Sunday, January 1, 2023

Book Review: Unit 8200 by Dov Alfon

 


Unit 8200 is considered one of the most secretive units of the Israeli intelligence, in charge with code decryption and signal intelligence (SIGINT). The author of Unit 8200 - translated from English to German by Gottfried Röckelein - former editor-in-chief of Ha´aretz was himself an operative of this unit, hence the many - way too many, in my opinion - details related to institutional limitation and procedure within various units and decision-layers of Israel´s intelligence establishment.

The action takes place within a bit over 24 hours - and over 450 pages - trying to trace the whereabouts of an Israeli officer disappeared without a trace upon  hisarrival at Paris´ Charles de Gaulle airport. But it seems it was a mistake and the target was a completely different person, and the search for the true culprits and victims brings into action international crime networks from China and Russian pawns. Although I´ve felt that sometimes the discussions are too long and the pace too slow, there are a lot of interesting twists and unexpected turns, mostly due to the women characters in the book.

The book was a hit for the Israeli book charts for weeks, and the film rights were already sold. 

I may confessed I had completely different - and higher - expectations, and it took me a very long time to properly finish this book. Some books are just not mean to happen, that´s all.

Rating: 3 stars

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