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The Eiger Sanction

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The Eiger Sanction

By: Trevanian
Narrated by: Joe Barrett
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About this listen

 In a renovated Gothic church on Long Island lives Jonathan Hemlock, an art professor and a world-renowned mountain climber who finances his black-market art collection by working as a freelance assassin.

Now, Hemlock is being tricked into a hazardous assignment that involves an attempt to scale one of the most treacherous mountain peaks in the Swiss Alps: the Eiger. His target is one of his three fellow climbers. The problem is that the CII can't tell him which one.

This spine-tingling adventure, part thriller and part satire, introduces an intriguing cast of villains, traitors, and beautiful women into a highly charged atmosphere of danger and suspicion that builds to a death-defying climax.

©2000 Rod Whitaker (P)2009 Blackstone Audio, Inc. Action & Adventure Espionage Genre Fiction Literature & Fiction Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Psychological Satire Spies & Politics Suspense Thriller & Suspense Comedy Fiction Witty

Critic Reviews

"Superior suspense on almost every page...the hero is a masterpiece of conflicting qualities - something for everyone." ( New York Times)
"Trevanian can write hoops around Ian Fleming." ( Boston Globe)
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A skillful and entertaining assassination thriller. Leaning heavily on James Bond but with some very detailed and interesting mountain climbing information thrown in for good measure. However, it has not aged well since the 70s when it was written and includes some cringingly dated sexual and racial stereotypes.

James Bond meets mountain climbing

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Trevanian is very good at building and fleshing out his characters. Even the smaller ones. This novel is a great into to Jonathan Hemlock, I prefer the second novel only by a small margin and only wish there were more.

Excellent

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I have only read one other Trevanian novel, the marvellous Shibumi and had always intended to read more. The time had come.

I saw Clint Eastwood's film version as a teen and had thought little of it. Rodney William Whitaker aka Trevanian also thought the film a failure. "The Eiger Sanction is a satire and they played it straight. It was dumb"

Whitaker was a scholar who decided to write a novel in a bestseller format as an academic exercise. It turned into a lucrative career. Shibumi, the tale of an assassin with mystical tendencies is the best of his five multi-million sellers but The Eiger Sanction is no slouch.

Dr Jonathan Hemlock is a mountain climber/art expert who lives in an old church filled with with illegally acquired paintings by the impressionistic masters. Way beyond his means as a University lecturer, he funds his art collection by working as a part time assassin for a secretive US government agency. When he is not killing, climbing or drinking top shelf champagne he is pleasuring women with names like Felicity Arse and Randy Knickers....... it is a satire styled on Bond after all. Anyways, his latest assignment is a sanction on an unidentified climber, a member of the team who are about to tackle the notorious north face of the Eiger.

The plotting is crisp and clean, the language florid, the research impeccable and the characters well realised. The result is capricious, entertaining and as for the satire, but for the outrageous names of the ladies, mostly subtle.

Fun, Smart and Entertaining

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It took me a while to get used to the style and pace, but it was refreshing and worth it. The old terms and even attitudes were a pleasure.

Enjoyable

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Had I not been sick and in need of something to doze to, I would not have persevered.

A vulgar story

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I quite enjoyed this book. It was a little different, the rock climbing element was just enough.

Something a little different

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Racism, sexism, denigrating of people with disabilities. If the plot, writing and characters were worth it, I might try to contextualise it historically and push through, but they're not.

Erk

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