Author: Roger Neetz
ISBN: 978-1-58982-592-5
Publisher: American Book Publishing Group
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Here To Purchase Embassy Intrigue Generally I do not find novels driven by political intrigue and embassy
life terribly interesting, but Roger Neetz’s
Embassy Intrigue managed to hold the attention of even me. Neetz, a man who spent his
career working with the CIA, breathes life into a tale of clandestine operations and covert agendas surrounding a newly appointed diplomat’s
introduction into the intricate web of international politics during the Cold War. Neetz’s writing style, organization of plot, and approach
to his subject kept me turning the pages of a book that would have
otherwise been likened to pulling teeth for me to finish. My only
dissatisfaction with Embassy Intrigue is the sheer quantity of grammatical errors I ran across while reading. At times, I felt more
like a proofreader than a reader.
Roger Neetz shows his prowess
with the pen with his ability to manage a veritable myriad of characters
who come and go as Embassy Intrigue progresses. Also, I found it
refreshing that the sentence structures utilized throughout the novel
were patient and deliberate with an overall pace that remained
steady. With an uncanny anticipation of his readers’ short spans of
attention, Neetz often changes the gears of his narrative by
switching perspectives and exploring different characters and angles of
the events that unfold. Amidst the gear shifting, Neetz even found
time to examine themes like religion, the ethics of might-makes-right,
courage and cowardice, and many more with charm and brevity. These
attributes combined make Embassy Intrigue a work of deft and thoughtful
fiction.
That being said, I was very disappointed with how many
grammatical errors I encountered throughout the novel. I lost count how
many times “the” was erroneously used instead of “that”. What
shocked me even further was that, for some reason, there were several
cases where a character’s name was misspelled—I found an instance
where the main character Eric Kempner’s last name was given an alternate
spelling; also, Seymour Fogwell’s first name was misspelled once;
Sam Jaffe’s last name was found missing a letter once; and even Phil
Gotleib’s last name was incorrectly typed twice on the same page.
There was also a case where an Ursula Benig inexplicably refers to Eric
Kempner as Erica. These errors give the impression that the novel
was published as an unfinished product, marring an otherwise
proficiently written narrative.
Embassy Intrigue has an
engaging plot written with effective sentence structure and overall
pacing. Neetz used his prior life experience to weave a tale that
feels as though it really happened. With perspective shifts and a
thoughtful and deliberate writing style, I never felt myself getting
bored. However, the poor editing of the novel is absolutely
inexcusable.
Still, I must say, the strengths of Roger Neetz’s book
far outweigh the weakness in editing. Overall, I recommend this novel to
anyone with even the minutest interest in fiction driven by
political intrigue.
Click Here To Purchase Embassy Intrigue