BLIND MISSION has received enthusiastic reviews in Israel’s media.
The Press
“Sleep Destroyer” (from Yediot Aharonot, the largest circulation daily).
“… We follow the wanderings of Dan Greenberg in Israel, Switzerland, Germany, Holland, Canada, and the united whoever has visited some of the cities and places described will enjoy a return visit through these pages. The meanderings of Dan, the blind agent, are related smoothly and with great finesse. It is written with a fluent expertise that would not put a veteran professional to shame.”
“It Could Happen to Me” (from Yediot Aharonot, the largest circulation daily).
“There is a special appeal to books about ordinary people to whom extraordinary things occur. Ostensibly, this is because a human process which is easy to identify with; but on deeper examination it seems that such books permit the reader the freedom to suppose that, with just a bit of effort and some luck, the same things could happen to him. It is this feeling, this sense of plausibility, that Avichai Schmidt Provides – and in abundance.
“The plot of the novel is fantastic, but defiantly possible given the background of the political and social reality in which we live. The characters are credible and behave with the right measure of the expected and the surprising. The writing is simple, direct and fluid; the plot is absorbing and fast-paced. The tension factor is maintained and nourished properly by the internal life of the characters, and not only by external stimuli. “The novel’s special ability to carry the reader along with that welcome sense of plausibility is at its best in the way the locales are employed in the action: the external scenery is described with great attention to detail and colour, but without slipping into an exaggeration of acoustics or the forced-feeding of unnecessary specifics. The result is that the element of geographic distance, which might have been thought to afford an obstacle to identifying with the book, indeed becomes a unifying element. BLIND MISSION certainly leaves a hunger for more.
“The Israeli Big Brother” (from Ma’ariv, the second largest daily).
“BLIND MISSION is a spy novel that lays the threat of danger at the doorstep of every citizen. The idea is chilling; The Mossad and the prime minister utilize a vast network in order to manoeuvre an ordinary citizen into a radical act. The magnitude of the horror becomes clear in two stages. At first Dan Greenberg the hero, is drawn into an Hitchcockian nightmare: a situation that appears to be a collective bureaucratic foul-up, but which destroys the foundation of his existence. In the second stage, it appears that the situation is eve3n more grave, in this case an Orwellian nightmare: Israel’s Big Brother – the Mossad – is pulling all the strings. And it’s not even personal. “It’s not for nothing that Hollywood divides the work of preparing a script into three: the concept, the writing, and the dialogue. The Hollywood studios would probably snatch up Avicahi Schmidt as a superior idea man; for the spine-tingling idea that is the basis of BLIND MISSION Combines espionage with present-day reality in an enthralling way. “A page-turner”.
From La’isha. Israel’s women’s weekly and the largest circulation weekly of any kind.
“Many questions arise regarding the methods and morality of Israel’s Mossad after reading Avichai Schmidt’s book, BLIND MISSION.”
Radio
From Israel Radio – Radio One, weekly book review program.
Author Amnon Jakont
“….Avichai Schmidt has become included overnight on the list of Israel’s thriller writers, where he has jumped to a place of honor thanks to this book, because it is a surprising one; not only6 because it came from an unknown writer, but because the plot itself is a very surprising in its freshness, the freshness of its basic idea, which in the manner of thrillers we are forbidden to divulge. It may only be said that this is the story of an apparently ordinary man, in keeping in the best tradition of such novels, finds himself in a very extraordinary situation. “The other surprising thing is the developments the writer leads his hero through. Taking place in various places in the world they are connected by many very interesting and colorful characters; and everything is professional, not – heaven forbid – superficial or dilettantish. This novel is definitely worth a place of honor on the shelf of Israeli thrillers, and I hope that Avichai Schmidt will reward us with more of his books.”
From Israel Radio – Radio Two:
The Literary critic Shlomit Yonai
“I want to recommend and tell about a book that I enjoyed very much, BLIND MISSION, by Avichai Schmidt, which is read with bathed breath.
“The book is faithful to several of the conventions of the spy novel genre. The premise of the (supposedly) ordinary man, in any case not a professional spy, who is caught up in extraordinary circumstances ( a premise maintained in most Hitchcock films), that the hero is someone just like you or me, helps one to identify strongly with him and increases the tension.
“On the other hand, there is a struggle here between duty and the professional establishment. The hero acts as expected in a romantic or spy novel – alone. Throughout most of the book, he is a radically isolated. He is a handsome man of about 40 and single – that is, there is a chance of adventure or a romance developing. The plot begins in Tel Aviv and goes through Switzerland and Germany to the United States, to Washington and New York, and there is also a visit to Niagara Falls. The tension never lifts for a second. I liked the beginning of the book very much. The Kafkaesque description of a man whose existence the establishment schemes against, whose home and job no longer exists, for whom everything that was familiar becomes strange and threatening.
“The political scenario behind the thriller plot is very interesting: the description of the peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians under the sponsorship of the United States. Author Avichai Schmidt has succeeded in depicting both Israeli and international events in a credible and convincing manner. This is an ideal novel for the first day of summer vacation. For the second day, you’ll have to find another book.”