The dumbest spy novel ever?

English novelist Jeffrey Archer lost no time in jumping on the post-Gulf War bandwagon. In 1993 he published a novel entitled Honour Among Thieves. In it, Saddam Hussien hires a group of American mobsters to swipe the Declaration of Independence. A well-crafted fake is put in its place. It soon slips out that the legendary document signed on the 4th of July is in Iraqi hands.  

Enter Scott Cooper, a Yale law professor tasked with aiding the CIA in taking it back. Cooper soon proves to be no Jack Ryan. Indeed, none of the good guy characters in the novel come off as particularly skilled. In fact, they are only adept at getting caught when the baddies get wind of their mission. By contrast, everything goes smooth as silk for the thugs when they swipe the Declaration earlier in the book!  

It was almost as if Mr. Archer was thumbing his nose at Jack Ryan and his fellow heroic cohorts like Dirk Pitt.  Men of action who knew what had to be done to save the day.  It is a miracle Archer lets Scott and his girlfriend Hannah escape from Iraq at all. It's almost as if he toyed with the idea of letting the bad guys win. They don't, but it is only by the narrowest of squeaks.  And most of the baddies don't get their comeuppance but remain alive at the end. Contrast this to how Dirk Pitt does things and you can see my disappointment with this book.

The good characters in an adventure novel need to face obstacles, yes.  Ryan and Pitt have faced ones that are real mind-twisters.  But their creators always relished having them not only prevail, but take down who they were up against as well.  Archer seemed to turn up his nose at such a dramatic resolution for his heroes. The result is (in my opinion) the dumbest spy novel ever. Can anybody name another that is just as bad, if not worse?   

Article image courtesy Wikimedia.