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Harry Maxim #4
Uncle Target
Televised as "The Secret Servant" this thriller features Major Harry Maxim whose mission to Jordan changes from a simple demolition job to an epic run for freedom. A woman's unofficial line of enquiry into his activities leads to the heart of the matter and a change in the direction of his fate.
304 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1988
107 people are currently reading
61 people want to read
About the author
Gavin Lyall
69 books31 followersGavin was born and educated in Birmingham. For two years he served as a RAF pilot before going up to Cambridge, where he edited Varsity, the university newspaper. After working for Picture Post, the Sunday Graphic and the BBC, he began his first novel, The Wrong Side of the Sky, published in 1961. After four years as Air Correspondent to the Sunday Times, he resigned to write books full time. He was married to the well-known journalist Katherine Whitehorn and they lived in London with their children.
Lyall won the British Crime Writers' Association's Silver Dagger award in both 1964 and 1965. In 1966-67 he was Chairman of the British Crime Writers Association. He was not a prolific author, attributing his slow pace to obsession with technical accuracy. According to a British newspaper, “he spent many nights in his kitchen at Primrose Hill, north London, experimenting to see if one could, in fact, cast bullets from lead melted in a saucepan, or whether the muzzle flash of a revolver fired across a saucer of petrol really would ignite a fire”.
He eventually published the results of his research in a series of pamphlets for the Crime Writers' Association in the 1970s. Lyall signed a contract in 1964 by the investments group Booker similar to one they had signed with Ian Fleming. In return for a lump payment of £25,000 and an annual salary, they and Lyall subsequently split his royalties, 51-49.
Up to the publication in 1975 of Judas Country, Lyall's work falls into two groups. The aviation thrillers (The Wrong Side Of The Sky, The Most Dangerous Game, Shooting Script, and Judas Country), and what might be called "Euro-thrillers" revolving around international crime in Europe (Midnight Plus One, Venus With Pistol, and Blame The Dead).
All these books were written in the first person, with a sardonic style reminiscent of the "hard-boiled private-eye" genre. Despite the commercial success of his work, Lyall began to feel that he was falling into a predictable pattern, and abandoned both his earlier genres, and the first-person narrative, for his “Harry Maxim" series of espionage thrillers beginning with The Secret Servant published in 1980. This book, originally developed for a proposed BBC TV Series, featured Major Harry Maxim, an SAS officer assigned as a security adviser to 10 Downing Street, and was followed by three sequels with the same central cast of characters.
In the 1990s Lyall changed literary direction once again, and wrote four semi-historical thrillers about the fledgling British secret service in the years leading up to World War I.
Gavin Lyall died of cancer in 2003.
Lyall won the British Crime Writers' Association's Silver Dagger award in both 1964 and 1965. In 1966-67 he was Chairman of the British Crime Writers Association. He was not a prolific author, attributing his slow pace to obsession with technical accuracy. According to a British newspaper, “he spent many nights in his kitchen at Primrose Hill, north London, experimenting to see if one could, in fact, cast bullets from lead melted in a saucepan, or whether the muzzle flash of a revolver fired across a saucer of petrol really would ignite a fire”.
He eventually published the results of his research in a series of pamphlets for the Crime Writers' Association in the 1970s. Lyall signed a contract in 1964 by the investments group Booker similar to one they had signed with Ian Fleming. In return for a lump payment of £25,000 and an annual salary, they and Lyall subsequently split his royalties, 51-49.
Up to the publication in 1975 of Judas Country, Lyall's work falls into two groups. The aviation thrillers (The Wrong Side Of The Sky, The Most Dangerous Game, Shooting Script, and Judas Country), and what might be called "Euro-thrillers" revolving around international crime in Europe (Midnight Plus One, Venus With Pistol, and Blame The Dead).
All these books were written in the first person, with a sardonic style reminiscent of the "hard-boiled private-eye" genre. Despite the commercial success of his work, Lyall began to feel that he was falling into a predictable pattern, and abandoned both his earlier genres, and the first-person narrative, for his “Harry Maxim" series of espionage thrillers beginning with The Secret Servant published in 1980. This book, originally developed for a proposed BBC TV Series, featured Major Harry Maxim, an SAS officer assigned as a security adviser to 10 Downing Street, and was followed by three sequels with the same central cast of characters.
