It is almost like two stories in one as equal time is invested in getting to know the main characters on both sides. He reaffirmed that he had the signed permission of the soldiers' families, including Kealy's wife, to mention them in the book.

The sons of the sheikh had been military combatants in various efforts in Oman and as such were killed in military combat by British SAS (Special Air Services) men. If its true then it is an astonishing account of the machinations of a world which could only be related by a man of Ran Fiennes' amazing experience.If it is as non-fiction as it claims to be, this book renders 007’s evil at the Grade school level, and even limits Le Carre to early post-secondary stuff.

Unfolding over 20 years, the killers are very successful despite the efforts of a private overwatch group known as The Feather Men, a secret group that tried to protect current and former SAS men. Having said that, as regards the Killer Elite, both the film and the book are well worth watching and reading. In 2011, Fiennes stated in an interview with The Daily Beast: "I had chose [have chosen] to change my mind from time-to-time in terms of answering people, and at the moment, I choose to say that the book, and therefore the film, are total fiction. Then he arranged with the Clinic to kill the servicemen believed responsible for the deaths of his sons. Frankly, it's just another example of the Special Forces' reputation being exploited for commercial gain.I don't know if the director of that film, Joseph Mankiewitz, was still alive at the time of the final communist victory in Vietnam in 1975, but if he was, I hope he had the grace to feel at least slightly ashamed of himself for having so perverted the original film.

I will certainly read it again one day, before too long, if only to appreciate better the importance of the leading chapters, as well as recapture the thrill of the story itself. Well in Killer Elite even Chairman Mao is quoted, “In given conditions a bad thing can lead to good results. From 1977 to 1990, three hired assassins known as the Clinic tracked down and murdered four former British soldiers, one at a time.Only when Danny provides proof of their execution - which must be made to appear accidental - and a taped confession of their guilt, will Hunter be released. Describing Fiennes' claims as "disgraceful", she stated that her mother had confronted the author at the Hay Festival, and he had admitted to her that the story was a work of fiction. It is a sad fact of life that “in democratic societies that there are no-go areas where crime thrives and innocent citizens are preyed upon yet where the police are powerless to act. It was written like a non-fiction work (every acronym or slightly unusual word was then explained in brackets, frequently quite unnecessarily), and the "exciting" scenes were told in a completely matter-of-fact way, losing any sense of tension.

To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. I will not give away too much suffice it to say that it is a riveting read and is highly recommended. I found this book a slog to get through, and kept checking the percentage progress in the hopes of seeing it leap forward. There were several times I wondered what Truman Capote would have done had he been presented this story to tell, but the basic fact is, Capote would never have found himself in the position this author did. I do regret that I read this book either side of November 11th , Armistice Day) , which actually fell on Remembrance Sunday this year.Well written with at times too much detail but on reflection it was needed to ensure the reader understood fully what was going on. Like a number of other readers, I came to this book via the movie, which was such a success that it caused the author and the publisher to change the book's title from the original (The Feather Men). Once I’d grasped the plot, I surprised myself in realising that I had actually begun to rather enjoy it; that is if a reader, who in this situation is essentially a voyeur, can actually claim to be favorably interested in seedy sex, brutal violence and carefully calculated cold blooded killing. Readers will be given pause, however, by Fiennes's wont to romanticize vigilante justice and his assertion that for 20 years the British ``have had good reason to be grateful for the Feather Men's protective presence. For better or worse, I almost never read a book without finding out what it's about, but I do wish I hadn't read the foreword until I'd gotten into the story.