Lawrence Block is best known for his crime novels, but luckily for the spy fans, he did not leave us out in the cold, as being reissued all this year is the Evan Tanner series. Tanner is a spy with a weird condition that makes him more special than any kind of agent: During the Korean War, he had a piece of shrapnel hit a part of his brain that affects his sleeping. Actually, it totally knocked out his need for sleep at all.
TANNER’S TWELVE SWINGERS is the third in the series and still a fine introduction to this unusual character. It starts simple enough for him: A friend who is part of a Latvian army living in exile in New York City wants Tanner to bring his sweetheart out of Russia. But what starts out as a somewhat hard job just gets harder as Tanner moves along.
How? Well, think of it this way: If you’re going into Russia just to bring one person out, how would it be if every time you make a stop, you’re giving another item or another person to drag along. Block puts his tongue firmly in cheek throughout the story; this is not some John le Carré espionage tale. Actually, it fits more the mold of the current TV show BURN NOTICE, getting right to the point of the story while never taking itself too seriously.
But there are moments of total suspense to bring it all back to reality, even when Tanner has to think of a way to smuggle a whole gymnastics team over the border. That’s only the bottom of a pyramid of things he has to haul.
For a book that was written back in the height of spy fiction, I wonder why it has taken this long to get these nice reissues? An afterword by Block gives us some insight of the times this was written in and how the army in exile was based on some friends’ experiences. I’m nothing but overjoyed to have Tanner enter my life and can’t wait to delve further into this Dean Martin-esque world of intrigue.
The ever-awake Tanner returned in THE SCORELESS THAI, his fourth adventure. There is very little crossover from the previous book, so these easily can be read out of order with no problem, and what continuity is addressed does not spoil the others.
Like SWINGERS, it starts out with Tanner in mid-adventure, thinking about what led up to this moment – namely, sitting in a tiger cage hanging from a tree. He wonders how he got in this mess in the first place. All because of a woman, that’s how.
His friend and Kenyan jazz musician Tuppence Ngawa was on tour in Southeast Asia when he sent Tanner a postcard hinting at trouble, setting off a chain of events that led Tanner into his current predicament, even though his boss thinks Tanner is on some other type of mission dealing with the opium trade.
Once Tanner arrives, he has to figure out a way to get the local CIA agent off his tail, so he can do what he is really there for. He’s captured by a group of bandits, but Tanner figures out a way of escape, if he can just get some help from one of the Thai soldiers holding him captive. With promises of women, Tanner finds his man.
THAI follows the two as they go in search for Tanner’s missing friend, getting into all sorts of problems, be it never-ending lust or just trying to blend in with the locals since Tanner towers above them all. These are only a few of his setbacks, since once they find the village where Tuppence is kept, how they will break her out and get away is still to be determined. It’s kind of hard when Tanner makes a gruesome discovery.
Not to go further, but remember, this book was written at the height of the Vietnam War. Block gives us a rip-roaring spy novel, not as comical as the previous one. THAI is more grounded in reality, and a top-notch thriller that would make Eric Ambler proud. Now bring on books five and six. –Bruce Grossman
OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF THIS AUTHOR:
• THE BURGLAR IN THE LIBRARY by Lawrence Block
• THE BURGLAR WHO THOUGHT HE WAS BOGART by Lawrence Block
• A DANCE AT THE SLAUGHTERHOUSE by Lawrence Block
• THE GIRL WITH THE LONG GREEN HEART by Lawrence Block
• HIT PARADE by Lawrence Block
• LUCKY AT CARDS by Lawrence Block
Related posts:
- Hard Case circles Block a third time
- Hit Parade
- The Twelve Kingdoms: Sea of Shadow
- BULLETS, BROADS, BLACKMAIL & BOMBS >> Field Trip
- Lucky at Cards
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I’ve really enjoyed the crime novels of Lawrence Block’s that I’ve read. I’ve never read any of his spy books though. I’ll have to give them a shot. They sound pretty cool.
There are 8 total in the series all of which are being reissued.