Dirty Deeds Done Cheap
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- $5.99
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
Pete Mercer takes us on an unforgettable journey through the dangerous backstreets of 21st-century Iraq, and reveals that the realities of the ongoing War on Terror are not all that they seem.Northern Iraq, 2004 - a lawless region so dangerous the regular coalition armies were reluctant to put their soliders in harm's way. Enter the 'civilian contractors': private armies in all but name. Working alongside the US Army, men from all corners of the globe volunteered to risk their lives day after day fighting someone else's war - and all for a few bucks and a suntan...One of these mercenaries was Pete Mercer. An ex-Royal Marine and former member of the navy's elite SBS, Pete's been to some pretty hot places but even he didn't know what to expect. During 15 months of high-tempo missions putting him literally right on the firing line, the frenetic life of the mercenary changed from one week to the next. Only the constants remained: dirt, danger, excitement, and the ever-present gallows humour in the face of huge casualty rates. Sent on suicidal runs designed to draw out the enemy insurgents, Pete's team were expendable men, charged with making the hard yards on behalf of the most sophisticated army in the world. Any when the orders started coming right from the top - from the CIA itself - things really started to heat up...
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Edinburgh Insp. John Rebus is far and away the greatest creation of best-selling author Ian Rankin, but neither the brooding, dogged detective nor his creator is well-served by this amateurish book. Cabell begins with an interesting premise: "I'm simply interested in the man and his creation here and the parallels between them." There are parallels, and Cabell strives mightily to unearth how Rankin developed his popular character (Rebus was "retired" in the 2007 novel Exit Music) through a combination of close reading of the books and interviews. But the results are rarely satisfactory. The writing is sloppy, and the insight isn't insightful enough to really "explain" the riddle that is John Rebus. Some of the best observations come from Rankin himself ("I think Rebus joined the Police Force because it allowed him to be a voyeur it allowed him to look into other people's lives rather than look into his own."). Cabell is better when he explores Rankin's other main character, Scotland, and, in particular, Edinburgh and the stark contrast between its public, tourist-friendly face and its background of crime and corruption. (He also provides some literary insight, pointing out the connections between Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in the Rankin novels Knots and Crosses and Hide and Seek.) The volume includes nice photos of Rankin and Rebus's Edinburgh haunts as well as summaries of Rankin TV shows and a Rankin bibliography.
