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The Destroyer #26
In Enemy Hands
Book by Murphy, Warren
Paperback
First published January 1, 1976
27 people are currently reading
108 people want to read
About the author
Warren Murphy
294 books123 followersWarren Murphy was an American author, most famous as the co-creator of The Destroyer series, the basis for the film Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins. He worked as a reporter and editor and after service during the Korean War, he drifted into politics.
Murphy also wrote the screenplay for Lethal Weapon 2. He is the author of the Trace and Digger series. With Molly Cochran, he completed two books of a planned trilogy revolving around the character The Grandmaster, The Grandmaster (1984) and High Priest (1989). Murphy also shares writing credits with Cochran on The Forever King and several novels under the name Dev Stryker. The first Grandmaster book earned Murphy and Cochran a 1985 Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original, and Murphy's Pigs Get Fat took the same honor the following year.
His solo novels include Jericho Day, The Red Moon, The Ceiling of Hell, The Sure Thing and Honor Among Thieves. Over his career, Murphy sold over 60 million books.
He started his own publishing house, Ballybunion, to have a vehicle to start The Destroyer spin-off books. Ballybunion has reprinted The Assassin's Handbook, as well as the original works Assassin's Handbook 2, The Movie That Never Was (a screenplay he and Richard Sapir wrote for a Destroyer movie that was never optioned), The Way of the Assassin (the wisdom of Chiun), and New Blood, a collection of short stories written by fans of the series.
He served on the board of the Mystery Writers of America, and was a member of the Private Eye Writers of America, the International Association of Crime Writers, the American Crime Writers League and the Screenwriters Guild.
Murphy also wrote the screenplay for Lethal Weapon 2. He is the author of the Trace and Digger series. With Molly Cochran, he completed two books of a planned trilogy revolving around the character The Grandmaster, The Grandmaster (1984) and High Priest (1989). Murphy also shares writing credits with Cochran on The Forever King and several novels under the name Dev Stryker. The first Grandmaster book earned Murphy and Cochran a 1985 Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original, and Murphy's Pigs Get Fat took the same honor the following year.
His solo novels include Jericho Day, The Red Moon, The Ceiling of Hell, The Sure Thing and Honor Among Thieves. Over his career, Murphy sold over 60 million books.
He started his own publishing house, Ballybunion, to have a vehicle to start The Destroyer spin-off books. Ballybunion has reprinted The Assassin's Handbook, as well as the original works Assassin's Handbook 2, The Movie That Never Was (a screenplay he and Richard Sapir wrote for a Destroyer movie that was never optioned), The Way of the Assassin (the wisdom of Chiun), and New Blood, a collection of short stories written by fans of the series.
He served on the board of the Mystery Writers of America, and was a member of the Private Eye Writers of America, the International Association of Crime Writers, the American Crime Writers League and the Screenwriters Guild.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
February 26, 2021
While the plot of this novel is not great—the espionage version of mutually assured destruction is messed up by Congress unilaterally disarming all CIA agents so that they cannot bungle their way into creating another international incident—there is a little bit of fun in watching Murphy and Sapir satirize President Gerald Ford. This is the first time Ford appears in the series and the authors were not kind to him, taking his propensity to trip and turning it into an ability to injure himself with any and everything that comes into reach—a paper clip, a piece of paper, even a band aid. So not great on the plot—especially the alleged love interest—but marginally saved by the literary equivalent of some slapstick humor.
If you liked this review, you can find more at www.gilbertstack.com/reviews.
If you liked this review, you can find more at www.gilbertstack.com/reviews.
October 15, 2022
When JFK realized that there were certain threats to America and the world that could not be handled by normal government agencies and it wasn’t wise to rely on random good people stepping up, he turned to bureaucrat and former CIA man Harold W. Smith. Smith devised an agency to fight unsuspected infections, CURE. Most of CURE is people who gather information or move resources and have no idea who they work for, but it also needed an enforcement arm. Young police officer Remo Williams was framed for murder and put to death to make him officially not exist. He was then trained in the martial arts of Sinanju by an ancient Korean named Chuin. Now when secret danger threatens, CURE can call upon…the Destroyer!
I’ve posted before about my love of men’s adventure paperback series of the 1970s. The Destroyer was one of my favorites. The first book was written in 1963, but most publishers rejected it until Pinnacle Books was looking for something to go with its successful Mack Bolan series in 1971. That first book was honestly pretty bad, but sold enough to get sequels, and the authors quickly realized that the relationship between Remo and Chiun was the key charm point. At that point, the series really took off.
