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Modesty Blaise #12
Dead Man's Handle (Modesty Blaise series) by O'Donnell Peter (2005-10-28) Paperback
This latest installment in the Modesty Blaise pulp-fiction series opens with Willie Garvin, Modesty's loyal lieutenant, rescuing a Hong Kong businessman from a Red Chinese jail. The thrills continue when Willie is kidnapped by Sibyl Pray and held prisoner at the Hostel of Righteousness, the headquarters for delusional terrorist Dr. Thaddeus Pilgrim, on the Greek island of Kalivari. The plot thickens as Willie is brainwashed into believing that Modesty has been killed and that he must kill her murderer—a woman who looks exactly like Modesty. When Modesty finds herself kidnapped and brought to Kalivari, she is forced to fight in deadly gladiatorial combat against Willie. Peppered with ingenious twists of fortune, varied and exotic locations, and a cast of fiendishly evil villains, this is a classic Modesty Blaise adventure.
Paperback
First published October 3, 1985
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222 people want to read
About the author
Peter O'Donnell
373 books116 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Peter O'Donnell also wrote as Madeleine Brent.
http://www.cs.umu.se/~kenth/modesty.html
is an excellent resource on this author.
To help keep the novels and the adventure strip collections separate, here's some info about the Modesty Blaise works.
In 1963, O'Donnell began his 38-year run as writer of the Modesty Blaise adventure story strip, which appeared six days a week in English and Scottish newspapers. He retired the strip in 2001.
Each strip story took 18-20 weeks to complete. Several publishers over the years have attempted to collect these stories in large softcovers. Titan Publishing is currently in the process of bringing them all out in large-format softcover, with 2-3 stories in each books. These are called "graphic novels" in the Goodreads title.
Meanwhile, during those 38 years, O'Donnell also wrote 13 books about Modesty Blaise: 11 novels and 2 short story/novella collections. These stories are not related to the strip stories; they are not novelizations of strip stories. They are entirely new, though the characters and "lives" are the same. These have been labeled "series #0".
There is a large article on Peter O'Donnell on Wikipedia, with a complete bibliography.
Peter O'Donnell also wrote as Madeleine Brent.
http://www.cs.umu.se/~kenth/modesty.html
is an excellent resource on this author.
To help keep the novels and the adventure strip collections separate, here's some info about the Modesty Blaise works.
In 1963, O'Donnell began his 38-year run as writer of the Modesty Blaise adventure story strip, which appeared six days a week in English and Scottish newspapers. He retired the strip in 2001.
Each strip story took 18-20 weeks to complete. Several publishers over the years have attempted to collect these stories in large softcovers. Titan Publishing is currently in the process of bringing them all out in large-format softcover, with 2-3 stories in each books. These are called "graphic novels" in the Goodreads title.
Meanwhile, during those 38 years, O'Donnell also wrote 13 books about Modesty Blaise: 11 novels and 2 short story/novella collections. These stories are not related to the strip stories; they are not novelizations of strip stories. They are entirely new, though the characters and "lives" are the same. These have been labeled "series #0".
There is a large article on Peter O'Donnell on Wikipedia, with a complete bibliography.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
August 6, 2011
The Modesty Blaise series are a guilty pleasure of mine. Absurd plots, impossible feats and a whole heap of evil crazies abound. Such fun. Pulp fiction at it's pulpiest...
August 9, 2020
This is the last full Modesty Blaise novel.
Many MB books, and comic strips of course, are stand-alone stories. However, this one has lots of recurring characters who make reference to previous events. It's perfectly readable without reading the others, but you get more out of it if you read the other first, especially Last Day in Limbo.
The story starts with the first time Modesty and Willie meet! We've been told about it but never really shown. It managed to be both what we were told but at the same time also surprising.
This time Modesty and Willie, and their friends, are pitted against the Hostel of Righteousness on a small island of Kalivari in the Aegean sea. They pretend to be a holy order that focuses on praying but in reality they're headed by Thaddeus Pilgrim. He used to be a missionary until his family was killed horribly. Now he's a Satanist who runs a group of assassins.
They try to kill one of Willie's girls merely as a precaution but instead Willie kills one of them. Pilgrim thinks that this is just an interesting opportunity and decides that his group will kidnap Willie if they get a chance. Weeks later, the assassins manage to kill the girl and when Willie comes over to meet her, they kidnap him. Modesty, of course, does everything she can to find him. However, Pilgrim has ordered that Willie must be brainwashed to kill Modesty.
This is an interesting parallel to one of the comics, "The Puppet Master", where Modesty is kidnapped and brainwashed to kill Willie. But in the comics, the main bad guy had very personal reasons to hate Modesty and want to destroy her. This time, Pilgrim just thinks that it would be an interesting program. However, he's ruthless and calculating.
The story becomes very intense when Molly is killed and Willie is kidnapped. Before that point, it has rather comedic and even heart-warming moments. Modesty is spending time with her friends Steve Collier and his blind wife Dinah. Steve is a very eccentric character but I mostly like him. Dinah is a sweet and endearing character. Modesty's lover in this book is Danny Chavasse, an old Network man whom Modesty and Willie rescued from Limbo. At one point, Modesty and Willie perform in the circus Willie partly owns. I enjoy the circus scenes and this was no exception.
Pilgrim isn't one of O'Donnell's best villains but he's pretty strange. His mind has partly shut down and he can't enjoy anything. In fact, he seems like he can barely focus on anything. He has an oddly rambling speech patter. Yet, the people around him either fear him or worship him, or both. He has a group of international murderers around him.
This was another great Modesty adventure with plenty of intense fights.
Many MB books, and comic strips of course, are stand-alone stories. However, this one has lots of recurring characters who make reference to previous events. It's perfectly readable without reading the others, but you get more out of it if you read the other first, especially Last Day in Limbo.
The story starts with the first time Modesty and Willie meet! We've been told about it but never really shown. It managed to be both what we were told but at the same time also surprising.
This time Modesty and Willie, and their friends, are pitted against the Hostel of Righteousness on a small island of Kalivari in the Aegean sea. They pretend to be a holy order that focuses on praying but in reality they're headed by Thaddeus Pilgrim. He used to be a missionary until his family was killed horribly. Now he's a Satanist who runs a group of assassins.
They try to kill one of Willie's girls merely as a precaution but instead Willie kills one of them. Pilgrim thinks that this is just an interesting opportunity and decides that his group will kidnap Willie if they get a chance. Weeks later, the assassins manage to kill the girl and when Willie comes over to meet her, they kidnap him. Modesty, of course, does everything she can to find him. However, Pilgrim has ordered that Willie must be brainwashed to kill Modesty.
This is an interesting parallel to one of the comics, "The Puppet Master", where Modesty is kidnapped and brainwashed to kill Willie. But in the comics, the main bad guy had very personal reasons to hate Modesty and want to destroy her. This time, Pilgrim just thinks that it would be an interesting program. However, he's ruthless and calculating.
The story becomes very intense when Molly is killed and Willie is kidnapped. Before that point, it has rather comedic and even heart-warming moments. Modesty is spending time with her friends Steve Collier and his blind wife Dinah. Steve is a very eccentric character but I mostly like him. Dinah is a sweet and endearing character. Modesty's lover in this book is Danny Chavasse, an old Network man whom Modesty and Willie rescued from Limbo. At one point, Modesty and Willie perform in the circus Willie partly owns. I enjoy the circus scenes and this was no exception.
Pilgrim isn't one of O'Donnell's best villains but he's pretty strange. His mind has partly shut down and he can't enjoy anything. In fact, he seems like he can barely focus on anything. He has an oddly rambling speech patter. Yet, the people around him either fear him or worship him, or both. He has a group of international murderers around him.
This was another great Modesty adventure with plenty of intense fights.
November 24, 2018
James Bond with cleavage. Modesty is a Mary Sue (except for the fact that she can't cook, sing, or sew) who cuts priceless gems in her spare time as a hobby, has a Chinese houseboy and a faithful knife-throwing sidekick, and can of course tell where and when she is in the universe even when transported unconscious. Not so Willy Garvin, apparently.
