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When a giant transportation union controlling all air, train and truck traffic is born, not only does this conglomerate pose a threat to the local leaders, but the entire country is at risk until Remo Williams moves in to dissolve danger in a deadly game.

168 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1972

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About the author

Warren Murphy

294 books123 followers
Warren 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.

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5 stars
177 (29%)
4 stars
207 (34%)
3 stars
182 (30%)
2 stars
35 (5%)
1 star
4 (<1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
Profile Image for Mike.
831 reviews13 followers
June 5, 2024
Read this in the 70s and revisiting the series. Remo and Chiun try to stop a super transportation union from starting. Also introduces a surprise recurring formidable villain.
Profile Image for Gilbert Stack.
Author 96 books78 followers
January 24, 2021
The overall plot in this novel—someone trying to create a super union that can dictate wages and politics to the U.S. —was slightly more elevated that most Destroyer novels. Since the vast majority of the union workers are not criminals, and what they want to do would seem to be supported by the constitution, there were some ethical questions not generally dealt with in the series about a pair of assassins. But the heart of this novel centers around Chiun and his first pupil, a man who abandoned the traditions of Sinanju and went to work for himself. The super union is his plan, and this novel is really an opportunity to both create a villain whose skills are better than Remo’s and to begin to develop the House of Sinanju in a much more significant way than had been previously done. Anyone who has enjoyed this series will want to read this book to witness the first appearance of Nuihc.

If you liked this review, you can find more at www.gilbertstack.com/reviews.
Profile Image for Skjam!.
1,642 reviews52 followers
January 29, 2025
Quick recap: Remo Williams used to be a cop before he was framed for murder and “died” in the electric chair, only to find out he’d been recruited by the secret U.S. government agency CURE. He was trained in the deadly martial art/lifestyle Sinanju by its sole master, the ancient Korean known as Chiun. Now he acts as an assassin, protecting the Constitution by secretly killing America’s enemies in unconstitutional ways. He’s also the Destroyer, apparently the fulfillment of several (not entirely compatible) prophecies.

In this seventh installment, Dr. Smith, the head of CURE, has learned of the existence of a plot to merge all of America’s transportation unions into one “superunion” that will in effect control all shipping and commerce. A strike by this superunion would cripple America and the inevitable government backlash would put paid to the freedom of unions, which would also cripple America. Ordinary investigation methods have resulted in those who get too close being turned into flesh puddles, so the president of the United States has reluctantly authorized CURE to handle it.

To do this, Remo, currently under the name “Jones”, infiltrates a convention of the national Trucker’s Union, which is poised to elect a new union president, the dandyish Gene Jethro. He’s authorized to kill a bunch of union leaders and frame another for the deed if necessary, but Remo is having something of an attack of conscience and would rather not do that. He may not have much of a choice, or a chance, because the real enemy is someone he never expected.

By this volume, the authors had really hit their stride, fleshing out the relationship of Remo and Chiun as bickering constantly but the most important persons in each other’s life, as well as getting a better balance of comedy and action. It’s a turning point in the series, as Remo learns that monosodium glutamate is now a deadly poison to him by giving in to the temptation to eat cheap hamburgers. He realizes he’s never going to be “normal” again, never have a normal life even if he leaves his current job.

And we see the contrast between the face Dr. Smith presents to Remo and the president, and the sickness he feels inside at all the murder he has to cause in order to keep CURE, and thus America, safe.

But the big thing this volume has is that it’s the first appearance of Nuihc, Chiun’s nephew and his former student in Sinanju, who betrayed the village and crossed the line from amoral to actively evil. We don’t get his full story here, or exactly what his long-term plan is, but enough to establish Nuihc as someone that Remo is outmatched against…for now.

Unions are treated as generally a good thing in this book–quite a few of the union members have done bad/illegal things, but are noted as having won rights for American workers as a whole, and having to deal with far worse behavior from corporate bosses.

Content note: A lot of people die, some of whom definitely don’t deserve it. Some of them specifically killed by the “good guys” because they know too much. Extramarital sex. Sexism (all the union reps are men, and wives are lauded for their support but treated rather poorly.) Racism, especially in the form of outdated terms. Casual homophobia (there’s no actual gay people, but a constant denigration of them.) Chuin is frequently verbally abusive.

If you’re interested in the Destroyer series, this is a must-read due to introducing a major continuing villain. Thankfully, it’s also pretty good.
145 reviews
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February 2, 2024
Union Bust is the seventh book in Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir's The Destroyer series. The original manuscript of the first novel was written in 1963 but was not published until 1971.

The series follows a U.S. government operative named Remo Williams. Williams was a Newark cop framed for a crime he did not commit and sentenced to death. His death is faked and he is hired as an assassin by CURE, a secret organisation set up by President Kennedy. He is trained by an Asian master in the art of Sinanju, a martial art named Chiun, who is addicted to soap operas.

To date 155 novels have been released. After 73 Shapir stopped contributing due to a rift with Murphy, who took over the writing solely although he later used ghostwriters to help, including his wife Molly Cochran.

In Union Bust Williams is sent to stop a plan for various unions to join creating a superunion that can hold the U.S. hostage and cripple the economy.

This was an enjoyable example of this kind of novel. A bit more humour than, say, the Salo series, or other examples. Although it also has graphic descriptions of the various way people are killed.

The Chien character reminds me of one from a movie I saw several times in the early 80's on DVD that I can't recall. It featured an asian character who controlled his apprentice's diet and is addicted to soap operas. There was a film version of The Destroyer made in 1985 called Remo Wiliams: The Adventure Begins. I am pretty certain I saw it before 1985 so I don't think that would be it.
24 reviews
September 30, 2019
This one is where it all took off for me with the introduction of a long term nemesis which would lead into a bit more mysticism.

The first Destroyer book is a straight forward government assassin type story and it was a few books before we got more fleshing out for Chiun, our hero’s Korean trainer (and the worlds oldest and best assassin). In Union Bust the dynamic between Remo and Chiun is in full flow and the humour and action is top notch.

Remo could be too unstoppable so the trend of giving him opponents who could be a problem starts with this book and in future books will include killer androids, were-tigers and vampires.

I’d recommend this series up to the books around the mid twenty mark (there are over a 100 books) where it started to lose its lustre a bit and the foul smell of ghost writers fills the air.

Pulp fiction at its best.

I was musing on the rating and would just warn that these books may not be the most politically correct you’ll read but they are of their time..so I’m sticking with 5 stars.
Author 93 books52 followers
September 5, 2020
The plot to this one is fairly lame--Remo going up against a number of unions wanting to combine to create a "super union". Some of it feels like Murphy and Sapir were just going through the motions by this point. The device that turns men into "puddles" was quite similar to the device which appeared a couple of books before this. This book felt like a hodgepodge of ideas pieced together.

But one thing makes this book significant and memorable. This is the first appearance of Nuihc, a disgraced House of Sinanju master who left to make money killing without sending money home to his impoverished village. Nuihc is Chiun's nephew. Their name's are backwards. Apparently Chiun's original name was Nuihc also, but he was so embarrassed to share the name with his nephew that he turned his name around. Nuihc vows to return and defeat Remo at some point in the next decade...

Decent entry. Not wonderful, but not one of the worst.
Profile Image for Glen Engel-Cox.
Author 5 books63 followers
August 21, 2023
A mostly forgettable installment of this pulp series, this time focused on unions. Like many conservative tropes of the 70s, unions were conflated with the mafia, partly for some true cases in the East coast, but mainly because your libertarian right-wing conservative feels threatened by any collective action. While the authors were likely not right-wingers themselves, they knew many of their audience were and as commercial writers, they weren’t above pandering.

Pulp novels like this share a connection to comics, which also emerged in the 30s, in that they are essentially disposable entertainment, meant to be enjoyed like candy and just as quickly forgotten.
Profile Image for Tom.
1,200 reviews3 followers
December 17, 2023
Better than the other early 70s Destroyer book I tried. I was expecting this to be a straightforward piece of anti-union, capitalistic propaganda, but it's interesting to watch this book walk a pre-Reagan tightrope of not actually criticizing unions in general. I guess they didn't want to alienate a potential portion of the audience. Still thoroughly sillier than either The Executioner or Nick Carter, but I could imagine it becoming endearing if given some time.
Profile Image for D..
712 reviews18 followers
December 7, 2020
By now the series seems to have hit a bit of a plateau. The main story is nothing special -- Remo has to prevent a "super union" from forming. There are several fun and satirical side adventures, which is why I added the fourth star to my rating. This novel introduces a long-term antagonist for the series, but it's not overly notable for much else.
Profile Image for Steve Fahnestalk.
10 reviews3 followers
January 9, 2021
Not my first read of this book; I occasionally re-read the whole Destroyer series. It’s a bit less comic than later Destroyers; Remo is a lot more public in this one. And he discovers he can’t have a hamburger anymore.
But it’s an important step in the evolution of what Murphy thinks Sinanju is and can do. We meet Nuihc for the first time, too.
A fun book.
Profile Image for Jeff J..
2,928 reviews19 followers
June 8, 2018
While Remo’s easy infiltration of the leadership of a trade union was implausible it made for a good story.
Profile Image for David.
195 reviews3 followers
October 27, 2020
Love these books.

I just can’t enough of them. I’m onto the next. What a great story as always. I highly recommend it to any lovers of action and adventure.
Profile Image for Balkron.
379 reviews5 followers
May 6, 2015
My Rating Scale:
1 Star - Horrible book, It was so bad I stopped reading it. I have not read the whole book and wont
2 Star - Bad book, I forced myself to finish it and do NOT recommend. I can't believe I read it once
3 Star - Average book, Was entertaining but nothing special. No plans to ever re-read
4 Star - Good Book, Was a really good book and I would recommend. I am Likely to re-read this book
5 Star - GREAT book, A great story and well written. I can't wait for the next book. I Will Re-Read this one or more times.

Times Read: 1

One of the first series I read consistently. This series and the Executioner series are responsible for my love of reading and stories.

Characters - Looking back to my younger reading days, I loved Remo Williams and thought he was one of the coolest characters in history. I still think Remo is a good character. Unique in a number of ways even today.

Story - The stories are average and fairly typical. Bad guys going to kill or hurt, Remo is going to kill them first (no way he is going to die not with Chuin as his teacher). Not much in creativity but it really worked for me as a male teenager. I started learning Judo and Karate partly because of Remo.

Overall - I started reading these when I was 16. I enjoyed them up until about age 19. My tastes changed from Military intrigue to Fantasy / SciFi. I would recommend reading these especially for younger males.

NOTE: I am going to rate these all the books in this series the same. Some of the stories are a bit better or a bit worse but I can't find one that I would rate a 2 or 4.
Profile Image for George K..
2,761 reviews373 followers
March 16, 2015
"Συνδικαλιστικό κίνημα", εκδόσεις ΒΙΠΕΡ.

Έβδομο βιβλίο της σειράς Εξολοθρευτής, τέταρτο που διαβάζω εγώ. Δεν μου φάνηκε τόσο καλό όσο τα άλλα τρία προηγούμενα βιβλία της σειράς που έχω διαβάσει, αλλά και πάλι ήταν μια ευχάριστη ανάγνωση.

Μια συνδικαλιστική σούπερ ένωση, που θα αποτελείται από τις τέσσερις ενώσεις μεταφορών, είναι έτοιμη να δημιουργηθεί. Στην CURE πιστεύουν ότι κάτι τέτοιο θα ήταν ικανό να παραλύσει το κράτος. Έτσι αναλαμβάνει την υπόθεση ο Ρέμο, μαζί με τον Κορεάτη δάσκαλό του Τσιουν. Αυτή την φορά όμως, θα συναντήσουν έναν μεγάλο εχθρό, τον Νούιτς...

Κλασικά η γραφή είναι σε καλά παλπ επίπεδα, το χιούμορ δεν λείπει, η ατμόσφαιρα είναι εξαιρετική, οι σκηνές βίας μπόλικες και γραφικές, η υπόθεση απλή αλλά ενδιαφέρουσα και το τέλος αρκετά αναμενόμενο. Οι χαρακτήρες δίχως βάθος, αλλά το αυτό ισχύει στα περισσότερα παλπ μυθιστορήματα τέτοιου είδους, και φυσικά δεν έχει τόση σημασία.

Γενικά τα βιβλία της σειράς αυτής, είναι ό,τι πρέπει για ένα ευχάριστο απόγευμα, διαβάζονται για πλάκα, χορταίνεις περιπέτεια και ξύλο (σαν να βλέπεις ταινίες του Τσάκι Τσαν ή κάτι τέτοιο), αλλά τίποτα παραπάνω.
Profile Image for Bryan457.
1,562 reviews26 followers
June 24, 2010
Nuihc, #1

A transportation superunion is being planned. Smith is worried that it could cripple the nation. Remo is sent to find out about it and stop the ones responsible. He meets Nuihc, the man behind the superunion, Who almost kills Remo.

Another great book. We get to hear more about the village of Sinanju and some of its history and traditions. The first super villain, Chiun's nephew, an evil Master of Sinanju. Chiun cannot lift a hand against him.

Warning, sex and graphic gory violence.
Profile Image for KEVIN.
58 reviews1 follower
October 18, 2016
I wanted to enjoy this book as it seemed just the kind of knuckle dragging thriller I enjoy. But Remo is just too perfect a killing machine. His many assailants present practically no challenge for him and he operates with an annoying smugness. His hippy mentor guru is even more annoying. I prefer my heroes to be put through the wringer and lose a fight every now and again. Prevailing against the odds rather than have it all handed to them on a plate. I understand how popular this series was and still is but its success is a mystery to me.
Profile Image for Little Timmy.
7,400 reviews60 followers
February 8, 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. This is a key book in the series as it introduces the evil renegade Master Nuihc. Recommended
Profile Image for Joshua.
28 reviews7 followers
May 29, 2013
This is my favorite Remo book so far. I enjoyed the villain because he was new and different. Hopefully I will find more books with Nuihc. Remo almost died. It was a real struggle and I appreciate the drama.
Profile Image for Marko.
Author 13 books18 followers
May 1, 2012
Read in order, the #6 is one of the best Destroyer books thus far, professing humour, thoughtfulness and action in very nice quota - the recipe of all good Remo books.
Profile Image for Jeff Chase.
85 reviews
June 14, 2014
I enjoyed this entry in the series for several reasons. I enjoyed the early 70s look at labor unions, we learned more about Chiun's back story, and how can you not like the Scarlet Ribbons technique?
Profile Image for Miralinda.
417 reviews8 followers
October 16, 2015
Нуич - племянник Чиуна плетет какую-то интригу с профсоюзами. Римо всех мочит как всегда. Нуич исчезает, но, видимо, вернется.
Profile Image for Frank .
118 reviews10 followers
November 16, 2015
I read this hack series faithfully for years. Now I hear a movie (another move) is in the works. Not a bad read, And emojis a sympath tic character
21 reviews
December 31, 2022
This is one of the best Destroyer stories and arguably the Nuihc thread one of the best recurring stories that builds to a climax. This is second only to the Funny money story and it’s nadir.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews

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