The Negotiator - Book Review

After reading The Afghan, I needed one good Frederick Forsyth novel to boost my liking for my favorite author. The Negotiator did not disappoint me. Yes, the ending was a bit too fast and a tad bland without the usual great twist to the tale, but the novel is worth reading just for the first 300 pages.

The Negotiator has its share of layers that Forsyth is famous for, but the layers are not as differentiated as I have seen in his other novels. This results in us being able to guess to a good degree on the relationship between the threads. The threads in the novel are:
1) Oil resources depleting in USSR (yes, the book was written during the period of the undivided Soviet republic) and the army chief planning to launch an attack on a Saudi nation
2) Oil resources depleting in USA and an oil tycoon evaluating alternate options to get oil
3) The new US president getting into a demilitarization deal with his soviet counterpart. The arms suppliers in US, the army personnel in the USSR and few others preparing to thwart the demilitarization plan
5) The planning of a coup in Saudi Arabia
6) A student in a university in England
7) Mercenaries from Belgium
8) A negotiator

I found the vintage Forsyth touches in these places:
a) The title of the novel gives the impression that most of the novel would be about the negotiation. But the fact that the negotiation ended half way into the novel was interesting
b) The "introduction" of the president's son in true Forsyth style
c) The dialogues in the flight from USA to UK wh the negotiator meets the CIA folks

It is a good novel with fast paced action. But I am a bit disappointed with some aspects of it.
a) I was expecting all threads to converge at the climax stages, but some of them ended early. The story of the banker in Arabia had the potential to build into something great, but just frittered away.
b) Of the numerous intelligent agents from the US and UK, I expected some one to do something astonishing. But they too turned out to be like the cops in Indian movies who just watch the hero handle the bad guys.
c) What was the part of the KGB except for giving the hero a good shave and some money?
d) What about the protagonist’s friends in Spain. Poor folks were mercilessly wasted in the novel