Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN num: 9780552150446
ISBN number: 0552150444
Label: Corgi Books
Manufacturer: Corgi Books
Page Count: 469
Printing Date: September 01, 2004
Publishing house: Corgi Books
Sale Popularity Level: 1238914
Studio: Corgi Books
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A young American aid volunteer, Ricky Colenso, is brutally murdered in former Yugoslavia. His grandfather, the Canadian billionaire Steven Edmond, is bent on revenge. The quest to find Ricky's murderer leads Edmond to Cal Dexter, ex-Vietnam Special Forces, the one man who could bring the killer to justice. But what starts as a personal, domestic tragedy soon explodes into a terrifying drama on the centre stage of world terrorism. From the battlefield of Vietnam via war-torn Serbia to the jungles of Central America, 'Avenger' is packed with riveting detail, breathtaking action and political suspense, while in Cal Dexter we meet an unforgettable hero in the most dynamic Forsyth tradition.
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Rated by buyers 
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You only have to read the prologue to understand that you have picked up a masterpiece in thriller/fiction writing. Though this novel is fiction, the facts are juxtaposed brilliantly. The tunnel rats exercises in Vietnam, the mujahedeen madrasas in Saudia and Afghanistan, the Talebani fanaticism and of course the tracking of Osama Bin Laden and how the Avenger almost plucks the joker right out of the pack of the American Intelligence services makes for thrilling reading.
It starts with the brutal murder of a teenager who leaves his studies and passionately pursues giving his all as an aid worker in strife torn Bosnia by a group of politically fed Serbian terror gang known as Zoran's Wolves who are looked after by the Marshall Tito regime.
The grandfather of the boy who is a business magnate enlists the services of a Tracker and the Avenger to get to the bottom of the mystery involving his missing grandchild. The strategising of the Avenger in hunting the Serbian ganglord is pure genius. This is pulse reading and you can't help but acknowledge Forsyth as a master writer.
It is amazing that this book has not been turned into a film yet. It has all the spice to make it a cracker!
Rated by buyers -
I just finished this book and I am totally satisfatied. It's like I had a great meal.
Rated by buyers -
This appealed to me simply because I have an interest in 'vengeance' storylines as opposed to revenge, and although I enjoyed it it didn't move me in particular, not emotionally at least. It was a tremendous odyssey however, winging its way from such unusual places as Vietnam to Canada to Dubai and on to Surinam - among many others. Chief among those others was Bosnia, and I have to admit I welcomed this history lesson about a series of conflicts that I never truly understood as well as I do now, thanks to Fred! Likewise the guerrilla warfare in Vietnam, even the Second World war - how superbly the author entwines fact with fiction and fills us with, if we're honest, a lot of unexpected knowledge on the way through this somewhat long-drawn-out mission of justice. Thanks to fascinating background on the central character of Cal Dexter, in particular his years as a 'tunnel rat' against the tactically superior Viet Cong army, we know that he is more than capable of carrying out the seemingly impossible task of finding and returning the Serbian war-lord to the paymaster who recruited him for his role of avenger. The tale contains more than passing associations with Al Qaeda too, and their 9/11 strikes, leaving the reader to wonder how it might have been avoided, or how Usama Bin Laden could have been found just days later. Not classic Forsyth I guess, but a mightily interesting tale nonetheless, and worth reading more than once.
Rated by buyers 
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This is a good story but not up to Forsyth's previous efforts. I found it difficult to connect the sub-plots early on, but everything eventually came together and sped to an exciting conclusion. Some careless editing, however: "Pres." for "President" and "Dir." for "Director."
Rated by buyers -
A taut, clever tale brimming with backstory, 2003's "The Avenger" is a nice return to form for Frederick Forsyth, recalling if not attaining his "Day Of The Jackal" peak and showing there's life in the old boy yet.
Attorney Calvin Dexter lives quietly and alone in Pennsylvania after the deaths of his daughter and his wife. Unknown to everyone else, he leads a second life as self-styled "Avenger" for hire, calling upon skills honed as a tunnel rat in Vietnam to help other grieving families achieve closure by bringing those who have hurt them to justice. He needs all those skills when he takes on ex-Serbian paramilitary boss Zoran Zilic, whose Bond-villain name comes with a coastal fortress Blofeld might call home.
Reading Forsyth of late has been a disappointing experience for me; I picked up this book not knowing what to expect. "Icon" and "Fist Of God," his previous two novels, started strong only to peter out, hobbled by excessive exposition and plots that unfolded too neatly, drained of suspense. "Avenger" has a lot of exposition, and a neat wrap-up, yet it actually works very well this time, in part because Forsyth's writing has tightened and also because he has a real story to tell, one that resonates in the same way as his early classics.
The plot is engaging like "Jackal" because you don't quite know what the protagonist is up to. In "Avenger," like "Jackal," you are given a lead character operating alone and in secret, the differences being that Calvin Dexter is a sympathetic figure and known to you by name. We spend a good deal of time seeing Dexter in the time before his current life began, including a terrific sequence explaining the whole Tunnel Rat idea. A bit more exposition than needed, perhaps, especially when we travel to Dunkirk in 1940, but that's Forsyth's style, something his fans enjoy and others should allow for.
When the book begins to take off, however, it really soars, especially when the CIA gets involved. Zilic, see, is no ordinary exiled baddie, but one who has connections in the global underworld. And there's one man in particular who, as August turns into September of 2001, that CIA counter-terrorism boss Paul Devereaux would like Zilic's help in eliminating.
Devereaux is a complicated figure. He'd be the villain in almost anyone else's book, no question, as he works to keep Zilic safe. But Forsyth is wrestling with the problem of how to fight evil in today's world, and poses the question to the reader in an interesting way. This gives "Avenger" a kind of twist that makes it special in the Forsyth canon. Does the end justify the means? Is it better to leave Zilic to prey on his dozens of innocent victims to stop someone else from preying on hundreds of thousands?
Forsyth doesn't present any easy answers, just a tough story that keeps you reading. Dexter's confrontation with Zilic feels rushed, and it seems Forsyth could have done more with it than he did. Like the whole Avenger identity, you don't exactly buy it, but you enjoy it just the same. It's easy work enjoying Forsyth this time around, and hopefully there's more to come as Forsyth rediscovers the balance between giving history lessons and a ripping good yarn.
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