A Good Thriller discussion

Paul wrote: "Susan wrote: "And which book might that be, Paul?"

This one Susan, ‘The Silencer’: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

The protagonist becomes a prime target for two reason..."

Thanks Paul. Sounds ... sinister :)

Most people have a problem with the various organs of the British intelligence community, typified by a seeming inability to work out which is which. There are three main organs. The least-mentioned is the biggest: Government Communications Headquarters, (GCHQ) based in a vast doughnut-shaped complex outside Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. Its task is mainly signals intelligence. Alongside GCHQ is the Security Service or MI5. Its task is in-country security against foreign espionage, foreign and domestic terrorism and home-grown treachery. The one regarded as the more glamorous is the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), usually referred to by a title it renounced years ago as MI6. Those inside the SIS call it the Office; those outside use the phrase the Firm, and the staffers of the Firm are the Friends. Not to be confused with the CIA, which is the Agency or the Company, its staff are the Cousins.
There is often confusion between the Secret Service and the Security Service, but everyone remotely concerned is universally described by those on the outside with another misnomer, that of “spy”. The true spy is almost certainly a foreigner employed deep inside the clandestine fabric of his own country who is prepared to abstract his country’s covert information and hand it over to his real employers.
The go-between is called an “asset” and the full-time employee who runs him is his “handler”. There is the relatively new nomenclature of “spook” but I never heard the word “spy” used within that world. Only newspapers and television use it, usually wrongly.
In late 1968 I was sought out by a member of the Firm called Ronnie. He made no bones about what he was and we hit it off. There are times in your life when you meet someone and in short order decide that he is a thoroughly decent fellow and you can trust him. If you are ever deceived in this later, it is like a hot dagger.
Ronnie was an orientalist with good Mandarin but to his bewilderment had been made head of the Africa desk. He admitted he knew little about Africa and less about what was really going on inside Biafra, the breakaway eastern region of Nigeria that was at war with the central government.
What he did know was that I had reported from Biafra for the BBC — and had resigned after it banned me from going back there for refusing to toe the British Establishment’s dishonest official line on the conflict. Since then I had been reporting on the war as a freelance. Before first going to Biafra, I had been given a minutely detailed briefing by a man from the West African Service of Bush House, the famed BBC World Service, the official voice of Britain.
The east, he said, was the homeland overwhelmingly of the Ibo people, whose collective character was long-term trouble­some. On a spurious basis and led by the military governor of the region, a self-serving rogue called Colonel Emeka Ojukwu, they had declared secession from the very fine republic of Nigeria. Its head of state, the marvellous Colonel Yakubu Gowon, had no choice but to use the federal army to reconquer the east, which was styling itself the Republic of Biafra.
When I reached Enugu, the Biafran capi­tal, and recounted this briefing to the British deputy high commissioner, Jim Parker, who was stationed there and was steeped in knowledge of the country, he listened grim-faced and then put his face in his hands.
The reason became clear as he explained to me what was really going on. Every word I had been given was complete and utter garbage, but it was the official view of Harold Wilson’s government. When I subse­quently reported the truth back to London, I was accused of bias.
By the time Ronnie approached me, after 15 months of the Nigeria-Biafra ­conflict, the Nigerian army was being ­quietly equipped with torrents of British weaponry, shipped out covertly by the Wilson government, which was assuring one and all that it was neutral.
But a debate was beginning and was made more intense by the torrent of ­hideous pictures showing Biafran babies reduced to barely alive skeletons. Public marches were start­ing in London; notable ­figures were protesting.
The debate might be at a very high level and in complete secrecy but the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), which backed the Nigerian government, was fighting a rearguard action for the minds of the vacillating Wilson government.
I think Ronnie and I spent about 20 hours over several days while I explained how bad things were: children were now dying like flies. Had I not trusted his word, I would never have agreed to what came next.
THE task of SIS is foreign information-gathering and its presence is worldwide, with a “station” somewhere in almost all British embassies and ­sometimes ­consulates. Basically, it seeks to discover and forewarn.
Politicians are wont to sneer when in opposition but drool with pleasure when, in office, they are taken to a quiet room to explained to them what is really going on rather than what they thought was going on.
Politicians loathe being taken by ­surprise, but forewarning depends on knowing what the bad people are planning, are intending or have in mind. As that is rarely given away, it has to be discovered clandestinely. Hence the espionage.
This broadly devolves into three ­categories: electronic intelligence or Elint, the scouring of the surface of the world with look-down cameras in ­satellites, drones or warplanes; signals intelligence, Sigint, intercepting everything the bad people say to each other even when they think they have absolute privacy; and Humint, or human intelligence-gathering.
Britain has never been able to compete with the vast budgets of the United States and has no space programme, but it brings to the table a worthwhile contribution in Humint. Infiltrating an agent into the heart of a tricky situation can produce more product than all the gizmos could ever see or hear. It is the speciality of the SIS.
