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Playing with Cobras (The Kenneth Aubrey & Patrick Hyde Series) Kindle Edition

by Craig Thomas (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 12 ratings
See all formats and editions
New York Times–Bestselling Author: “Top-notch . . . Brisk action, gripping suspense and a cynical look at international politics.” —Publishers Weekly
 
Just as a high-level politician is on the verge of becoming India’s next prime minister, his wife is murdered—and her lover, a senior British intelligence officer, is framed for the crime. There may be more to this plot, however, than a simple jealous rage. The victim’s husband is raking in funds through illegal dealings, and when field agent Patrick Hyde is sent to India to confirm SIS suspicions of a setup, he is able to free the captured agent. But when the two of them are left without support, they will have to go on the run through several Asian countries—all while Hyde’s partner, Ros, is also caught up in the politician’s machinations and targeted for death . . .
 
“[A] bold loner hero . . . Enjoy, enjoy.” —Kirkus Reviews
 
“When it comes to keeping the story moving and stoking up the excitement, Mr. Thomas knows his business.” —The New York Times
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  1. Book 8 of 9
    The Kenneth Aubrey & Patrick Hyde
  2. Print length
    465 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  5. Publisher
    MysteriousPress.com/Open Road
  6. Publication date
    February 28, 2023
  7. File size
    5196 KB
  8. Page Flip
    Enabled
  9. Word Wise
    Enabled
  10. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
  11. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Spy novels have a time-honored formula: plunk the hero down in a foreign country, compromise his cover immediately, then get him the hell out. Thomas's latest (after A Hood Crow ) is one of those top-notch examples that make you forget the formula even as they adhere to it. Brisk action, gripping suspense and a cynical look at international politics mark this latest adventure of British secret agent Patrick Hyde, called out of retirement by Peter Shelley, the new Director General of the Secret Intelligence Service, to run an errand in India. One of Shelley's operatives, Philip Cass, is accused of murdering his lover, the wife of V. K. Sharmar, a government minister who is next in line to be prime minister of India. Sharmar, a former classmate of Shelley's and a "friend" of Her Majesty's government, has framed Cass for the killing because the agent has uncovered evidence that the politician is a heroin smuggler. When the current prime minister dies, Sharmar's prominence increases and Cass's tenuous ties to the SIS home office are weakened. Cass has become an embarrassment to the British government and Hyde is ordered to eliminate the problem. But Hyde is not about to let the man who once saved his life languish in jail, or be "shot trying to escape." The action begins almost immediately, the pace never flags and Thomas's prose is direct and unobtrusive: no flab, no filler, all muscle.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

Unlike his retired master Sir Kenneth Aubrey (A Hooded Crow, 1991), bullheaded Patrick Hyde isn't allowed to go gentle into that good night: Aubrey's replacement, Peter Shelley, talks him into going to India to look into Hyde's old mate Philip Cass's story that he didn't kill his mistress, film star Sereena Sharmar, wife of the minister of tourism. From the beginning there's no mystery about who really murdered Sereena: it was the outraged husband, oily V.K. Sharmar, whose wealth came from harvesting heroin poppies. But when the aging prime minster dies and V.K.'s wily brother Prakesh insinuates V.K. into the job, both Delhi Station and Shelley, an old school chum of V.K.'s, reverse their engines and hang Cass out to dry. The fate of one Englishman is nothing, of course, compared to the reputation of a statesman who can bring about Indian peace and stability, not to mention an open door to European trade. Disgusted with London, Hyde goes it on his own. First, he struggles to follow Cass's frantically cryptic hints to the evidence of the Sharmars' corruption; then, hearing that Cass has escaped from prison, he follows his trail to Kashmir in hopes of catching him there before his police torturers can apply the coup de grƒce. Oh, and he sets his own girlfriend, Ros Woode, to get close to V.K.'s mistress, Sara Mallowby, landing her in as much solitary peril as himself. By the time of the rousing climax, Ros will be sitting terrified aboard a flight to Paris waiting for the two men across the aisle to assassinate her, while wounded Cass and dogged Hyde will be dodging airborne pursuers as they climb a mountain pass to Afghanistan. Hyde thinks his Indian adversaries are still playing the games of the 70's, but this whole story has an unabashedly period flavor, from its bold loner hero to its transparently compromised politicos. Enjoy, enjoy. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0BV6LB9QD
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ MysteriousPress.com/Open Road (February 28, 2023)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ February 28, 2023
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 5196 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 465 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 12 ratings

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Craig Thomas

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Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
4.2 out of 5
12 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

BeauButabi
5.0 out of 5 stars Patrick Hyde and the Indian Incident
Reviewed in the United States on November 26, 2006
Verified Purchase
With the close of the cold war, Craig Thomas often used multi-million dollar companies as the villians in his novels published in the '90's as opposed to opposite sides of government. But he's able to use his old formula once more, this time with drug-dealing Indian politicians.

In Delhi, British agent Philip Cass uncovers the drug-dealing plot of VK Sharmar who could be in a position to become the next Prime Minister of India. Nervous of being found out, Sharmar frames Cass of the murder of an Inidan film star Cass is having an affair with, who happens to be Sharmar's wife. After Cass is arrested for the murder, Peter Shelley, now head of SIS after Kenneth Aubrey retied at the end of A Hooded Crow, re-inlistes Patrick Hyde back into the service, who also retired along with Aubrey. Hyde is reluctant to come back, but because Cass helped him out in the events of The Bear's Tears and The Last Raven, he feels he owes his friend the returned favor.