In this volume, published in 1976, a Senate investigation into CIA malfeasance somehow leads to an order to disarm Sunflower, the Central Intelligence Agency’s European answer to the elite Soviet assassin squad known as Treska. Now that Sunflower can’t fight back effectively, Treska goes ahead and wipes out the American team. With no real opposition, the Communists can assassinate anyone they please, and the Moscow masters have a long list of targets.
Back in the States, the accident-prone president (transparently Gerald Ford) realizes the pooch is screwed badly, and as long as the Senate is looking, the CIA will not be able to strike back. So he reluctantly contacts CURE and Smitty unleashes Remo on the problem with Chiun tagging along as usual.
Remo clears out the Treska problem in a few days, but the Russians have their own human superweapon to unleash, Ludmilla Tchernova the flawless beauty. Her mission, find Remo, learn the secret of his strength, and then get him killed.
Good: The Destroyer series is more directly humorous than most of its rivals. The constant bickering of Remo and Chiun, the social and political satire, and often black comedy situations make these books enjoyable. Remo is the standard omnicompetent action hero in abilities (and Chuin is outright superhuman) but this is undercut by him being kind of an ass in ways that are not meant to be admired.
The books also excel at introducing minor or throwaway characters in a way that makes them memorable, not just a pile of skills and plot points. Like luckless CIA agent Walter Forbier who got a degree in a “good jobs” field only to get drafted and have his training obsolete by the time he got out, married only to have lesbianism suddenly become slightly socially acceptable, and joining Sunflower on the day they all die.
Ludmilla is more or less the villain of the book. Born with fortunate genes and family connections, she has been crafted into the “perfect” honey trap, largely through her own supreme vanity. She’s the kind of woman who will offer ice cream cones to children, so she can study and imitate their smiles of sudden joy, then drop the ice cream in the dirt and turn away bored. Her outward emotions are entirely artificial and thus nearly flawless. Ludmilla’s beauty is such that she can even partially bypass Remo’s cynicism and willpower to make him fall in love with her. Most impressive of all, she is the first woman in years not to immediately lose all ability to resist once exposed to Remo’s lovemaking.
It’s revealed that Remo and Chiun were responsible for President Nixon resigning rather than taking America down with him.
Less good: There’s a bunch of 1970s racism, sexism and ethnic prejudice here. This is played for comedy with Chiun, who as the world’s greatest assassin, holder of the true story of history, and the master of the sun source of all martial arts understandably considers everyone else below him. Remo, on the other hand, is a pig.
Like the later Parker/Stone combo, Sapir and Murphy are so strongly dedicated to their “mock everything” style of humor that it can suddenly come across as tasteless or nihilistic, and they sometimes run into blind spots in what they consider funny or important. (In real life, someone desperately does need to be making sure our intelligence agencies are doing the right thing and not screwing up.)
Content note: Lethal violence, often played for laughs. The aforementioned racism, sexism and ethnic prejudice. Extramarital sex, cuckolding.
Overall: A good example of the early days of the series. You can probably find many of the volumes in garage sales, used book stores and your grandparents’ attic (if not on the shelf where people can see it.) Skip the first book though; see if you can find the rewritten version published some years later.
I’ve posted before about my love of men’s adventure paperback series of the 1970s. The Destroyer was one of my favorites. The first book was written in 1963, but most publishers rejected it until Pinnacle Books was looking for something to go with its successful Mack Bolan series in 1971. That first book was honestly pretty bad, but sold enough to get sequels, and the authors quickly realized that the relationship between Remo and Chiun was the key charm point. At that point, the series really took off.
In this volume, published in 1976, a Senate investigation into CIA malfeasance somehow leads to an order to disarm Sunflower, the Central Intelligence Agency’s European answer to the elite Soviet assassin squad known as Treska. Now that Sunflower can’t fight back effectively, Treska goes ahead and wipes out the American team. With no real opposition, the Communists can assassinate anyone they please, and the Moscow masters have a long list of targets.
Back in the States, the accident-prone president (transparently Gerald Ford) realizes the pooch is screwed badly, and as long as the Senate is looking, the CIA will not be able to strike back. So he reluctantly contacts CURE and Smitty unleashes Remo on the problem with Chiun tagging along as usual.
Remo clears out the Treska problem in a few days, but the Russians have their own human superweapon to unleash, Ludmilla Tchernova the flawless beauty. Her mission, find Remo, learn the secret of his strength, and then get him killed.
Good: The Destroyer series is more directly humorous than most of its rivals. The constant bickering of Remo and Chiun, the social and political satire, and often black comedy situations make these books enjoyable. Remo is the standard omnicompetent action hero in abilities (and Chuin is outright superhuman) but this is undercut by him being kind of an ass in ways that are not meant to be admired.