Considering the 60 million-plus population of the UK and the size of its gross national product, it has always had a smaller SIS than almost any other developed nation in the world — and thus cheaper. The British taxpayer is far from shortchanged. There is a quixotic reason for this. Unlike all other agencies, the Firm has always been able to rely on an ad hoc army of volunteers ­prepared to help out if asked nicely.
They come from a vast array of professions that cause them to travel a bit. They may agree while on a foreign visit for business purposes to pick up a package, deliver a letter to a hole in a tree, make a payment or just keep their eyes and ears open and undergo a cheer­ful debrief­ing when they get home.
It appears a bit weird but it seems to work.
This is because the best “cover” in the world is no cover at all but the truth. Thus if Mr Farnsbarns really is going to a trade fair to sell his paper clips, he might just slip into a phone booth, remove a letter from the pages of the telephone direc­tory and bring it home in an invisible slit in a specially ­prepared briefcase.
That is where the economics comes in: it is not done for money but just to help “the old country”. Few nations can match that.
Technically the SIS comes under the FCO but is entitled to disagree in certain circumstances, specifically if it has factual information rather than mere opinion. Ronnie’s problem was that he had no ­specific eyes-on information from the heart of Biafra to offset the assurances coming through from Lagos to the effect that the horrors were grossly exaggerated and the war would in any case be over in a very short time.
I did what I did to try to influence the Whitehall argument that continued intermittently for the next 15 months until the final crushing of Biafra with 1 million dead children. The argument was between: “Prime minister, this cannot be allowed to go on. The human cost is simply too high. We should reconsider our policy. We should use all our influence to urge a ceasefire, a peace conference and a political solution.”
And: “Prime minister, I can assure you the media reports are as usual sensationalist and grossly exaggerated. We have information that the rebel regime is very close to collapse. The sooner it does, the sooner we can get columns of relief food into the rebel territory. Meanwhile we urge you to stick with the hitherto agreed policy and even increase the support for the ­federal government.”
Neither Ronnie nor I could know in October 1968 how long there was to go nor how many more were to die. But the ­argument for a ceasefire lost for two reasons: the vanity factor and the ­cowardice factor.
It is said that if a tigress sees her cubs endangered she will fight with deranged passion to defend them. But her dedication pales into submission compared with the fury with which senior civil servants, and most notably those of the FCO, will defend the fiction that they cauld not have made a mistake.
The cowardice applied as usual to the politicians, Wilson and his foreign secretary, Michael Stewart. Basically it was: “Prime minister, if you concede to the ‘reconsidered’ argument, you would have to admit that for 15 months, your government has made a mistake. How then do you reply to the media question, ‘How can you explain to the public the quarter-million children dead so far?’ ”
At that point, the response from Wilson and Stewart was: “Very well, do what you feel you must. But be hurry.”
So the military, advisory, diplomatic and propa­ganda help to the Lagos ­dictatorship ­quietly increased. Ronnie convinced me that the Firm might be able to win the argument if it could rebut the charge of media exaggeration with eyes-on evidence that the situation was as reported or worse.
But to do that, he needed an asset deep inside the, Biafran enclave, what he termed ‘someone in on the ground’. When I left for the return to the rainforest, he had one.
The job was threefold. To report, through the various newspapers and maga­zines that had accepted me as a “stringer” (a local correspondent on a non-staff basis) the military war as it crawled on its way.
To use the same outlets to portray the humanitarian situation, the disaster among the children dying of kwashiorkor (protein deficiency) and the church-based efforts to keep them alive with an air bridge of illicit mercy flights bringing in relief food donated by the rest of the world. The third task was to keep Ronnie informed of things that could not, for ­various reasons, emerge in the media. Just once, things became sticky when a rumour spread that I was working for London. Had the suspicion developed, my situation might have become thoroughly tiresome.
I discovered the source was a German mercenary, Rolf Steiner, with whom I had never been on the best of terms. He was ex-Deutsches Jungvolk (a sort of Hitler youth), ex-Foreign Legion and was the leader of a small group of white ­mercenaries working for the Biafrans. He postured and paraded around in his ­confiscated American limousine, but I never recall him going into combat.
There was nothing for it but to have a word in the right ear. Two nights later, ­yelling and screaming, not a happy camper, with his hands roped behind him, Steiner was bundled onto a plane and never returned.
A DOZEN years after the Biafra war I found myself in a London bar with a long-term veteran of the SAS regiment. Out of the blue he remarked: “You owe me a large one.” If someone like that tells you he is owed a drink, do not argue. Just go to the bar and buy him a double. So I did. When he had taken a deep draught I asked him why. “Because,” he said, “I once had your head in the cross-hairs of my scope sight and I didn’t pull the trigger.” Rumours had long persisted that part of London’s help to Lagos had been the presence of our special forces. Political denial had always been shrill. The only time my contentedly sipping bar friend could have seen me was deep inside Biafra. So much for denials"- Frederick Forsyth.

