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Sam Durell #4
Assignment Stella Marni
Most blondes are dangerous - but Stella Marni was murder on wheels...
175 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1957
2 people are currently reading
40 people want to read
About the author
Edward S. Aarons
263 books17 followersAKA Paul Ayres, Edward Ronns.
Edward Sidney Aarons (September 11, 1916 - June 16, 1975) was an American writer, author of more than 80 novels from 1936 until 1962. One of these was under the pseudonym "Paul Ayres" (Dead Heat), and 30 were written using the name "Edward Ronns". He also wrote numerous articles for detective magazines such as Detective Story Magazine and Scarab.
Aarons was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and earned a degree in Literature and History from Columbia University. He worked at various jobs to put himself through college, including jobs as a newspaper reporter and fisherman. In 1933, he won a short story contest as a student. In World War II he was in the United States Coast Guard, joining after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. He finished his duty in 1945, having obtained the rank of Chief Petty Officer.
Edward Sidney Aarons (September 11, 1916 - June 16, 1975) was an American writer, author of more than 80 novels from 1936 until 1962. One of these was under the pseudonym "Paul Ayres" (Dead Heat), and 30 were written using the name "Edward Ronns". He also wrote numerous articles for detective magazines such as Detective Story Magazine and Scarab.
Aarons was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and earned a degree in Literature and History from Columbia University. He worked at various jobs to put himself through college, including jobs as a newspaper reporter and fisherman. In 1933, he won a short story contest as a student. In World War II he was in the United States Coast Guard, joining after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. He finished his duty in 1945, having obtained the rank of Chief Petty Officer.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
October 29, 2021
The first seven or eight months of this year I spent reading through all James Hadley Chase's crime novels. This fourth book in the Sam Durrell Assignment series seems awfully similar to a Chase thriller. Because in Assignment Stella Marni Durrell acts more like a detective than a CIA agent. The espionage aspect, which, by the way, Chase also engaged in, exists only as a minor matter of tying things up at the end. It's the process, the reveal that matters, here. Not that the ending and the ultimate villain should be that much of a surprise, if it is a surprise at all, as most readers will see it coming from the first chapter or so. Femme fatales are always there for a reason.
The story itself is good enough. Quickly paced action that never really lets up. But at the same time there doesn't seem to be much beneath that action, no meta text, so to speak. Aarons does play around with the idea at times. But not here. This is just a potboiler for the most part. And for that reason, it's a bit of a disappointment, after seeing other levels in other Sam Durrell books. And one thing is beginning to bother me. I've read nine of these Durrell stories so far. And during that time, Durrell must have been slipped up on from behind and knocked unconscious fifteen or sixteen times. Why can't he learn that when he comes into a room holding a gun on someone that he should back himself up against the wall, away from the doors and windows? The guy in the shadows ends up cold cocking him just about every time.
Another interesting entry that might as well go with this review. This is from the NY Times' obituary for Aarons. A fascinating fellow, it seems.
"And wherever Sam Durell turned up on espionage assignment, his exploits were balanced by lively comments one the locale's historical background. Mr. Aarons had earned degrees at Columbia University in ancient history and literature. He also sketched, sailed, did cabinet‐making, was a camera enthusiast and a deep‐sea fisherman off Key West, Fla. During World War II, he served in the Navy."--20 June 1975
The story itself is good enough. Quickly paced action that never really lets up. But at the same time there doesn't seem to be much beneath that action, no meta text, so to speak. Aarons does play around with the idea at times. But not here. This is just a potboiler for the most part. And for that reason, it's a bit of a disappointment, after seeing other levels in other Sam Durrell books. And one thing is beginning to bother me. I've read nine of these Durrell stories so far. And during that time, Durrell must have been slipped up on from behind and knocked unconscious fifteen or sixteen times. Why can't he learn that when he comes into a room holding a gun on someone that he should back himself up against the wall, away from the doors and windows? The guy in the shadows ends up cold cocking him just about every time.
Another interesting entry that might as well go with this review. This is from the NY Times' obituary for Aarons. A fascinating fellow, it seems.
"And wherever Sam Durell turned up on espionage assignment, his exploits were balanced by lively comments one the locale's historical background. Mr. Aarons had earned degrees at Columbia University in ancient history and literature. He also sketched, sailed, did cabinet‐making, was a camera enthusiast and a deep‐sea fisherman off Key West, Fla. During World War II, he served in the Navy."--20 June 1975
November 18, 2012
Decent cold war caper from the late 1950's. There are a lot of novels in the series and I enjoyed this one enough to try some others. The babe on the cover is supposed to make all the men around her lust-crazy, but for the rest of us, all she needed to do was make one plunk down 40 cents for the book and mission accomplished.
