BULLET, BROADS, BLACKMAIL & BOMBS >> Creepy Crawlies

Break out the Raid! This column has been infested with bugs! All right, so just mainly in the titles, but still, a theme’s a theme, and I finally get to take these off my to-read pile. Plus, the cover for our first book just screams cool Cold War imagery.

THE SATAN BUG by Alistair MacLean — Consider this 1962 book to be two stories in one, since it starts off on one path, only to reveal the truth was all just a setup. Mordon Labs is a secretive base performing experiments that are kept highly secret. How secret, you might ask? Well, a door to one of its labs is so fortified that even if someone tried to cut through it, his last words would probably be “oh, shit” before getting blown up.

It’s what’s behind that door that drives most of the plot: a deadly chemical compound dubbed “the Satan Bug.” The best way to describe it in our current times would be “super anthrax,” where just a tablespoon could wipe out all of England. The problem is that someone stole it and is holding it hostage. This sets everything in motion for investigator Cavell, a no-nonsense type who is extremely determined in his work — a former secret agent with a bad leg and only one eye.

When it becomes apparent that the robbery of the Satan Bug was an inside job, lookout! Cavell goes about his job like a starving dog fighting over a spare bone. If you think you can figure out the big twist, you are so wrong. This is fine Cold War fiction that will delight many, since it drives at the reader that a chemical like this could exist, and what some people would do to get their hands on it for some greater scheme.

THE WORM OF DEATH by Nicholas Blake — If you expect this 1961 novel to be the source material for the movie SQUIRM, skip ahead to the next review. This is what is referred to as an English “drawing room” mystery, even though the action takes place at a few locations. It’s part of the long-running Nigel Strangeways series created by Nicholas Blake — an alias for poet laureate Cecil Day-Lewis (you might have heard of his son Daniel).

This book comes late in the series, so it has some carryover, but nothing that will lose a reader. It mainly deals with Strangeways’ living arrangements in moving to a small town along the Thames River called Greenwich, with sculptor Clare Massinger. Strangeways is invited over to the house of his new neighbor, Dr. Piers Loudron, who is fascinated by Strangeways’ life as an investigator. While there, Strangeways meets Loudron’s family, whose members are — to put it bluntly — a bit odd: daughter Rebecca, a son who is also a doctor, Harold the businessman, and adopted son Graham.

Three days later and Loudron is missing, and the family has no clue what happened. They are all concerned for their own reasons, some clearer than others. Then Loudron is found floating in the Thames, wearing only a overcoat. Strangeways is called upon to investigating the case, leading to discoveries of the actions of the good doctor many years ago.

Blake does a fine job of letting the reader in on the actions and the investigating skills of Strangeways. Even when the answers are staring the reader in the face, it’s still not made crystal-clear until Blake pulls it out at the big reveal. In this case, it deals with the missing pages of a diary that explains that not only did Dr. Loudron expect the outcome of his life, but was fully ready to accept it.

THE DESTROYER #61: LORDS OF THE EARTH by Warren Murphy & Richard Sapir — Finishing off this infested column is the only book with actual insects — go figure. The bug of choice is the common housefly. Let me correct myself: Since it’s a DESTROYER novel, it’s never that common. How about a fly that can’t be killed by any insecticides, and have been bred to bite and are infected with a disease that will wipe out the human population? That is the enemy our odd couple of action face this time around.

The breeding of the flies are all due to what can only be called one of the more bizarre villains in the series: a millionaire who believes his mother is a fly. Let that one sink in for a bit. The story starts out with a super-secret government base constantly being attacked, no matter where it’s moved, killing off its scientists with some weird group called the Species Liberation Alliance. It’s bankrolled by the millionaire Waldron Perriweather III, who calls women “egg layers” and is hell-bent on his master plan of a bug-infested world.