Samuel wrote: "Most people have a problem with the various organs of the British intelligence community, typified by a seeming inability to work out which is which. There are three main organs. The least-mentione..."

Typical Forsyth. Cutting through the misconceptions regarding roles and nomenclature. Curse Joseph Conrad for giving the world the term "secret agent". Mis-representative of the profession.
Bond isn't an "agent", he's not even an "intelligence officer". He's the original government assassin whose job is to defend the British state by all means necessary.

Trigger Mortis is almost out. Almost unanimous critical acclaim among the critics. Anthony Horowitz is praised for writing the best Bond Continuation novel which blows his predecessor's works out of the water. Barring a few missteps according to the reviews, it's the closest any 21st century writer will ever come to capturing Ian Fleming's magic.
https://www.mi6-hq.com/sections/artic...

Samuel wrote: "Trigger Mortis is almost out. Almost unanimous critical acclaim among the critics. Anthony Horowitz is praised for writing the best Bond Continuation novel which blows his predecessor's works out o..."

I suppose one should be grateful that the Fleming estate were generous in providing Mr Horowitz with something the previous authors were never given. Some of the master's original work that went unpublished. The legendary TV scripts.

Paul wrote: "Samuel wrote: "Paul wrote: "Samuel, interesting about Frederick Forsyth. I just finished reading his ‘The Day of The Jackal’ again, chosen for me to read on the PIFM thread of this group. Often wo..."

Here we are. Fighter pilot, Spy, Journalist, elder statesman of thriller novels and pioneer of the "well researched thriller" trend which has defined spy/military/political fiction to this very day. Frederick Forsyth releases his autobiography this month and tells all.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Outsider-...

'We all make mistakes, but starting the Third World War would have been a rather large one. To this day, I still maintain it was not entirely my fault. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

During the course of my life, I’ve barely escaped the wrath of an arms dealer in Hamburg, been strafed by a MiG during the Nigerian civil war, and landed during a bloody coup in Guinea-Bissau. The Stasi arrested me, the Israelis regaled me, the IRA prompted a quick move from Ireland to England, and a certain attractive Czech secret police agent – well, her actions were a bit more intimate. And that’s just for starters.

All of that I saw from the inside. But all that time I was, nonetheless, an outsider.'- Frederick Forsyth

Trigger Mortis is out. Critics say it triumphantly tramples over SOLO, Devil May Care and Carte Blanche. Anthony Horowitz is being praised for being the only continuation author to come closest in capturing that Fleming magic.

Samuel wrote: "Most people have a problem with the various organs of the British intelligence community, typified by a seeming inability to work out which is which. There are three main organs. The least-mentione..."

Thanks for the sneak peek!

Paul wrote: "Samuel wrote: "Most people have a problem with the various organs of the British intelligence community, typified by a seeming inability to work out which is which. There are three main organs. Th..."

Pleasure. Fleming had a comfortable upper management job. Cornwell may have been an intelligence officer but Philby screwed up his career before he could go places. Forsyth on the other hand was one of the grunts a humble asset doing odd jobs and gathering pieces of intelligence whenever he could as a journalist. Should be fun to read this month.

Paul wrote: "Samuel wrote: "Paul wrote: "Samuel, interesting about Frederick Forsyth. I just finished reading his ‘The Day of The Jackal’ again, chosen for me to read on the PIFM thread of this group. Often wo..."

John Le Carre will be releasing his authorized biography at the same time Forsyth releases his autobiography. I'll be buying Forsyth. Seems to have a much more eventful career, all his international escapades as a spy, novelist and journalist. I mean even in his 70's, for his last book, Forsyth flew by himself into Somalia for a research trip. Mogadishu, one of the most unsafe towns on the face of the earth.

Unfortunately, Forsyth was not able to continue the excellent writing and plotting of his early novels. Le Carre has him beat there. I couldn't finish the last Forsyth novel I bought ... didn't care about the characters.

Susan wrote: "Unfortunately, Forsyth was not able to continue the excellent writing and plotting of his early novels. Le Carre has him beat there. I couldn't finish the last Forsyth novel I bought ... didn't car..."

I discussed this with someone recently. He floated a theory. Forsyth has been writing about too many good guys. Dry and boring. His three greatest novels were about outsiders and anti-heroes, men outside the system who would go to great lengths to change it.
Maybe he needs to write a book from a villain perspective like in his first book or come out on top against corporate/political corruption like Shannon from The Dogs Of War.

Susan wrote: "Unfortunately, Forsyth was not able to continue the excellent writing and plotting of his early novels. Le Carre has him beat there. I couldn't finish the last Forsyth novel I bought ... didn't car..."

Also, he's one of the last elder statesmen of thriller writing. As a result, he's got few worlds left to conquer and a younger generation of readers aren't appreciative or familiar with what he pioneered.

So maybe he either A) needs to do another historical fiction work like The Day Of The Jackal or B) write a book about an outsider going up against an apathetic system. Maybe those volunteers who have gone off to war against Daesh in Syria and Kurdistan....

Don't think Cornwell has been consistent either. A delicate truth was disappointing to put it mildly.

Susan wrote: "Unfortunately, Forsyth was not able to continue the excellent writing and plotting of his early novels. Le Carre has him beat there. I couldn't finish the last Forsyth novel I bought ... didn't car..."

I don't believe characterization was what Forsyth was about. Well researched narratives about how the world really works, devoid of any idealism was what he did.

Susan wrote: "Unfortunately, Forsyth was not able to continue the excellent writing and plotting of his early novels. Le Carre has him beat there. I couldn't finish the last Forsyth novel I bought ... didn't car..."

From what I've seen on this site, it's his one weakness as a writer.

Just finished The Spy Who Came In from the Cold. AMAZING! I am hooked for life!

Here's an NPR story about the new Bond novel, Trigger Mortis: http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPla...

Amber wrote: "Here's an NPR story about the new Bond novel, Trigger Mortis: http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPla..."

Nice little interview Amber. Just like Horowitz, who can't mark certain moments in the passage of life by a big Bond film moment? What's yours?

Kat wrote: "Just finished The Spy Who Came In from the Cold. AMAZING! I am hooked for life!"

Kat... and the film is worth a viewing. Richard Burton is great!

Paul, one of them is when Pussy Galore introduces herself. Then there's the twin Thai sisters Fuk Yu and Fuk Mi... .

Paul wrote: "Kat wrote: "Just finished The Spy Who Came In from the Cold. AMAZING! I am hooked for life!"

Kat... and the film is worth a viewing. Richard Burton is great!"

I will have to be on the lookout for it!

Samuel wrote: "So maybe he either A) needs to do another historical fiction work like The Day Of The Jackal or B) write a book about an outsider going up against an apathetic system. Maybe those volunteers who ha..."
Samuel, I think you missed my point. He needs to create actual characters, heroes or villains, that make readers care about what happens to them.