O'Donnell obviously had spiritual issues; this is the second, or possibly the third (if you count the original comics) twisted man of the cloth/preacher/missionary that I've come across. The evil Thaddeus Pilgrim (see what he did there) also shares Dinah Collier's maiden name; did O'Donnell forget that when the blind girl made her first appearance he gave her the name Dinah Pilgrim? Or is it an exercise in irony? Said evil genius is holed up with his band of mercenaries in an abandoned monastery--another repeated leitmotif. O'Donnell also revisits the idea of posthypnotic suggestion, "mindbending" etc.
Now, I know the last thing an intelligent adult should do is try to take this sort of fiction at all seriously. Unfortunately, the plot organised by our current nemesis has little or nothing to do with Blaise and Co. Apparently dragging Willie Garvin into it was simply by way of a divertissement, but it was rather like reading a Bond novel cut into a 1960s house-party story. More "The Persuaders!" than 007. GR says it was first published in 1985 but O'Donnell is still firmly entrenched in the swinging sixties of Emma Peel and Co. The ending let him down a bit as well, again rather like a Bond film that ends in explosions and gunfire a go-go. Also, I know I read this book at least twice in the past, and yet nothing of the plot (such as it is) stayed with me. Therefore three stars.
O'Donnell obviously had spiritual issues; this is the second, or possibly the third (if you count the original comics) twisted man of the cloth/preacher/missionary that I've come across. The evil Thaddeus Pilgrim (see what he did there) also shares Dinah Collier's maiden name; did O'Donnell forget that when the blind girl made her first appearance he gave her the name Dinah Pilgrim? Or is it an exercise in irony? Said evil genius is holed up with his band of mercenaries in an abandoned monastery--another repeated leitmotif. O'Donnell also revisits the idea of posthypnotic suggestion, "mindbending" etc.
Now, I know the last thing an intelligent adult should do is try to take this sort of fiction at all seriously. Unfortunately, the plot organised by our current nemesis has little or nothing to do with Blaise and Co. Apparently dragging Willie Garvin into it was simply by way of a divertissement, but it was rather like reading a Bond novel cut into a 1960s house-party story. More "The Persuaders!" than 007. GR says it was first published in 1985 but O'Donnell is still firmly entrenched in the swinging sixties of Emma Peel and Co. The ending let him down a bit as well, again rather like a Bond film that ends in explosions and gunfire a go-go. Also, I know I read this book at least twice in the past, and yet nothing of the plot (such as it is) stayed with me. Therefore three stars.
April 21, 2018
This was a nice romp. Reminds me of a cross
between James Bond and Doc Savage.
The author moves the story along at a frenetic
pace, and keeps all the events rather simple
because the protagonists are so good at
what they do. Almost superheroes. Many
of the supporting characters are all so
devoted to the two main protagonists that
it makes the good guys triumph over the
bad guys as easy as 1-2-3.
It's all pretty whimsical but it was an
amusing read.
between James Bond and Doc Savage.
The author moves the story along at a frenetic
pace, and keeps all the events rather simple
because the protagonists are so good at
what they do. Almost superheroes. Many
of the supporting characters are all so
devoted to the two main protagonists that
it makes the good guys triumph over the
bad guys as easy as 1-2-3.
It's all pretty whimsical but it was an
amusing read.
May 28, 2019
1986 saw the release of this, the last of the Modesty Blaise novels. There was still a collection of short stories to come, together with fifteen years of five-day-a-week comic strip in the Evening Standard which would bring us some of Modesty's finest adventures. When it came to novels, though, you can see why Peter O'Donnell might have decided to quit while he was ahead; the previous three, 'Dragon's Claw', 'The Xanadu Talisman' and 'The Night of Morningstar', while very good, were noticeably inferior to his greatest achievements in the field: 'I, Lucifer', 'A Taste for Death' and the peerless 'Sabre-Tooth'. I'm happy to disclose that, while not quite attaining the heights of those three, 'Dead Man's Handle' is enough 0f a return to form to place it on a par with 'The Silver Mistress' and 'Last Day in Limbo'. The opening flashback chapter, telling of Willie Garvin's try-out assignment in the early days of The Network, is a masterclass in how to pace thriller writing - as well as being supremely funny. Dr Thaddeus Pilgrim and his crew of nihilistic goons are mesmerizingly hideous villains and Modesty's tracking down of their secret headquarters is as tense as anything of this sort could be. Note, though, that the continuity with previous volumes is, by now, all over the place. I don't put this down to sloppiness on O'Donnell's part - more a creditably gallant reluctance to let it slip that Modesty is, by now, 48. Still looking good, though.
December 20, 2021
This is the tenth novel that I've read in the series. There are two more, without ebook versions available. Looks like there are hard copy versions available on that jungle place, so I'll think about getting them. There are also ebook versions of some of the collections of the comic strip, which I'll take a look at.
In this episode we learn of Willie's skill at flying discs. Guess what skill will be used in Act Three? Still, this is another fun tale from O'Donnell. Another interesting point came up early in the book. Modesty takes her physical and mental training very seriously, and we learn that she and Willie have been learning how to cheat at card gambling by studying the magician and card cheat's bible, Expert at the Card Table, but E.S. Erdnase. He is as mysterious a figure as Blaise, as card workers are still hotly debating his real identity.
In this episode we learn of Willie's skill at flying discs. Guess what skill will be used in Act Three? Still, this is another fun tale from O'Donnell. Another interesting point came up early in the book. Modesty takes her physical and mental training very seriously, and we learn that she and Willie have been learning how to cheat at card gambling by studying the magician and card cheat's bible, Expert at the Card Table, but E.S. Erdnase. He is as mysterious a figure as Blaise, as card workers are still hotly debating his real identity.
April 5, 2025
Modesty and Willie Garvin have stumbled into trouble once again. Dr. Pilgrim believes the two have discovered his Master Plan and mean to stop him. By the time, he realizes that they just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, he’s already taken Garvin and had him brainwashed to kill Modesty. Garvin and Modesty get out, foil a master plot, and save others.
Fun romp.
Fun romp.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 22, 2023
2023 re-read
July 13, 2016
Modesty Blaise #12: “Dead Man’s Handle” by Peter O’Donnell. A group called the Hostel of Righteousness, headquartered on the island of Kalivari in the Cyclades, is run by an ex missionary, now Satanist, Thaddeus Pilgrim. His team of assassins takes assignments in the form of prayers. When the situation is taken care of they wait for big donations. In the meantime, they have a few scams also working for them to bring in millions of dollars. For instance, sinking a heavily insured ship supposedly loaded with cargo. Killing all sailors on board. They fear that one sailor may have talked about the scam to his wife, so send a team to assassinate her. However, she’s with Willy Garvin, who takes out the assassin. Now they want Willie, but not dead. The next team sets up a kill, breaking the girl’s neck, and when Will comes in he only sees one assassin. The second knocks him out from behind. Drugs him and takes him to Kalivari where he is brainwashed to kill Modesty when she comes after him. This was another typical Modesty Blaise adventure, with plenty of fast action. All the stories have similar plots, and similar characters. They are just presented differently, and with different names. Some nut case that decides they want Modesty and Willy, but in the end they are taken out by their targets. The reader knows what’s coming next, but this does not dampen the story. It’s the action and coordination between Modesty and Garvin that drives the plot. The villains are merely there to provide entertainment for them. This was the final novel in the series, and a good one. A final book of short stories is next, but I all ready know what will happen, and hesitate to read it. The author kills his characters off in “Cobra Trap” to prevent anyone else from ever writing new stories with his characters. I can understand his reasoning. I’ve seen what some writers have done with other characters in public domain, and I would hate to see Modesty and Garvin turned into something Peter O’Donnell hadn’t intended. Still, I hate to read that last story.
November 30, 2013
Be aware this is a nostalgia rating: I read this books when I was very young and even in that blissfull state of teenage ignorance I recall some disturbing sexist and racist content (and some equally disturbing attitudes to rape)
December 14, 2024
not as good as last time
April 30, 2014
I LOVE modesty blaise, she's amazing and the story telling of the author has made me fall in love with her many years ago. Blaise's character is such a strong woman, yet vulnerable and easy to love.
November 23, 2014
Wasn't very enjoyable. I think if it hadn't been the second-last book, I would have put it aside.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews