A Friendly Place to Die by Michael P. Faur, Jr.

Cord is an American, captured during the fighting in Korea and later escaping from a POW camp, only to be captured again in China during a failed cross-country escape attempt. After escaping yet again, he is this time saved by a group of monks and taken to a temple where he spends nearly twelve years, learning almost a dozen languages as well as all sorts of other subjects, including martial arts and philosophy. This is all back story that takes place prior to the opening scene.

The novel opens with Cord in Mexico, about to cross over in to the US, making his way back home. He is approached by a Bond babe nice young lady with the marvelous name of “Weary Nowe”. Cord feels sure she is a secret agent of some kind but nevertheless they use each other to enter the US. Cord makes his way to Washington DC where he meets “Control”, the leader of some sort of super-secret government agency. Seems Fidel Castro will be entering the US and plans to make a speech before the United Nations. Control wants to hire Cord to prevent his assassination, which he believes would lead to escalating conflict around the world. Since the suspected killer is none other than Mao Ling, a Korean officer who had murdered every man in Cord’s unit during the war, Cord is happy to take on the assignment.

This novel, published in 1966 by Signet, appears to have been planned as the first book in a spy series, which were, of course, hugely popular during the 1960s. However, there were never any more published. The author, Michael P. Faur, Jr., similarly, appears never to have published another book either. That’s too bad. While this is not a fantastic novel, it is at least equal in quality to most other spy yarns I’ve read from that era. Cord (no first name given) has an enormous array of skills and knowledge from his background, many of which are used over the course of this story. But there is so much more that could have been unveiled over a series. Cord’s exacting verbal wit is constantly on display although his prominent use of Chinese proverbs, while fun to read, is probably a bit overused. The novel, much like Cord himself is intricately assembled with lots of twists and turns. Misdirection is a tool on full display. The ending is a bit odd in that it details exactly what actually happened, proving what Cord (and the reader) thought was happening was all wrong. An interesting technique.

Too bad there weren’t more of these published. I, for one, would have certainly carved out time to read them.