While there, Harold Smith gets to deal with a computer programmer who makes Linus from Peanuts seem well-adjusted. Actually, it reminded me more of Gene Wilder early in THE PRODUCERS. The other mission he must deal with is a old stolen phone book; even though all its information is out-of-date, Smith stills wants it back, with an outcome that would make Matt Helm proud. All the while, Remo and Chiun try to protect the base and finally come face to face with some of Perriweather’s playthings.

It all comes down to our authors doing a slight little change to THE WAR OF THE WORLDS ending. This 1985 novel comes close to the end of the original run. After #68, the books would be taken up mainly by ghostwriters working with Murphy, or just ghostwriters themselves.

Next time: I’m talking lowest common denominator, kind of like Vin Diesel’s whole acting career. —Bruce Grossman

Buy it at Amazon.

OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF THE DESTROYER SERIES:
• THE BEST OF THE DESTROYER by Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir
• THE DESTROYER #5: DR. QUAKE by Richard Sapir and Warren Murphy
• THE DESTROYER #6: DEATH THERAPY by Richard Sapir and Warren Murphy
• THE DESTROYER #9: MURDER’S SHIELD by Richard Sapir and Warren Murphy
• THE DESTROYER #10: TERROR SQUAD by Richard Sapir and Warren Murphy
• THE DESTROYER #11: KILL OR CURE by Richard Sapir and Warren Murphy
• THE DESTROYER #13: ACID ROCK by Richard Sapir and Warren Murphy
• THE DESTROYER #14: JUDGMENT DAY by Richard Sapir and Warren Murphy
• THE DESTROYER #15: MURDER WARD by Richard Sapir and Warren Murphy
• THE DESTROYER #17: LAST WAR DANCE by Richard Sapir and Warren Murphy
• THE DESTROYER #18: FUNNY MONEY by Richard Sapir and Warren Murphy
• THE DESTROYER #19: HOLY TERROR by Richard Sapir and Warren Murphy
• THE DESTROYER #22: BRAIN DRAIN by Richard Sapir and Warren Murphy
• THE DESTROYER #23: CHILD’S PLAY by Richard Sapir and Warren Murphy
• THE DESTROYER #24: KING’S CURSE by Richard Sapir and Warren Murphy
• THE DESTROYER #30: MUGGER BLOOD by Richard Sapir and Warren Murphy
• THE DESTROYER #32: KILLER CHROMOSOMES by Warren Murphy
• THE DESTROYER #38: BAY CITY BLAST by Warren Murphy
• THE DESTROYER #39: MISSING LINK by Warren Murphy
• THE DESTROYER #46: NEXT OF KIN by Warren Murphy
• THE DESTROYER #48: PROFIT MOTIVE by Richard Sapir and Warren Murphy
• THE DESTROYER #49: SKIN DEEP by Warren Murphy
• THE DESTROYER #52: FOOL’S GOLD by Richard Sapir and Warren Murphy
• THE DESTROYER #55: MASTER’S CHALLENGE by Will Murray
• THE DESTROYER #78: BLUE SMOKE AND MIRRORS by Will Murray
• THE DESTROYER #89: DARK HORSE by Will Murray
• THE DESTROYER #104: ANGRY WHITE MAILMEN by Will Murray
• THE DESTROYER #145: DRAGON BONES by Tim Somheil
• THE NEW DESTROYER: CHOKE HOLD by Warren Murphy and James Mullaney
• THE NEW DESTROYER: DEAD RECKONING by Warren Murphy and James Mullaney
• THE NEW DESTROYER: GUARDIAN ANGEL by Warren Murphy and James Mullaney
• THE NEW DESTROYER: KILLER RATINGS by Warren Murphy and James Mullaney

OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF ALISTAIR MACLEAN:
• PUPPET ON A CHAIN by Alistair MacLean

OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF WARREN MURPHY:
• GRANDMASTER by Warren Murphy
• TRACE: GETTING UP WITH FLEAS by Warren Murphy

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