October 29, 2021
Cops and robbers - as if watching an installment of some 1970s USA detective series ("The FBI!"). Decent but nothing special. And you saw the revelation at the end taking shape from page one - bit of a letdown. Plus the femme fatale of the story, "firm round breasts" and all, never did anything to me - I would nót have fallen for her, not even in those days my hormone count was at par with this story's protagonist's.
April 23, 2016
Another very strong entry in the Durell saga. This one returns the series to stateside intrigue, primarily New York City. From a photographer's studio to a Polish freighter in the harbor to a Greenwich Village brownstone that houses an immigrant club, the action never lets up.
Durell takes relentless beatings in this story, physical and emotional. The chapter with Durell imprisoned in the "acorn" was the most harrowing I've yet read from Aarons. Blossom and Krame are two of the most loathsome and developed antagonists yet, especially Blossom. Durell comes to empathize and understand why Blossom was derailed personally and professionally by Stella Marni. By the end, Blossom was a tragic figure and far more than a two-dimensional villain.
Poor Art Greenwald! He's winged by Durell in ASSIGNMENT: TREASON and then bashed over the head with a blunt object in this novel. Deirdre Padgett is back, providing the book continuity as well as providing sexual tension: Durell loves Deirdre, but he encounters beautiful women in the course of his missions who invariably fall in love with him (as Deirdre herself did in the series' opening installment, ASSIGNMENT TO DANGER).
The title character is one of the most fascinating yet. A woman who really does have the power to cloud men's minds and to mesmerize them with her feminine charms and wiles.
The plot is a fascinating peek into the post-WWII world where immigrants from Europe were being taken advantage of and denied the opportunities and freedom America offered by opportunists from their own homelands. Durell is determined to bust up a ring of Communist sympathizers that is bullying and blackmailing Hungarian refugees into going back through the Iron Curtain to lives of oppression and fear.
A well-written, eminently engaging and thoroughly entertaining novel. I'm now eagerly anticipating taking up the fifth book of the series, ASSIGNMENT: BUDAPEST.
Durell takes relentless beatings in this story, physical and emotional. The chapter with Durell imprisoned in the "acorn" was the most harrowing I've yet read from Aarons. Blossom and Krame are two of the most loathsome and developed antagonists yet, especially Blossom. Durell comes to empathize and understand why Blossom was derailed personally and professionally by Stella Marni. By the end, Blossom was a tragic figure and far more than a two-dimensional villain.
Poor Art Greenwald! He's winged by Durell in ASSIGNMENT: TREASON and then bashed over the head with a blunt object in this novel. Deirdre Padgett is back, providing the book continuity as well as providing sexual tension: Durell loves Deirdre, but he encounters beautiful women in the course of his missions who invariably fall in love with him (as Deirdre herself did in the series' opening installment, ASSIGNMENT TO DANGER).
The title character is one of the most fascinating yet. A woman who really does have the power to cloud men's minds and to mesmerize them with her feminine charms and wiles.
The plot is a fascinating peek into the post-WWII world where immigrants from Europe were being taken advantage of and denied the opportunities and freedom America offered by opportunists from their own homelands. Durell is determined to bust up a ring of Communist sympathizers that is bullying and blackmailing Hungarian refugees into going back through the Iron Curtain to lives of oppression and fear.
A well-written, eminently engaging and thoroughly entertaining novel. I'm now eagerly anticipating taking up the fifth book of the series, ASSIGNMENT: BUDAPEST.
November 29, 2016
An old (1957) Sam Durrell caper that manages just to be routine. Sam is investigating why Hungarian refugees are denouncing the U.S. and returning to Budapest. It seems their families are being threatened or held hostage if they don't publicly commit to returning. The major flaw with this tale is the female spy who is so beautiful she is capable of turning men into jelly. Recommended to readers of cold war spy novels.
January 22, 2019
I liked it. Typical for this series and late 50s spy stories. Enjoyable quick action read with not too unpredictable of a plot. On to the next in the series, and there are plenty of them still to go. Recommended if you enjoy old-school spy novels.
March 25, 2022
Stella Marni is beautiful, but men who fall for her keep turning up dead. Is she an innocent angel or a devious devil? Sam Durell has to find out, because he's the latest man to fall for her charms. He also has to deal with a vicious gang which is taken ex-communists back to their home countries for execution - and Stella and her father appear to be their next intended victims. Great fun, as always, with a Sam Durell adventure.
August 11, 2024
Serviceable. I've read a few of the many Sam Durell adventures, and I enjoyed the others, but this one was just okay. Nothing particularly interesting or unique in its cold-war spy tale. Not bad, as it kept me reading, but not great, and it could have been a lot shorter. As another reviewer said, you could see the last pages coming long before you got to them. I'll likely read another of the Assignment adventures, as I know there are better, but if you're just starting out on the series, pick another to start with.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews