The Cell, by Colin Forbes - Rated 
I am currently reading this book - now on Chapter 21. How I've got this far I have no idea. Showing no sign of improvement either. Can't wait to finish this just so I can start reading something that actually deserves my time. This is absolutely THE WORST book I've ever read. My first encounter with Colin Forbes and my last for sure.
Disappointing. - Rated 
I read this all the way through, without quite realising why.
Part of me was eager to find the next horrendous piece of editing. The book is full of typos, moreso than any other book I have read. Or maybe they just leapt out from the pages of turgid prose and musing.
Part of me wanted to read the author's idea of a modern police service, a vision which a long way wide of the mark. Detectives with guns? Please. The big boss going on action-packed jaunts? Whatever.
Part of me wanted to laugh at the author's next racist assumption, which sadly litter the book, and make me wonder how much research he did when writing.
The most frustrating part of the whole experience was the fact that the basic plot is a good one. A mysterious village in the countryside. An intelligent, fresh plan from the baddies, and there were some characters who were good at first glance. The characters are never really allowed to develop beyond that initial glance, and the whole thing is messed up by the writing style. One to avoid.
I should have listened to my own review! - Rated
Arghhh! I wanted so much to think that Colin Forbes had penned just one bad book so I picked this one up and gave the guy a second chance.
I am no writer, you only have to read my other Forbes review to see that (but as least I write these reviews with a little passion). My grammar isn't great, I am sure I could be more imaginative in my prose, but still I think I could do better than 'The Cell' if I closed my eyes and used only my elboes to type... in Arabic.
This book is filled with SO MUCH rubbish. All brown people are clearly terrorists, Paula is so utterly irresistable that everyone fawns over her and as per another review points out - oops the SAS didn't have enough special missiles. Never mind!
I'm back on a little Dan Brown now and I just can't describe how good it is to read by comparison. This is not Spooks in a book...
Please, if you ever meet me, or any of my family, or any of my friends, or in fact anyone who is remotely tempted to indulge in a little Forbes - just say NO!
Promising premise wasted. - Rated
Apparently, the wife of the minister of security has gone missing near some mysterious village, Carpford. Tweed and his people investigate the disappearance, against the wishes of the minister. The town is full of mysterious people, and somehow, Tweed and his people see a connection between this and the arrival of Muslim terrorists in England (they're wearing turbans; they must be terrorists). Al Qaeda is planning an attack on London, and Tweed must stop it.
"The Cell" should have been a good suspense novel/political thriller, but it's not. It just goes from one uninteresting scene to the next. Tweed and his people talk about the terrosit threat, they visit Carpford. They go back to headquarter. Back to Carpford. Paula Grey and some Belgian agent goes to Italy to talk to some person. They go back to Carpford. More people disappear. And so on and so on without anything interesting happening. It gets boring pretty quickly. You'll be better off reading something else. Not recommended.
How on earth - Rated
has this guy managed to get all these books published. I picked this book up in a cheap book shop with the thought that i would maybe find a new author to read. Well i didn't and i still feel cheated at a price of 1.5gbp. As others have said the racism and cliches just pour from the pages. The plot for want of another word has more holes than a string vest. Some parts i had to read several times just to see if i had read previous chapters wrongly as it made no sense at all. Some say it is ok for younger readers but i think that is insulting to them. This is the first time i have reviewed a book and only to save someone a possible waste of time and money.
Just leave this to rot in the remainder bin they don't have marks low enough.
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