This week, I’m going to be discussing Frederick Forsyth’s classic Cold War thriller, The Fourth Protocol.
The Fourth Protocol
To be honest, I am more knowledgeable of Frederick Forsyth’s cinematic outings than his novels. Indeed, one of my favourite films is The Day of the Jackal, the story of the attempted assassination of Charles de Gaulle, which has always amazed me with how it manages to ring such an astonishing amount of tension from a plot that we know, historically, must be destined to failure. If I ever find myself watching it on television, I find myself compelled to finish watching it – I cannot look away.
For me, The Fourth Protocol is also a fondly recalled movie – a classic Michael Caine outing from 1987, with Pierce Brosnan (pre Bond) as his Russian antagonist. Unlike The Day of the Jackal, however, The Fourth Protocol offers us no historical safety net – the fiendish plot looks likely to succeed, without Caine’s MI5 officer, John Preston, being blessed by an incredible amount of luck.
Knowing the film well meant that, listening to the novel, I was inevitably intrigued by certain subtle differences between the book and the film – such as the more prominent role of Kim Philby, who looms large in the novel but (spoilers!) is despatched within minutes in the film. Or the burglary at Berenson’s flat, which in the book is carried out by a professional thief, rather than by Michael Caine’s character in the film. In the film, this action serves to establish Preston as a brilliant and unconventional tactician and I think it is a justified alteration.
David Rintoul narrates this Audible version with a cut glass accent, not dissimilar from Forsyth’s own. He captures the characters well and effortlessly pronounces Russian names.
The central premise is no less scary in this Audible version. Nuclear weapons are terrifying enough but the idea of a nuclear device being delivered by unconventional means, assembled in secret, close to a target, exploding without warning, is a set of fears that Forsyth delights in playing upon in this novel. With the heightened tensions between the UK and Russia after their alleged use of a chemical weapon in Salisbury, the Russian state’s apparent blatant disregard for international protocols makes this story even more prescient than the Cold War era it depicts.
Conclusion
It might not be the classic that The Day of the Jackal is but The Fourth Protocol is still a great thrill ride and one I recommend.