In the 1990s Lyall changed literary direction once again, and wrote four semi-historical thrillers about the fledgling British secret service in the years leading up to World War I.
Gavin Lyall died of cancer in 2003.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
April 14, 2022
Picked up in a give a book, take a book library inside a phone box on Gozo, Malta. Of course.
A spy novel without much spying in it: Major Maxim finds himself in command of a prototype tank, trying to bring it to safety through the desert in the middle of a revolution, while the security services back home look on helplessly. Pacy and full of convincing technical detail.
A spy novel without much spying in it: Major Maxim finds himself in command of a prototype tank, trying to bring it to safety through the desert in the middle of a revolution, while the security services back home look on helplessly. Pacy and full of convincing technical detail.
November 17, 2022
The blurb to this fourth book in the Maxim Series is misleading - it wasn't televised as "The Secret Servant"; that was based on the first book in the series and is available separately.
After previous novels take Harry Maxim (and often the redoubtable Agnes from MI5) to Germany pre-the fall of the Wall, Washington and the mid-West, Goole, Rotherhithe and other such exotic places, this excellent thriller finds Harry accidentally rescuing a highly secret British prototype tank, trapped by rebel forces in the Jordanian desert.
Tanks do not normally float my boat, to mix my metaphors, but Lyall's writing had me sitting there, in the tiny cramped and claustrophobic space as they raced for the border, pursued by the rebels who want to sell its secrets to Moscow, challenged by Israelis offering to "help" and watched from above by American satellite technology, making them the military-termed Uncle Target of the title.
Agnes meanwhile, is discovering the source of the leak which had passed on the position of the hideout in the ruined Crusader fort, and battling the forces of "Pass-The-Parcel" in the Whitehall corridors of power in a desperate attempt to get them to help get Harry and his crew back. When I wrote to Lyall many years ago saying how much I'd learned about tanks through the book, he drily commented that I'd have learned a LOT more if his wife (Katharine Whitehorn) hadn't reined him in!
His demise was a great loss to the intelligent English thriller genre, and more than thirty years after they were published (pre-internet, pre-mobile phones - however did we manage?) I can still laugh aloud at his sardonic wit, marvel at his elegant prose and deeply enjoy his varied Whitehall characters.
After previous novels take Harry Maxim (and often the redoubtable Agnes from MI5) to Germany pre-the fall of the Wall, Washington and the mid-West, Goole, Rotherhithe and other such exotic places, this excellent thriller finds Harry accidentally rescuing a highly secret British prototype tank, trapped by rebel forces in the Jordanian desert.
Tanks do not normally float my boat, to mix my metaphors, but Lyall's writing had me sitting there, in the tiny cramped and claustrophobic space as they raced for the border, pursued by the rebels who want to sell its secrets to Moscow, challenged by Israelis offering to "help" and watched from above by American satellite technology, making them the military-termed Uncle Target of the title.
Agnes meanwhile, is discovering the source of the leak which had passed on the position of the hideout in the ruined Crusader fort, and battling the forces of "Pass-The-Parcel" in the Whitehall corridors of power in a desperate attempt to get them to help get Harry and his crew back. When I wrote to Lyall many years ago saying how much I'd learned about tanks through the book, he drily commented that I'd have learned a LOT more if his wife (Katharine Whitehorn) hadn't reined him in!
His demise was a great loss to the intelligent English thriller genre, and more than thirty years after they were published (pre-internet, pre-mobile phones - however did we manage?) I can still laugh aloud at his sardonic wit, marvel at his elegant prose and deeply enjoy his varied Whitehall characters.
August 28, 2024
This story which was first published in 1988, I found absolutely thrilling, I was so gripped by it I read it almost continuously until I reached the final paragraph in about three days. This was the fourth book of a four book series and I'll have to read the earlier titles which I have already bought. The story is basically about Major Harry Maxim who is an SAS officer and who has to parachute into Syria to take command of a top secret tank which has apparently broken down and he has been ordered to destroy it rather than let if be captured by the enemy. Harry decides, instead to drive it and its crew into safety. The wife of Harry is in Whitehall and we read of all her arguments with the Parliamentary bigwigs who have alternative ideas of what Harry should be doing with his tank. They can't speak to Harry because radio is not operating! I recommend this book if you want a truly exciting story!
December 23, 2024
We start the final instalment of Harry Maxim’s adventures. When terrorists kidnap a Jordanian official, Maxim is somehow involved in the efforts to break the siege. Before he knows it, he is dispatched to Jordan to deliver the tapes of the siege, and after a brief interlude with local officials he is thrust into a deeper conspiracy.
In the Jordanian desert an advanced battle tank prototype is being tested by the Army. When a group of Army officers stage a revolt, the tank is suddenly in danger of falling into the wrong hands. With Harry leading a rather ragtag bunch, across the desert.
When I started this, I was slightly nervous the last of Maxim’s adventures was perhaps not going to be as adventurous as previous books, but I need not have worried. Mr Lyall and Harry deliver taut, nail-biting thriller involving a prototype tank, an 80s era stealth fighter (mythical F-19 vs. real life F-117) and the usual British intelligence/government intrigue. Excellent – I shall miss you Harry.
In the Jordanian desert an advanced battle tank prototype is being tested by the Army. When a group of Army officers stage a revolt, the tank is suddenly in danger of falling into the wrong hands. With Harry leading a rather ragtag bunch, across the desert.
When I started this, I was slightly nervous the last of Maxim’s adventures was perhaps not going to be as adventurous as previous books, but I need not have worried. Mr Lyall and Harry deliver taut, nail-biting thriller involving a prototype tank, an 80s era stealth fighter (mythical F-19 vs. real life F-117) and the usual British intelligence/government intrigue. Excellent – I shall miss you Harry.
February 17, 2019
Harry Maxim knew his mission: destroy an advanced tank and get back home to Agnes - only for it to becomes a desperate journey across the desert while she tries to figure out how a kidnapping gone wrong could be the key to saving him. Lyall will keep fans of military fiction entertained with this enjoyable adventure brimming with tactics. Can Maxim get him and his men home in one piece, or will they be the ones that end up getting demolished?
August 4, 2024
The entire Major Maxim series are some of the best Cold War era espionage books out there. They tend to get overlooked in light of the excellent books by Len Deighton and John Le Carre. Excellent books where the protagonist, British SAS Major Harry Maxim isn't a spy but ends up thrust into the game.
November 12, 2024
Well !!!!
Apart from the futuristic design of the main vehicle....what a story. It isn't often that I 'couldn't put the book down...up half the night'...etc. this however was the exception. Read and enjoy.
Apart from the futuristic design of the main vehicle....what a story. It isn't often that I 'couldn't put the book down...up half the night'...etc. this however was the exception. Read and enjoy.
March 16, 2019
Excellent
I first read this many years ago and it is just as good as I remember. The characters are well written and convincing. I particularly like the way Harry’s personality is revealed - partly through his actions, partly through the observations of others, and partly through his interior monologue that reveals the doubts and uncertainties that his outer confidence and skills hide from the world. It is interesting to get a glimpse into the attitudes of the different groups - army, spies, Whitehall and politicians - and, whilst this was written a long time ago (pre mobile phones - what a difference that can make to a plot!) I doubt the fundamental attitudes have changed that much.
A very good read. Now I want to re-read the others in this series
I first read this many years ago and it is just as good as I remember. The characters are well written and convincing. I particularly like the way Harry’s personality is revealed - partly through his actions, partly through the observations of others, and partly through his interior monologue that reveals the doubts and uncertainties that his outer confidence and skills hide from the world. It is interesting to get a glimpse into the attitudes of the different groups - army, spies, Whitehall and politicians - and, whilst this was written a long time ago (pre mobile phones - what a difference that can make to a plot!) I doubt the fundamental attitudes have changed that much.
A very good read. Now I want to re-read the others in this series
July 23, 2022
A bit of a shame that this is the end of the series. There were some loose plot threads it would've been nice to seen woven into a finished tapestry.
June 9, 2023
Very strong spy novel.
October 13, 2024
Not the best Major Maxim book of 4 in the series with too much detail describing a tank journey across desert lands and no grand finale expected after then better books in the Major Maxim series!