Hyde arrives in India to look into the matter and decides Cass is innocent. But then Sharmar becomes the new Prime Minister. Now untouchable, Shelley has no choice but to tell Hyde to leave the Cass case alone, but Hyde won't have that and desperately tries to clear Cass before it's too late. To make things complicated, Ros, Hyde's girlfriend, gets caught in the middle. Her and Hyde were going to head for Australia after finishing his business in India, but when things get complicated Hyde ends up having to use Ros's help, putting her in great danger in the process.

This is a really great Craig book. And although it's pretty much a by-the-numbers typical thriller, it's very entertaining. Patrick Hyde is one of my favorite of Craig's characters, and this one is the most Hyde-dominated book of the ones he appears in. Really great stuff.
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D. Kiefer
4.0 out of 5 stars Great Read
Reviewed in the United States on February 11, 2007
This was the 1st "novel" that I ever read. I was in middle school when I read this the 1st time about 12 yrs. ago and I remember loving how the book ended back then. I had to reread again and I found it just as enjoyable the 2nd time around, probably more enjoyable, since I could follow the whole plot this time. Like someone else said, it isn't "classic literature" but it will entertain and it will keep you on the edge of your seat. Especially once the escape through the himilayan mountains with Cass and Hyde 1 step ahead of the Indian army begins
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Rottenberg's rotten book review
3.0 out of 5 stars Good Craig Thomas novel - but more for fans
Reviewed in the United States on June 26, 2005
"Playing With Cobras" was one of Craig Thomas's last novels - debuting about 1993. It's fast and is very much a CT novel while also showing signs that the author was tiring of the form that he mastered.

"Playing", set in modern India, centers on Patrick Hyde, former SAS commando and hero of previous Thomas novels. ("Playing" features recurring CT characters, but CT's deft writing keeps you from getting lost, even if you've never read one of his older books.) Having already retired from SAS and from being a behind-the-lines man for MI6, Hyde prepares to leave England for "Oz" with his portly and middle-aged lover, Ros. Unfortunately for them both, Hyde is asked to take one last mission - investigate the situation of Phillip Cass, an MI6 agent in India. Last seen as a small character in "Last Raven", Cass is now under scrutiny of both New Delhi and London when he's implicated in the brutal murder of the Indian PM's beautiful wife. There's no doubt that Cass had been intimate with the beautiful Serena Sharmar, but he denies the murder. Instead, Serena was murdered (and Cass framed) by her husband VK Sharmar and his conniving brother Prakhesh to cover the Sharmars' role as a master heroin trafficker. Hyde is quickly convinced of Cass's innocence - but he's alone in that respect. Serena was worshipped across India - married to a liberal politician, frequent co-star of action movie heroes who appeal to Hindi nationalism. Worse, even the British are unwilling to consider Cass's story - because it would antagonize Sharmar's allies in India's progressive Congress party - consequently weakening its anti-nationalist goals (disengagement from Kashmir; peace with Pakistan) and handing India over to the rabidly nationalistic and anti-secular BJP party. (That's my take from the novel - "The Rotten Review" professes no reasonable perspective on Indo-Pak politics.) When the Sharmars kidnap Cass from prison, because it would be easier for everybody if he just disappears, Hyde springs into action - jumping over the heads of fellow Brits and the Indians at the same time. Thomas brings the action to a climax with one of his trademark massive-manhunts, using the lushness of India, the remoteness of Pakistan and the glacial hell of the Afghan border to utterly consume his characters. Few if any writers have captured as sublimely the tension of being at the center of a huge, cross-border manhunt as Craig Thomas has. It's "Firefox" on the ground - and it works as unlikely as it sounds.

Unfortunately, "Playing" gets too little of the Craig Thomas formula - going on too long before the big-hunt part of the book even kicks off. Until then it's a story about crooked Indian politicians - one whose conspiracies haven't aroused much interest among the British. Much of the story seems forced - Hyde's believing Cass, suspicion falling on the Sharmars, London getting ready to toss Cass to the wolves - without substance justifying it. We know the Sharmar's are bad...because the book tells us so (and not as is traditional in CT novels, because characters have enough depth to learn it themselves). The story seems rushed - more like "A Different War" than "Snow Falcon" or the other Mitchell Gant books. It rewards CT fans, but is not a great book for first time CT readers.
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Carol Peterson Hennekens
4.0 out of 5 stars A wild romp through India
Reviewed in the United States on November 22, 2000
This a great tape for driving. The action is fast paced, the images exotic and the characters are interesting. The plot revolved around the escape of an Australian who is being framed for the murder of the Indian Prime Minister's wife. Fans of the Paul Scott's The Raj Quartet will enjoy the houseboat scenes in Kashmir.
The author narrates the book very well, which is sometimes not the case when authors are recorded. He's English -- an accent which I love...
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Steven J. Wilson
2.0 out of 5 stars Not much mystery
Reviewed in the United States on February 19, 2009
I haven't read Craig Thomas in a while, but I remember liking some of his other books - Sea Leopard, Firefox Down, Hooded Crow, Lions Den. I don't remember the others but this one really had little mystery. You know the villians and good guys from the outset; after that its just turning pages to see what happens.
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Top reviews from other countries

Ronald A. Fabick
3.0 out of 5 stars Three Stars
Reviewed in Canada on April 13, 2015
Verified Purchase
it was okay
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