Enemy's Enemy

This, one of the better in the 10 book series about the intelligence officer Carl Hamilton, is a good representative of the writing style of Jan Guillo. The 10 book series basically deal with more or less probable scenarios concerning Swedish security policy and military intelligence. His current series, starting off with the book "Jerusalem", has very high potential. Hopefully it'll become available in English.

This is one of the best books I have ever read! It is definitively just as good(or better) as Tom Clancys, although they are a bit different. Technologically they are great, but the best part is the psychological part. Read it, and you would know what I mean. :-) And learn Swedish,Norwegian or Danish, since the rest of the series(10 books + a epilogue) is just as great..

This story was written by Guillou in an attempt to show the Swedish people the real truth of the last years of the Cold War, as well as writing a good novel. I agree that Carl Hamilton is very like James Bond in his appearance, but Hamilton is trained for field missions, while Bond was just a charming fellow who happened to have the right training for the right missions, and be in the right place in the right time. After freeing a hostage in Beirut, and trying to hide his part in a plan to destroy Russian underground bases on Swedish territory, Hamilton must protect his innocence against the Swedish people while seeking out Stig Sandström, a Russian double agent, and trying to solve a series of unsolved cases of murder at Swedish conscripts.

Guillou, the best journalist Sweden has ever seen, is also a magnificent writer. All ten book in the Coq Rouge series are brilliant, and "Enemy's Enemy" is one of the best. You will get more out of the story if you have read the previous books about the hero Hamilton, though.

Enemy's Enemy is one of Guillous finest in the 10 book "Coq Rouge" series, chronicling the career of Naval Commander Carl Gustaf Gilbert Hamilton, Sweden's reluctant James Bond. The leading Scandinavian master of intrigue and suspense has created a character in the psychological mold of le Carre and with the flare of Flemming. Hamilton is a Swedish noble, recruited by the Swedish navy and trained by the CIA and Navy Seals, to become Sweden's one-man secret army. His mission: hunt down and liquidate a defected Swedish spy in Moscow, to avoid a destructive international secret service war. However, the very men who recruited him are painfully unaware of the extent his of capabilities, and embarrassingly unprepared for the consequences... A beautifully composed and thought provoking novel in a series and by an author unfortunately largely unknown outside of Scandinavia.