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Book Jacket

Sentinel:
A Spycatcher Novel
by Matthew Dunn

Publisher: William Morrow
Publication date: 08/07/2012.
Thrillers, 400 pp.

Number of reader reviews: 24
Readers' Consensus: 4.0
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First Impressions: Page 4 of 4
Rated 3 of 5 of 5 by Judith M. (San Diego, CA)

Cold Spies
I just could not get interested in Sentinel. The first few pages were exciting, but afterwards the story dragged on until I finally gave up. Although the author seemed to know his facts, I just did not care about the characters so failed to form any emotional attachment to them. I gave it a 3 because I felt real dedicated espionage readers might find something to their liking that I did not.

Rated 2 of 5 of 5 by Georgette I. (Oxford, GA)

Sentinel
If you are familiar with the spy novel genre via Clancy, Le Carre and Ludlum etc., “Sentinel” by Matthew Dunn will disappoint. Although the book starts off with a bang, it quickly becomes one very long and tedious road trip. Traveling miles and miles of desolate, frozen roads from Ukraine to Russia both on foot and in cars occupies most of the novel. Granted, there are the usual forgers and counterfeiters, agents from various intelligence agencies, and double-crossers but their characters are undeveloped and pretty much left behind as the main character, an M16 field officer attempts to stop a war between Russia and the United States. The premise of the plot is not very believable and the surprise ending really isn’t much of a surprise. Hope that Dunn’s next Spy Catcher is more adept.

Rated 1 of 5 of 5 by Elizabeth L. (Salem, Oregon)

A Big Disappointment
The author may have the skills needed to write a report for one of his 70 successful missions (per the back cover) but he does not have the ones needed to write a novel. I found myself wincing at his phrasing and sentence construction on nearly every page and thus found it very hard to get into the story.

Luckily the plot was the same stone cold killer, super strategist and sexual dynamo with a (sadly alienated) heart of gold that I've read many times before - see Jason Bourne, Jack Reacher, etc. - so I didn't have to expend much brain power in following along. The one thing I didn't see coming was that the Will was a deer whisperer (pg. 149); a first in this genre!

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