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.

The Dagger Affair (The Man From U.N.C.L.E. #4) by David McDaniel

The fourth in the series of Man From U.N.C.L.E. novels is also the first to be written by David McDaniel who would go on to write five more plus an unpublished finale called “The Final Affair”.

Having read a number of these now, I must say this one is easily among my favorites. Sure, it’s another story about preventing an evil genius with a new invention from destroying the world, but it’s the method of telling that story that is unique. The U.N.C.L.E. agents are forced into an alliance with arch-enemy THRUSH in order to prevent the evil plot.  After all, THRUSH doesn’t want to see the world destroyed; they want to take it over and wield power over it. It’s in everybody’s best interests to call a temporary truce and work together.

The characterization of both Solo and Kuryakin this time around is much closer to what was shown in the television series than the first three books in the series. They are very effective as a team, and in tough situations they are each able to read the actions of the other like a well-oiled machine. They also display a playful banter with each other which is both endearing as well as serves to hi-light their different natures. Even Mr. Waverly gets to have some time in the field. The author includes a fair bit of humor, including one scene in an airplane where the movie to be shown is the newest James Bond picture. While Solo is quickly absorbed in the opening sequence, Kuryakin just shakes his head, not understanding how people could enjoy such rubbish.

But the best part of this novel is that we finally get to understand the nature of THRUSH, not only learning what that acronym stands for but also to learn of its history and what its primary goals are. That sure beats the vague “bad guy organization” we’ve known about up until this point (if you're reading them sequentially in publication order). The higher-up THRUSH characters of Ward and Irene Baldwin are not only nicely drawn characters but also work well as a way to put a face to the THRUSH organization and even almost become anti-heroes. It’s always nice to have educated, honorable (at least on the surface), and gentlemanly foes to work with. Working alongside THRUSH agents in life-or-death scenarios might be distasteful at first but we readers tend to get lulled into complacency right along with Solo, Kuryakin, and Weatherly, all the while knowing this won’t last and soon they would once again be enemies.

I’m glad to know there are more U.N.C.L.E. books still to come written by David McDaniel. Looking forward to them all.

The Wolf's Hour by Robert R. McCammon

Robert McCammon has always provided me with great entertainment and this time around was no exception.  This is primarily a World War II spy novel wherein Michael Gallatin is on a mission to support the allied D-Day invasion by preventing a Nazi gas warfare scheme.  It’s a clever plot filled with adrenaline-charged action at every turn.  On its own, it would be a very nice thriller but the fact that Michael is also a werewolf makes this one a keeper.

In the hands of a lesser author I would be concerned that combining a werewolf story with a WWII spy novel would come across as hokey at best.  But in McCammon’s hands, it reads superbly.  Michael’s werewolf origin story is told through a series of lengthy flashback sections that not only stand on their own but provide some excellent emotional scenes that tie in well to the events of the spy story. It all works well together and despite its length (over 600 paperback small print pages in my copy) I polished it off quickly, fully absorbed every step of the way.

This is a stand-alone novel but thankfully, McCammon provided some additional material for us in the form of inter-linked short stories collected in a volume entitled, The Hunter from the Woods.  I made room on my shelves for that one as well just as soon as I closed the cover on this book. 

The Mad Scientist Affair (The Man From U.N.C.L.E. #5) by John T. Phillifent

Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin are assigned to an unusual case in Ireland.  This time, instead of stopping the diabolical plot of a mad scientist, they are to see to it that he carries out his plans, whatever they are, in case it's good, and keep THRUSH from getting their hands on the experiments.  The scientist is a brewer of premium beer but, alas, he has discovered new synthetic substances based on chemical processes.  One use is to enhance indiscretion and recklessness, much like a new form of beer.  Solo himself is drugged with this and learns just how dangerous it could be if loosed upon an unsuspecting population.  But even more serious is the second form of the synthetic which can spread rapidly in water and turn into a solid jelly-like substance.  It seems the scientist and THRUSH have plans to let it loose in key salt water areas on a massive scale and thus paralyze shipping lanes, choke rivers, cut off power plants, etc.  Diabolical indeed! 

The fifth entry of this series is the first of three by English writer John T. Phillifent (also wrote #19 and 20).  This author is probably better known by his pseudonym, John Rackham, a science fiction and fantasy author of some note.  He is also an electrical engineer and scientist by training and this knowledge is put to good use here.  The science behind these fictional synthetic substances may not pass an expert evaluation but was sufficient to sound plausible to my mind.  But he doesn’t scrimp on the action or other expectations of an U.N.C.L.E. story either.  The addition of the scientist’s two beautiful daughters, one blonde and angelic, one raven-haired and devilish, was a nice touch.  Although I will say the blonde was a little inconsistent, changing from a brilliant scientist in her own right, to a helpless chatty Cathy in the middle, and finally to an action hero at the end.  

It’s all in good fun though and as long as you’re not expecting the heights of literary accomplishment, it’s a fun time.

Assignment Silver Scorpion (Sam Durell #35) by Edward S. Aarons

Sam Durell, agent of K-Section of the CIA is used to working alone. He’s a mission-oriented, no-nonsense, experienced top-notch agent. So when he finds himself on a case with a young, inexperienced female agent, he’s not exactly thrilled. They have been sent to the newly unified African country of Boganda where it appears over $300,000 of American and International aid has been diverted into the pockets of…somebody. Perhaps it’s Mokutu, the new country’s president, or perhaps it’s their military leader. Or perhaps it’s one or both of their wives who happen to be sisters and have every appearance of being professional pirates. The money, in the form of international credits, was intended for economic, social, and educational needs. But over the past six months, the credits have been converted, little by little, into hard cash for projects that were never completed, or never even begun. It was an international swindle of the first magnitude. Durell and his rookie partner must find out where the money’s gone.

Once again Edward S. Aarons (also known by the pseudonyms Paul Ayres and Edward Ronns) has provided an exciting adventure thriller in the lengthy “Assignment” series featuring agent Sam Durell. I think these later books in the series have a bit more TV-style adventure than the early ones, more action, more double-crosses, more peril in general. Durell ends up in a jail cell at least three times (maybe four) in this single novel. But it’s a fun ride all the way through. The author, as he has many times before, provides a realistic exotic setting for his characters to romp around in. While the country of Boganda is fictional, it seems much like many an African nation in the early 1970s when this was published. 

I must say that the character of Sam Durell doesn’t come off well over the first half of the novel. The way he treats his female co-agent is abominable. I get that he is used to working alone, but the author seems to press this point too far in my opinion. Yes, I’m aware that this was written in the early 1970s, but he is arrogant, condescending, patronizing, and flat out rude to her in every interaction they have. He demands information from her but never stoops to answering her questions. He even physically slaps her twice (and another character once). I worry that if this book were a reader’s first introduction to the series, they would be so turned off as to quit half-way through and never want to read another one. Happily, I can report that this relationship changes significantly as the pages fly by. When two people face the kind of dangerous situations that these two face, they tend to gravitate towards each other. In fact, this becomes one of the major rewards of persevering through the book.

Looking forward to my next "Assignment" read.

The Copenhagen Affair (The Man From U.N.C.L.E.) by John Oram

For the third novel in the series, the publishers turned to John Oram (John Oram Thomas), a staff writer for the Empire News before turning to writing novels.  The plot revolves around a new THRUSH threat in the form of a flying-saucer-type weapon system being built in Denmark.  Solo and Kuryakin are sent to stop whatever progress has been made but when they finally arrive on scene (after a couple of action scenes where Solo must force his way past some THRUSH thugs), they discover the weapon is complete and ready to run its first dastardly mission.

My research into this author revealed little other than he supposedly based this book on his wartime experiences fighting for the Danish resistance.  He would go on to write the 22nd novel in the series, The Stone-cold Dead in the Market Affair.  However, I could find no other novels by him, or any other pen names he might have used.

This is a quick read, with a straight-forward plot that seems a lot like one of the season one television shows.  Solo still gets most of the protagonist role but I did notice Kuryakin seems to be a bit more of a ladies man than we see in the TV show.  Perhaps, like the first two books in the series, this was written based on the show’s concept and before the show’s first scripts were produced or maybe just before the show started to jell into its norm.  David McCallum, the actor who played Kuryakin, is on record as saying he purposely did not play the role as a ladies man, believing the character would be too focused on the missions to get side-tracked by that.

Assignment Suicide (Sam Durell series) by Edward S. Aarons

I've been told that it does not matter in what order these books are read.  They are all stand-alone stories and so I took a risk and skipped number 2 (I don't have a copy of that one) and went right to number 3.  It seems fine to do so.  Even book number one didn't seem like the first in a series.

In this one, CIA operative Sam Durell parachutes into Russia to help prevent a rogue member of the Politburo, known as "Comrade Z", from launching one of Russia's first ICBMs toward the US.  Sam Durell has a mere handful of days to stop this event which will happen on May Day.  The book was first published in 1958 and it is interesting to see the perspectives between the US and Russia at that time.  Also of interest is the similarities to Ian Fleming's Bond books which first began appearing in 1952.

This novel was much as I expected.  Lots of spy action without much spy craft.  There is the usual good guys and bad guys and the occasional misconstrued identity.  And, of course, there is the obligatory Bond, er Durell girl.  The mystery part surrounds the identity of just who is Comrade Z.  There is a nice climax at the end to wrap up the story.

I enjoyed the first two Sam Durell books I've read so will keep on with them.  They are quick reads so serve well as a break between weightier material.

The Doomsday Affair (The Man From U.N.C.L.E.) by Harry Whittington

The plot in this second novel in the Man From U.N.C.L.E. Television tie-in series jumps right into the middle of the action when a young woman (and THRUSH defector) removes a lei from around her head that she had recently received from Honolulu airport.  Unfortunately, there is an explosive device within the lei and her movements trigger the bomb which kills her immediately.   This happens right in front of Napoleon Solo and literally blows the action wide open in the first paragraph.  It all leads to a diabolical plot by a mysterious entity named Tixe Ylno ('Exit Only' spelled backward) to blow up a major American city with an atomic bomb and pin the deed on Russia, thereby launching World War III.  

Yes, we’ve seen this plot numerous times before but since this was published in 1965, perhaps it was a newer concept then.  For this second book in the series, author duties were handed over to Harry Whittington, who is known as one of the most prolific pulp authors of all time, managing to churn out 85 novels in the space of only twelve years.  That sort of churn and earn approach, unfortunately, is quite evident in this book, and its quality is not nearly as high as in book one, The Thousand Coffins Affair written by Michael Avallone.  Lots of action sequences but all crammed together with little expository or explanatory effort.  The ending is especially representative of this as it all ends rather abruptly.  I turned the last page expecting to see at least a couple more paragraphs but no, nothing there.  No extraneous words wasted on what the consequences of that final scene were or how the characters dealt with it.  Also, the big reveal of the identity of Tixe Ylno is handled just as obviously as thousands of novels before, as well as practically every episode of Scooby Doo you've ever seen.

There was one scene that I was happy to read.  As I watched the television series I kept wondering about the guy who ran the tailor shop that doubled as the secret entrance to U.N.C.L.E. headquarters.  Was he simply a tailor?  Was he a retired agent?  In this novel, Napoleon Solo wonders the same thing but even though we don’t get an actual answer, at least it was good to know that Napoleon and I think alike.  

I did find it interesting that this volume did include Illya in a major role (unlike in book one where he is clearly a minor character).  But he is still obviously subservient to Solo, telling me the book was written based on early scripts or shortly after the first couple of episodes had filmed.  It only took the TV series 5 or 6 episodes before these two characters began to be almost equal in skills, experience, and air-time so I’m expecting the book series to evolve that way as well in short order.

Looking forward to book 3 which is written by yet another author, John Oram Thomas who seems to have been anything but prolific.

Assignment to Disaster (Sam Durell series) by Edward S. Aarons

A couple of weeks ago I came across a bunch of vintage paperbacks by Edward S. Aarons, all with the word “Assignment” in their title.  I had never heard of these books or the author, but they looked to be spy thrillers from the 1950s and 60s and since they would cost me all of 25 cents each, I took a small chance and bought a boatload of them.

And so it was that I picked up this first novel in the “Assignment” series.  This novel came out just after Ian Fleming’s first Bond novel 'Casino Royale' was published and so many people today seem to regard this series as a Bond rip-off.  But since this novel was published before 'Casino Royale' had a chance to make much of an impact yet, I would disagree.  The main character in this series is CIA agent Sam Durell and yes, he is sort of like an American version of Bond. But in its day, the books in the Sam Durell series were very popular.  There are 48 novels in the series; the first 42 were written by Edward S. Aarons and the final 6 were reportedly written by his brother although there is speculation that the name Will B. Aarons was just a house name for Fawcett. All were published over a span of 28 years.  That’s quite a successful run by any standards.

The novel itself is a hoot.  Of course, the reader must keep in mind the age in which it was written and so, like the Bond books, you’ll see some cultural references and attitudes that may seem odd today.  What we would call male chauvinism today was treated more like chivalry in the 1950s.  World War II is over and the world’s concerns tend to revolve around rockets and the power that can be unleashed at the whim of a mad scientist.  Durell is on the lookout for a missing American scientist, one of the brains behind the world's first man-made satellite, named Cyclops, a bomb of dramatic proportions. With just a few hours to go before launch, it is vital that Durell find the man and put an end to the sabotage.

Another nice thing about the series is that they really don't have to be read in order.  There are no overarching story lines that I am aware of that reach across individual novels but I understand Durell's relationship with Dierdre does run through the books.  The publisher usually lists the books in alphabetical order rather than by published date.  I am a stickler about reading series in order if at all possible but with so many in a series it would be a shame to hold up reading them just because you can’t locate book #2 in your local used book store.

Largely, because of the Bond movies, series like this Sam Durell set have fallen by the way side.  I’ll definitely be reading more and doing my best to spread the word about their existence. If you’ve enjoyed Bond or other spy novel series of that era, I recommend you give these a try.

The Thousand Coffins Affair by Michael Avallone

THRUSH is nearing completion of a new super weapon that is capable of killing off whole cities in savage fashion.  It’s chemical warfare at its finest.  Napoleon Solo, U.N.C.L.E.’s best agent is dispatched to deal with the crisis.  

This is the very first book in The Man From U.N.C.L.E. novel series and I’ve been itching to get to it ever since I finished watching all four seasons of the TV show a couple of weeks ago. I was heartened to learn that these books are not just reincarnations of specific episodes but rather complete, stand-alone stories.  I found it to be a fun read with a lot of good background presented on the main characters, especially Solo and Mr. Waverly that you really can’t do easily in a TV show.  It also provided some good intel on the U.N.C.L.E. headquarters building that was only hinted at on TV. Illya Kuryakin, does have a small role here but is mostly confined to lab work.  This tells me that the book was conceived and written based on the TV script outlines of the first couple of episodes before the popularity of David McCallum’s character elevated the role.

“The Man From U.N.C.L.E.” TV show first aired on September 22, 1964.  It was a time of turbulence in American history, with news headlines including reports of a place called Vietnam where US Government forces had just inflicted “heavy casualties” on Communist forces invading South Vietnam.  The Warren Commission was on the verge of announcing its verdict that Lee Harvey Oswald had acted alone.  In the South, the Heart of Atlanta Hotel was asking the US Supreme Court to overturn the 1965 Civil Rights Act.  This was the backdrop from which this TV show sprang and a series of paperback novels were generated as part of an aggressive and ingenious marketing plan for its time.  Cold War themes prevail throughout the novel.

Noted mystery writer, Michael Avallone was recruited to write the series but after great success with this first novel, (for which he was paid a measly $1000) his handshake deal to write the rest was undercut and other writers were signed to do the rest.  However this novel’s healthy reception and success opened doors for him and he went on to write over 200 novels, many of them TV and movie tie-ins.

So, all in all, this was an excellent first start to the series.  I think it stands well on its own even for readers who have never watched the TV show. Note that the cover of the book I read (pictured) simply bears the title "The Man From U.N.C.L.E.". I suppose it's because this was the first. Later printings changed it to "The Thousand Coffins Affair". With different authors writing the other books, I look forward to seeing how they compare.