Samuel wrote: "Susan wrote: "Unfortunately, Forsyth was not able to continue the excellent writing and plotting of his early novels. Le Carre has him beat there. I couldn't finish the last Forsyth novel I bought ..."

I disagree. No matter how fine the plot, and I don't think he's ever come up with a better one than Day of the Jackal, hold a reader's interest without flesh and blood characters. This is where Le Carre excels.

Paul wrote: "Kat wrote: "Just finished The Spy Who Came In from the Cold. AMAZING! I am hooked for life!"

Kat... and the film is worth a viewing. Richard Burton is great!"

I agree. Excellent!

Susan wrote: "Samuel wrote: "Susan wrote: "Unfortunately, Forsyth was not able to continue the excellent writing and plotting of his early novels. Le Carre has him beat there. I couldn't finish the last Forsyth..."

I disagree. The Dogs Of War was fantastic, The Odessa File was fascinating and The Kill List wasn't half bad.
Forsyth goes the minimalistic route. He provides the readers all they need to no about the characters, eliminating multiple unnecessary details. It helps that every single one of his books is a closed loop. He's never written a series featuring a set of characters who
need to be developed each time.
The characters aren't the important part of a Forsyth novel, it's more about him taking the reader behind the curtain and showing us how the world really works devoid of any idealism or moralizing.

Susan wrote: "Samuel wrote: "So maybe he either A) needs to do another historical fiction work like The Day Of The Jackal or B) write a book about an outsider going up against an apathetic system. Maybe those v..."

Forsyth had three great characters. Miller, Shannon and The Jackal. Three guys who are outsiders of society and try beat the odds. Miller went up against a political conspiracy, Shannon screwed over his corporate client after a lifetime of mercenary work and The Jackal tried to destroy the French Republic. They're anti-heroes who bring the moral gray that made the books they featured in wonderful. When Forsyth began to deviate from that path make straight up heroes and villains, that's when things began to get boring for certain readers.

Susan wrote: "Samuel wrote: "Susan wrote: "Unfortunately, Forsyth was not able to continue the excellent writing and plotting of his early novels. Le Carre has him beat there. I couldn't finish the last Forsyth..."

He's decayed with his characterization. In "A Delicate Truth" the antagonists were all caricatures and his heroes are shrill. In that book, he made the laughable.
He appears to have lost that finesse which made George Smiley and Bill Haydon such a blast. No delicacy. His characters are more hammer than scalpel which from the guy who brilliantly tore apart the martini side of spy fiction is a crying shame.

Samuel wrote: "Susan wrote: "Samuel wrote: "Susan wrote: "Unfortunately, Forsyth was not able to continue the excellent writing and plotting of his early novels. Le Carre has him beat there. I couldn't finish th..."

I suppose it's also because in that book, he failed to achieve the balance. Wanted to make a political point. Fair enough. But this time around, he made the mistake a guy like American conservative thriller novelist Brad Thor did and let his personal biases overtake the plotting. Turned his characters into mouthpieces for his ideas rather than making them well rounded. Forgot show, not tell.

Susan wrote: "Paul wrote: "Kat wrote: "Just finished The Spy Who Came In from the Cold. AMAZING! I am hooked for life!"

Kat... and the film is worth a viewing. Richard Burton is great!"

I agree. E..."


Let us agree to disagree regarding the merits and flaws in the writing of Forsyth and Cornwell.

What I can agree with you however is The Spy Who Came From The Cold movie is fantastic. The perfect example of a "pragmatic adaption". Astonishingly good cinematography for the time it was made and the black and white made the movie ooze with splendid film noir atmosphere.

@Samuel. Is there a reason why you post snippits of comments in multiple postings?

@Samuel I don't care to "agree to disagree" because we are talking about basketballs and bananas. Two different things. Maybe it's a "guy" thing. Some guys love knowing everything there is to "no" about the cockpit of an F-16 fighter as written by Tom Clancy. Yawn.

Other guys love knowing everything there is to "no" about spycraft. Who cares about characters. Yawn.

@Samuel Some readers, like me, prefer their characters to have depth. The John Le Carre characters in the books I have read have depth. The Tailor of Panama. A Most Wanted Man. Tinker Tailer Soldier Spy.

When I don't care enough about the main character [The Kill List] enough to finish the book, the plot doesn't matter.
As the author of crime thrillers, I prefer to emulate Le Carre.

