Break out your old toys – be it trucks or puppets – and let’s have some fun! As much fun as it would be to discuss the playthings of my youth, we’re actually here to talk about books using games and toys as the motif.
FUN & DEADLY GAMES by Don Tracy – What the cover of this 1968 novel promises is a great spy read. What is inside is a muddled mystery where, in the last chapter, the main character goes through the whole case, telling the reader every clue he found that was never mentioned while we read it.
Giff Speer is a man who woks for an organization in the Army so secret, even he doesn’t know his fellow agents. Now that’s a promising idea to start things off. Sadly, it’s all downhill from there, as he is sent off to work as a handyman for a colonel’s widow, whose radical daughter is stirring up trouble everywhere and who seems to have come into quite a bit of money since they got back from their post in Vietnam.
Speer’s mission is to figure out where that money came from. But since this book takes place in ‘68 and the family lives in Florida, take a wild guess what drives the story in one simple word: racism. The author leads us to believe throughout that everything happening is due to the simple-minded racist folk. I’ll save everyone some time and money; if you don’t want to know, skip the next paragraph.
Turns out, the family was selling secrets to the Russians, whom they double-crossed, and now the Russkies want their money back. But again, we don’t find this out until Speer gives his boss the whole detailed report. This is just poor writing that went with a total cheap end. Best to avoid this one, since you’ll just be disappointed by its lack of an outcome.
THE ACTION MAN by Jay Flynn – What is truly great about all the books I cover in this column are the unexpected gems – the ones that have fallen by the wayside. Now, don’t mind the super-lame cover of this 1961 novel, because what is printed on the pages is truly a score. For people who love a great caper in the vein of Donald E. Westlake, have I got a story for you!
It deals with Denton Farr, a bar owner who has ties to the crime world, and finally has a great plan to pull off that will earn him more than $2 million: robbing the bank holding the Army’s payroll. We follow Farr as he puts his crew together and plans it all out.
This is top-notch crime action that needs to be reissued. Flynn’s writing is so focused on the men at hand – and things so tightly paced – that not a word is wasted. You actually root for these guys to get away with the caper – even from early on, when Farr has to deal with some undesirables sent to take him out.
It’s truly amazing how well the plan goes off, but of course, there is a catch at the end. But it’s not the job that goes wrong – it’s something else. THE ACTION MAN is a very quick read that packs such a great punch of an ending, you’ll wish it were longer. It’s one that should be read by all crime-fiction fans. Hey, Stark House, how about a twofer of some Jay Flynn? That’s all I’m askin’.
PUPPET ON A CHAIN by Alistair MacLean – I’ve got a stack of MacLean’s books on my shelves, for the simple reason that besides him being prolific, I’ve watched a huge amount of his books as movies in my time. He was “action movies” personified back in the day.
But I never saw the film version of this 1969 one; I was more interested in the way over-the-top ones like WHERE EAGLES DARE and ICE STATION ZEBRA. But this story has none of that; it’s a straightforward tale of Interpol agent Paul Sherman, who’s looking to break up a serious drug ring.
Sherman is now saddled with two female operatives to whom he talks down, as if they were children. The book kicks off from the onset, since once they land in Amsterdam, Paul’s contact is killed in front of him, setting off a chase that quickly moves into the central plot.
There is plenty of action throughout, all the while MacLean plays the reader like the puppet of the title as we watch Sherman put through his paces, to the point that his fellow agents become pawns in the shocking ending. To say the book is brutal is an understatement, since there is plenty of bodies and beatings to go around, with a truly horrific death to finish it up.
Next time: Jayne Mansfield’s daughter is so freakin’ hot. –Bruce Grossman
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
The Action Man is a great book, Flynn’s best. I’ve read it a dozen times.
The Speer novels are all substandard IMHO. I read two or three and really disliked all of them. I’ve read a couple of Tracy’s standalone’s as well, and they weren’t much better.
Interested in reading The Action Man. I love books like that. I will have to admit that I love the cover of the first book. It’s a shame it’s not as good as it could have been.
Action Man and MacDonald’s Soft Touch are good as it gets.