him as ‘the man’ for a considerable chunk of the book. Downs is married with children.
Seymour brings a mass of knowledge and detail concerning the IRA hierarchy, ‘the troubles’, the army in place, and the citizens on both sides of the religious divide. At the time the IRA has suffered several setbacks, with a number of leaders imprisoned, and now rules through fear in order to deter informers. This aspect is conveyed very well indeed.
To a certain extent, Harry views his tracking of Downs similar to a game of chess: some pawns – unsuspecting innocents – might be sacrificed, but the end result is justified. He has no qualms about eliminating a cold-blooded murderer. The danger is real, however: if he is caught by the IRA, he will be tortured and killed – and prove an embarrassment to the British government. Tension builds up to the end of the book.
Cold. Clinical. Thrilling.
May 30, 2023
I remember reading this book maybe thirty years ago and thinking that it was very good. I was prompted to reread it having recently read Vagabond, another novel by Gerald Seymour set in Northern Ireland after the signing of the Good Friday agreement some twenty five years ago.
Perhaps re-reading it was a mistake, because I was left feeling very dissatisfied by it, and wondering if my earlier judgement was hopelessly misplaced. Of course, in the intervening years I have probably read close to three thousand other books, including some very well crafted thrillers, so my criteria will have been honed; I am certainly not the same person who read it that first time.
And that is not to say that it is a poor book, or even that I didn’t enjoy rereading it. It is more that it struck me as rather simplistic in its tone. I have recently read and enjoyed Seymour’s latest series of novels featuring the dysfunctional Jonas Merrick, from which it is clear that the writer has great talent. I believe that this was his first novel, so perhaps he had not quite found his stride.
Basically, the story follows a soldier sent undercover to infiltrate the Republican community in Belfast after the successful assassination of a leading Conservative politician (clearly based on Airey Neave). Seymour keeps the tension very high, but his characters are highly implausible (particularly the women).
Perhaps re-reading it was a mistake, because I was left feeling very dissatisfied by it, and wondering if my earlier judgement was hopelessly misplaced. Of course, in the intervening years I have probably read close to three thousand other books, including some very well crafted thrillers, so my criteria will have been honed; I am certainly not the same person who read it that first time.
And that is not to say that it is a poor book, or even that I didn’t enjoy rereading it. It is more that it struck me as rather simplistic in its tone. I have recently read and enjoyed Seymour’s latest series of novels featuring the dysfunctional Jonas Merrick, from which it is clear that the writer has great talent. I believe that this was his first novel, so perhaps he had not quite found his stride.
Basically, the story follows a soldier sent undercover to infiltrate the Republican community in Belfast after the successful assassination of a leading Conservative politician (clearly based on Airey Neave). Seymour keeps the tension very high, but his characters are highly implausible (particularly the women).
February 26, 2021
The story follows the aftermath of the assassination of a British cabinet minister by the IRA at the height of the troubles in Northern Ireland. It becomes a matter of pride for the British to identify the assassin and to meat out justice. In an attempt to avoid the usual problems associated with infiltrating the Catholic community they bring in an outsider, Harry Brown, who is now stationed in Germany but has infiltrated a community before in Aden. They also run the operation without contacting any of the senior players in the intelligence community in Northern Ireland.
Harry must find a way to be accepted and then listen out for any information that might lead to the identification of the lone assassin. All the while he knows that one slip could lead to his discovery and then onto a very painful death. Can he hold it all together long enough to succeed.
I was very impressed by this as a first book by Gerald Seymour. The book moves at a good pace and the action are well written and have a sense of realism about them. The read gets drawn into Harry's life and it is uneasy to get the sense of stress and struggle that he must have been going through. Whilst having never lived in NI I did grow in Britain during these times and the picture painted by Seymour is consistent from the view of NI given in the news programmes of the time.
Looking forward to the next book
Harry must find a way to be accepted and then listen out for any information that might lead to the identification of the lone assassin. All the while he knows that one slip could lead to his discovery and then onto a very painful death. Can he hold it all together long enough to succeed.