The new Forsyth biography is here:



Thanks to Samuel.

Le Carre to follow...

Hesitate to introduce another author into the discussion, but Alan Furth writes terrific spy novels, set during/after WW II. Very atmospheric. Not comparing him to Le Carre or Forsythe, tho he reminds me more of Le Carre.

Susan wrote: "Hesitate to introduce another author into the discussion, but Alan Furth writes terrific spy novels, set during/after WW II. Very atmospheric. Not comparing him to Le Carre or Forsythe, tho he remi..."

Alan Furst? Susan. Yes, his work looks very interesting, though I haven't read any yet...

Just for (Le Carre) fun... Anyone name the moment?



Here's a clue. It's in Smiley's People...

What the hell do you think spies are? Moral philosophers measuring everything they do against the word of God or Karl Marx? They're not! They're just a bunch of seedy, squalid bastards like me: little men, drunkards, queers, hen-pecked husbands, civil servants playing cowboys and Indians to brighten their rotten little lives. Do you think they sit like monks in a cell, balancing right against wrong?

- SIS officer Alex Lemas.

One of the greatest pieces of dialogue in spy fiction by a country mile, and a blow to the biggest misconception about espionage. Namely that it's a glamorous profession.

Just who the hell do you think you are? How dare you come sniffing in here like Napoleon ordering me about? You are a traitor! Does it occur to you? A wanted, spent, dishonest man, the lowest currency of the Cold War? We buy you - we sell you - we lose you - we even can shoot you! Not a bird would stir in the trees outside. Not even a single pheasant would turn his head to see what fell.

- Stasi Officer Fiedler.

Second favorite bit of dialogue from the movie.

My review/piece about ‘The Day of the Jackal’…

“Half a million dollars is the price,” says the blonde Englishman being hired to assassinate French President Charles De Gaulle. “Considering you expect to get France itself, you esteem your country very cheap,” he adds noting the shock at his fee…

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Sharing Samuel's link to the new Fleming inspired film about the 'Special Executive for Counterintelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion'... (an otherwise really nice bunch of chaps). Great trailer!

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainme...

Paul wrote: "Sharing Samuel's link to the new Fleming inspired film about the 'Special Executive for Counterintelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion'... (an otherwise really nice bunch of chaps). Great tr..."

And there's more. Check out their new office. Morocco. Brought themselves an entire observatory in some Desert. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4UDN...

They've broken out Auric's limo. Seems the new management of SPECTRE acquired it.
http://jalopnik.com/another-classic-c...

Upcoming Teaser of the authorized biography of David Cornwell. This preview concerns the traumatic incident which shaped the only book he wrote which was not a spy novel. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/artic...

“Tessa distinguished absolutely between pain observed and pain shared. Pain observed is journalistic pain. It’s diplomatic pain. It’s television pain, over as soon as you switch off your beastly set. Those who watch suffering and do nothing about it, in her book, were little better than those who inflicted it. They were the bad Samaritans.”
― John le Carré, The Constant Gardener

Another extract from book about the holy trinity. A compilation of fan letters addressed to one Ian Lancaster Fleming....the man had a very sharp sense of humor.

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015...

Interesting statement I found by the man who created the original government assassin. Seems he put a lot of thought into the characterization.

"You’ve got to have a lot of nerve for that sort of
thing, and whatever it is that enables a good killer to function also seems
to defeat him in the end. The killer’s spirit begins to fail, he gets the
seed of death within himself. As I wrote in one of my books, From Russia
with Love, the trouble with a lot of hired assassins such as the Russians
use is that they feel rather badly when they’ve killed five or six people,
and ultimately get soft or give themselves up, or they take to drugs or
drink. It would be interesting to conduct an inquiry to determine who was
the greatest assassin in history – who was, or who is. I have no particular
candidate. But they all do grow a sort of bug inside them after a bit."- Ian Fleming.

Samuel wrote: "Interesting statement I found by the man who created the original government assassin. Seems he put a lot of thought into the characterization.

"You’ve got to have a lot of nerve for that sort of..."

And in From Russia With Love, he explored the concept. Through Red Grant. A man with the empathy sucked out of him.