The fascinating detail of scene and characters slowed the pace without irritation. The build up of tension about the main character was uncomfortably relentless and contributed to the excellence of this book. I received this as a LibraryThing Member GiveAway. Thank you. ( )

A very well developed spy thriller with the main character (Conrad) that we can root for. The author goes into a lot of detail on the going on in Beirut during the period that the story takes place. Plenty of action takes place in the book to keep the reader fully involved. The ending was very good and left room for further adventures with Conrad. I would recommend this book to everyone liking a good spy thriller. I will be looking for more books by this author. ( )

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I didn't know anything about Beirut or the Lebanese Civil War before I started reading and still was immediately drawn into the whole conflict. The author slowly but surely explained the various parties involved, a bit of history and built a superb atmosphere. I really felt that I was there, following the protagonist to his clandestine meetings, watching his back for tails and trying to survive in the middle of a war zone.
While there's no James Bond-style shoot-outs, there's plenty of action in the book with a realistic portrayal of the sometimes boring field work of an intelligence officer.

The only part I didn't enjoy as much was the end. It didn't feel like the plot really came together and the whole story kind of ended with a damp squib.

I'm looking forward to the next book in the series and the author is definitely going on my watchlist.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of the book in exchange for a fair review. ( )

Since I received my first book by [Preston Fleming] through Library Thing I have been impressed. [Dynamite Fishermen] did not disappoint me. I really enjoy the way he tells a story and believe Conrad Prosser could compete with Jack Ryan. Except maybe not a pure as Ryan which makes him more credible as a government employee.

The setting of Beirut in the 1980's really was in intriguing setting especially growing up in the 1980's and remembering the weekly new reports. This is an often forgotten time of American history when we supported Iraq and Saddam. I hope this book is widely read by a younger generation and gives them a new perspective of America in the Middle East. Also it was an awesome book. ( )

I received this book as a part of a member giveaway, and in a weird was I loved and hated this book in equal amounts. I loved how much data and detail Fleming put into creating the space to write this story in, but with that detail comes lengthy and time consuming reading. Obviously the author is keen on telling the story, but readers might not always know the backstory. There were multiple times where I had to look up names, places, or terms. It's diffucult to want more detail in some places, and less in others. In short, this is a really good book for those who enjoy the spy thriller genre, and well done with the research behind it. ( )