The books also excel at introducing minor or throwaway characters in a way that makes them memorable, not just a pile of skills and plot points. Like luckless CIA agent Walter Forbier who got a degree in a “good jobs” field only to get drafted and have his training obsolete by the time he got out, married only to have lesbianism suddenly become slightly socially acceptable, and joining Sunflower on the day they all die.
Ludmilla is more or less the villain of the book. Born with fortunate genes and family connections, she has been crafted into the “perfect” honey trap, largely through her own supreme vanity. She’s the kind of woman who will offer ice cream cones to children, so she can study and imitate their smiles of sudden joy, then drop the ice cream in the dirt and turn away bored. Her outward emotions are entirely artificial and thus nearly flawless. Ludmilla’s beauty is such that she can even partially bypass Remo’s cynicism and willpower to make him fall in love with her. Most impressive of all, she is the first woman in years not to immediately lose all ability to resist once exposed to Remo’s lovemaking.
It’s revealed that Remo and Chiun were responsible for President Nixon resigning rather than taking America down with him.
Less good: There’s a bunch of 1970s racism, sexism and ethnic prejudice here. This is played for comedy with Chiun, who as the world’s greatest assassin, holder of the true story of history, and the master of the sun source of all martial arts understandably considers everyone else below him. Remo, on the other hand, is a pig.
Like the later Parker/Stone combo, Sapir and Murphy are so strongly dedicated to their “mock everything” style of humor that it can suddenly come across as tasteless or nihilistic, and they sometimes run into blind spots in what they consider funny or important. (In real life, someone desperately does need to be making sure our intelligence agencies are doing the right thing and not screwing up.)
Content note: Lethal violence, often played for laughs. The aforementioned racism, sexism and ethnic prejudice. Extramarital sex, cuckolding.
Overall: A good example of the early days of the series. You can probably find many of the volumes in garage sales, used book stores and your grandparents’ attic (if not on the shelf where people can see it.) Skip the first book though; see if you can find the rewritten version published some years later.
June 19, 2019
One of the better entries in the Destroyer series. Congress shuts down the CIA, leading the KGB to step up its operations. The President, a humorous caricature of Ford, recruits Remo to prevent an escalation to nuclear warfare.
September 1, 2019
3.5 stars.
June 28, 2010
The Senate Foreign Affairs Committee disarms American spies in Europe in hopes of easing tensions, and they are promptly killed by Russian spies. Remo and Chiun are sent in for revenge and are turned against each other by a Russian beauty.
This book has a bit too much filler about the bad guys.
Favorite tidbits: Remo tells Smitty he will name his first child after him, “Skinflint Tightwad Williams.” There are a lot of jokes at the expense of the automaker president, Ford.
Warning, sex and graphic gory violence.
This book has a bit too much filler about the bad guys.
Favorite tidbits: Remo tells Smitty he will name his first child after him, “Skinflint Tightwad Williams.” There are a lot of jokes at the expense of the automaker president, Ford.
Warning, sex and graphic gory violence.
December 20, 2010
A good read, not the best of the series, but not a bad showing either. It had a great quote,
"Tell me," the president said. "Do you think the congress really wants the Russians to beat us?" "No, Mr. President," the secretary of state replied. "But they are pandering to those who do." "Who are?" "The press. The young. The radicals. Everyone who hates America because they have been rewarded, by life here, in a manner that far exceeds their worth."
Awesome.
"Tell me," the president said. "Do you think the congress really wants the Russians to beat us?" "No, Mr. President," the secretary of state replied. "But they are pandering to those who do." "Who are?" "The press. The young. The radicals. Everyone who hates America because they have been rewarded, by life here, in a manner that far exceeds their worth."
Awesome.
February 10, 2016
One of the big men's adventure series from the 70's than ran an impressive 145 books. The series while an adventure/action story is also full of satire toward much of the mainstream fads and icons of the time. An interesting main character and the sarcastic mentor makes this a funny action/adventure read. The team must protect overseas agents against Soviet aggression. Recommended
January 23, 2013
A simpler story than most, but still pretty enjoyable adventure for Remo and Chiun.
September 29, 2016
В начале слишком много накручено политики и русские,конечно, описаны пьяными идиотами, но потом Людмила спасла ситуацию. Меня порадовало то, что первой любовью Дестройера стала русская шпионка)))
August 6, 2021
From Russia with love.
Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir offering. Suitable for teens and adults. Cure is forced to participate in a spy vs spy conflict.
Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir offering. Suitable for teens and adults. Cure is forced to participate in a spy vs spy conflict.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews