Cairo

Secret Mission #7

by Don Smith

A nuclear bomb has been stolen. It belonged to the French and it was apparently stolen by a Frenchman. The question was who wanted it? Was it Egypt or Yemen or someone else? Phil Sherman is hired to get it back. He is confused why he is asked to get involved but his business was heading downward and he can use the money.

154 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1970

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Please see: Don Smith


Don Smith (August 2, 1909-January 11, 1978) was a Canadian writer of detective and spy fiction. He is best remembered for his Secret Mission series of novels, starring the businessman-turned-spy Phil Sherman.

Smith was born Donald Taylor Smith in Port Colborne, Ontario. In 1934-1939 he was a foreign correspondent for the Toronto Star in Beijing and he piloted a fighter in the Royal Air Force during WWII. He was decorated with the Distinguished Flying Cross for his participation in the Dieppe Raid in 1942.After the war he lived in Morocco and Majorca, manning different businesses before becoming a full-time writer in his 50s.

source: Wikipedia

Reviews

[Alice · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the third of three Secret Mission novels I picked up in a Maryland thrift store, and by this time I was heartily sick of Phil Sherman and his, or possibly the author's, penchant for women with small round bottoms. I grudgingly found this seventh adventure higher quality than volumes 1 and 2, mostly because it opens with the theft of an atomic weapon from a French Air Force Mystère, which grabbed my interest nicely.

[Tom Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Secret Mission #7: “Cairo” by Don Smith. Phil Sherman is having a drop in business, and ready to sign up with the CIA when Ross McCullough calls. But Phil doesn’t want to be tied down to the CIA, just continue to work assignments for them – at higher pay. Well, Ross has a job ready for him. Someone has stolen an atomic bomb from the French. It was so easy I’m surprised no one has thought of this before. An ex French AF pilot knows all the routine at the nearby French AF Base. He and two other men set up at night along the runway waiting for a plane to land, and when it does they use flashlights to stop it halfway down the runway, warning the pilot of an accident ahead. Naturally, the pilot doesn’t contact the control tower to find out what’s going on (or ask why he was allowed to land on a runway where an accident was, and before he knows it he’s dead and the men drop the bomb off the plane on a dolly of sorts and rush it off base before security can catch them. A helicopter is waiting in the forest, and two of the men are murdered by the third after the bomb is loaded on the chopper, and the last man flies the bomb away under the radar. Now it’s headed by ship to Egypt, where it will be used against Israel. Somehow Sherman must either retrieve the bomb, or bring back the trigger, leaving Egypt with a dud bomb. Even with the ease in which they steal the atomic bomb, this was a good story. But please, don’t anyone get the idea that atomic bombs are this easy to steal.