Quiller and Modesty Blaise books

De Bleuchamp

Just a message to say how much I would recommend 2 other series of thriller/spy stories.
I've recently found some Quiller books by Adam Hall on the WH Smith website. The stories of the lone agent written from 1965 to the 1990s are excellent and tense (usually set in communist countries like Russia and China,) he defends with Shotokan Karate and doesn't trust guns.
I've read them since the mid-1970s. Unfortunately the author died in the late 1990s.
Modesty Blaise with Willie Garvin are adventurers who sort out villains with Kongo clubs and knives respectively. The difference is that there are some humorous moments in the situations and also some weird killer villains.
There were 19 Quiller books and 12 Modesty Blaise books. Both are tricky to find as they finished at least ten years ago.
De Bleuchamp.

scaramanga1

De Bleuchamp wrote:

Just a message to say how much I would recommend 2 other series of thriller/spy stories.
I've recently found some Quiller books by Adam Hall on the WH Smith website. The stories of the lone agent written from 1965 to the 1990s are excellent and tense (usually set in communist countries like Russia and China,) he defends with Shotokan Karate and doesn't trust guns.
I've read them since the mid-1970s. Unfortunately the author died in the late 1990s.
Modesty Blaise with Willie Garvin are adventurers who sort out villains with Kongo clubs and knives respectively. The difference is that there are some humorous moments in the situations and also some weird killer villains.
There were 19 Quiller books and 12 Modesty Blaise books. Both are tricky to find as they finished at least ten years ago.
De Bleuchamp.

If you like Modesty -check out my Fan fic that has 007 and Modesty Blaise -with Willie Garvin working together on the same case/ mission!

http://www.ajb007.co.uk/fanfiction/thegreatchrysanthemum.php

There are quite a few fans of modesty Blaise here -and as for Quiller -I first watched the movie The Quiller Memorandum -and enjoyed it so much I got the novel -so I am familiar with that title -although I've yet to get any other Quiller novels
but do intend to at some time in the future.

Also if you like novels of this sort -check out Eric Ambler's novel The Night-Comers its actually endorsed by Ian Fleming who calls it "A splendid piece of writing"

Newsman

Quiller is awesome! But the movie (though written by Harold Pinter) was disliked by Quiller's creator. The books are so much better and get better as the series progresses.

De Bleuchamp

Thanks for the Ambler book tip.
Don't bother with WH Smith for Quiller as I did an order and then they didn't exist! Got a refund. I just finished re-reading Quiller-Salamander based in Cambodia trying to stop a viet-cong resurgence. (1995).
In Borders bookshop they had 6 recent Paperback reprints of Modesty Blaise book stories with picture covers from the original hardbacks.
Dragon's Claw, Last Day In Limbo and others.
I think these were a revival issue in circa 2004 by Souvenir Press.
De Bleuchamp.
"Hmm! Royal Beluga! North of the Caspian!" OHMSS.

De Bleuchamp

Newsman wrote:

Quiller is awesome! But the movie (though written by Harold Pinter) was disliked by Quiller's creator. The books are so much better and get better as the series progresses.

The main "difficulty" with Quiller is that it's him and his thoughts (first person), so any film would really need his voiceover, which audiences might get tired of. A bit like the way Harrison Ford voiceovers in Blade Runner.
De Bleuchamp.
M - "Goodnight!Goodnight! Bond-"Goodnight sir!"