Sympathy for the Devil

Sympathy for the Devil is the first book of a trilogy by Terrence McCauley. I was given a chance to just read the third book, but choose to work my way through the trilogy to see how McCauley handled the plot and character development. This is a trilogy of international espionage and the protagonist is James Hicks, or at least that’s his “professional name” and not the one he was given at birth. Hicks was the head of the New York office for an off-the-books clandestine service known as the University. His boss is the Dean, and the University’s agents are known as faculty members. The edge that the University has over the FBI, CIA (known to those in the trade as The Barnyard), NSA, DIA, etc., is it’s OMNI system, the Optimized Mechanical and Network Integration System, which was one of the most advanced computer networks in the world. OMNI was able to tap into the systems of all Western intelligence agencies, but the University’s existence was unknown to all but a few. 

At least in this first book, there were not many characters that I could like or identify with. Hicks was a single guy and brutal in his own right. He had authority issues but was impressed with the Dean who could tolerate his independent ways. Hicks was astute at manipulating bad guys to provide money to run his New York organization. He was having an affair with Tali Saddon, an operative for the Israeli Military Intelligence, but Tali’s loyalties were divided between Hicks and Israel. One of the most interesting characters was the psychopathic and brilliant Roger Cobb, a sexual deviant who was also the chief interrogator for the University. At least he was working on behalf of the good guys.

Mostly, Sympathy for the Devil was an introduction book – an introduction to the main characters and the organizations. It was at the end of this first book that Hicks figured out there had to be another network that had never been discovered. The Dean ordered him to find those people, learned everything about them that he could, and then kill them all. One must read on to follow the action. I think if this was the only McCauley book that I saw, and it was meant to be a stand-alone novel, I would not have continued with the author, but having read the next two books, I can tell you it gets a whole lot better.