I was very impressed by this as a first book by Gerald Seymour. The book moves at a good pace and the action are well written and have a sense of realism about them. The read gets drawn into Harry's life and it is uneasy to get the sense of stress and struggle that he must have been going through. Whilst having never lived in NI I did grow in Britain during these times and the picture painted by Seymour is consistent from the view of NI given in the news programmes of the time.
Looking forward to the next book
June 24, 2018
My second book by Gerald Seymour. I've enjoyed them both.
After a British cabinet minister is killed in London by an IRA assassin, the PM orders a military man to be dropped into Belfast to find the killer. All is hush-hush so that only a few in the British intelligence and military service know about the mission. Harry, the chosen man, is on his own and has very little support from London. The secrecy of his mission leads to some bureaucratic fowl-ups that bear prominently on the story's outcome.
Seymour keeps you in the edge of your seat. As the story unfolds we meet a variety of characters. One theme that he folded in nicely is the role played by various wives to the protagonists. In some cases the wives over-shadowed the husbands.
A great yarn.
After a British cabinet minister is killed in London by an IRA assassin, the PM orders a military man to be dropped into Belfast to find the killer. All is hush-hush so that only a few in the British intelligence and military service know about the mission. Harry, the chosen man, is on his own and has very little support from London. The secrecy of his mission leads to some bureaucratic fowl-ups that bear prominently on the story's outcome.
Seymour keeps you in the edge of your seat. As the story unfolds we meet a variety of characters. One theme that he folded in nicely is the role played by various wives to the protagonists. In some cases the wives over-shadowed the husbands.
A great yarn.
March 21, 2021
This book has been very special to me as it was one of my favourite books some 20 years back. Since then, I'd been looking for the book but had forgotten the name and other details.
I thought I'd try my luck on this platform to search the book, when I discovered Goodreads. Speaks volumes about the quality of people here, when I was guided to this book, based only on a loose plot description in my request.
My wife gifted me the book, it's 40th edition, on my 40th birthday! Must must must read for aficionados of this genre.
What I like in particular about this book is that both the protagonist and the antagonist aren't described as superhuman, as is wont in similar books. Their vulnerability, their apprehensions, their drawbacks, are all so well sketched out.
I thought I'd try my luck on this platform to search the book, when I discovered Goodreads. Speaks volumes about the quality of people here, when I was guided to this book, based only on a loose plot description in my request.
My wife gifted me the book, it's 40th edition, on my 40th birthday! Must must must read for aficionados of this genre.
What I like in particular about this book is that both the protagonist and the antagonist aren't described as superhuman, as is wont in similar books. Their vulnerability, their apprehensions, their drawbacks, are all so well sketched out.
June 13, 2018
For me, this was the book that kindled my interest in spies and espionage. In its day there was nothing that could touch it and indeed, it was probably the first novel to deal with the undercover war in Northern Ireland.
The story of a British spy in the heart of IRA territory sets the narrative for one of the best books Gerald Seymour has ever written. He clearly exploited his Security Force contacts for details that added to the authenticity of the story, as well as calling on his journalistic experiences.
A book I look back on with very fond memories for shaping not just my literary tastes but also my future career.
The story of a British spy in the heart of IRA territory sets the narrative for one of the best books Gerald Seymour has ever written. He clearly exploited his Security Force contacts for details that added to the authenticity of the story, as well as calling on his journalistic experiences.
A book I look back on with very fond memories for shaping not just my literary tastes but also my future career.
April 21, 2024
Early Gerald Seymour. A clear-eyed look at the Northern Ireland troubles. A British minister is assassinated in London, and the British senior authorities decide, against advice, to send an undercover agent into Belfast to find the assassin. Seymour uses this plot to develop the futility of the war between the IRA and British troops. The violence is bad enough, but Seymour pitilessly brings out the toll on non-combatants on both sides. Even the undercover man finds time to reflect on the
horrors of the conflict. Written in 1975 when the conflict was still hot, the book should have been popular but not enough to end the killings.
horrors of the conflict. Written in 1975 when the conflict was still hot, the book should have been popular but not enough to end the killings.
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