October 13, 2025
desert warfare
Ok if you like desert warfare,it is not my favourite but it was a good story. It might be different today
Ok if you like desert warfare,it is not my favourite but it was a good story. It might be different today
March 20, 2024
I was distinctly unimpressed with Harry Maxim’s final adventure, written in Gavin Lyall’s studied hand. This time our Harry is back in the SAS, but still seconded to the MOD or the SIS or some such Whitehall organisation. He’s finally hitched up with Agnes Algar, but he’s still married to the army. When a terrorist kidnapping goes wrong, Harry is called in because he once had dealings with the victim, the Jordanian Colonel Khalid. Harry’s attempt to break the siege results in the Colonel’s death. Meanwhile, in the Colonel's homeland, a military coup is rising in the south and Khalid held the secret location of a new British tank, loaned for manoeuvres, a vehicle which may just redraw the battlelines of combat. Did he reveal it under torture? Maxim is dispatched to Jordan in a botched attempt to find out.
There is too much happening in this dull adventure which is part committee room drama, part low-key espionage, part reimagining of the old Humphrey Bogart film Sahara, as Harry Maxim tries to escape the rebel troops by driving a tank through the Jordanian desert. The action passes in brief sentences. People get shot. Things blow up. Things break down. Meanwhile the bigwigs in London prick a map with multi-coloured pins and drink whisky. Agnes does the most ingenious stuff all on her own, but not a single page of it merited any kind of joy. A very formulated piece which includes much technical detail but forgets to include any excitement, tension or terror. There are subthemes aplenty and that doesn’t help the telling which needs to be slimmed down. By splitting the narrative locations, Lyall fails to concentrate on either the London backstabbing or the Jordanian scrambles, so neither succeeds. Even the final pages lack any sense of an ending. The novel just stops.
An inauspicious exit for Major Harry Maxim.
There is too much happening in this dull adventure which is part committee room drama, part low-key espionage, part reimagining of the old Humphrey Bogart film Sahara, as Harry Maxim tries to escape the rebel troops by driving a tank through the Jordanian desert. The action passes in brief sentences. People get shot. Things blow up. Things break down. Meanwhile the bigwigs in London prick a map with multi-coloured pins and drink whisky. Agnes does the most ingenious stuff all on her own, but not a single page of it merited any kind of joy. A very formulated piece which includes much technical detail but forgets to include any excitement, tension or terror. There are subthemes aplenty and that doesn’t help the telling which needs to be slimmed down. By splitting the narrative locations, Lyall fails to concentrate on either the London backstabbing or the Jordanian scrambles, so neither succeeds. Even the final pages lack any sense of an ending. The novel just stops.
An inauspicious exit for Major Harry Maxim.
March 27, 2010
Cheap and cheerful, like Alistair MacLean and Desmond Bagley. Set in the deserts of Jordan recovering a prototype British tank, this is a book where a square-jawed man kills or is killed. An easy disposable read. From it, though, I found the Wikipedia biography and Guardian obituary of Gavin Lyall to be fascinating. A former journalist, like many good genre writers, he would take a long time to write a novel (unlike MacLean who reportedly wrote from 5am to 1pm for a month to bang out a book). This is because he would ruthlessly research, even testing things like "can you make bullets by melting lead in a saucepan" and "can you set a plate of petrol alight from the muzzle blast of a pistol fired atop of it" etc. He published his findings as pamphlets for the Crime Writers Association, and those I'd *love* to read.
July 9, 2015
In the end, it was a tank book complete with some tank fighting. This is one of a series of books by the author featuring the same character, Harry Maxim, a British Army officer with SAS training who apparently repeatedly finds himself as the guy who has to do something about something. Entertaining read, complete with the competing scenes in London as officialdom tries to find out what's going on and what to do about it running parallel to the on site experiences of Major Harry Maxim with an international cast of characters and scenery. I probably won't be tracking down more of this British series, but only because the series is not one that would hold my interest given that he doesn't put tanks in every book!
August 4, 2022
Uncle Target
Amazing action in the Jordanian desert with our hero Major Harry Maxim getting himself involved in rescuing a secret British tank from the enemy deep in the Syrian desert, This is genuine on the edge of your seat stuff. Would make terrific film - maybe with Tom Cruise as the hero!!!!!
Amazing action in the Jordanian desert with our hero Major Harry Maxim getting himself involved in rescuing a secret British tank from the enemy deep in the Syrian desert, This is genuine on the edge of your seat stuff. Would make terrific film - maybe with Tom Cruise as the hero!!!!!
January 5, 2015
Definitely a cut above the usual "military hero defeats all comers" - well-plotted, excellent dialog, interesting characters. I'm looking for other books written by this author for the next time I need some good entertainment.
December 15, 2017
Delivered as expected. Pretty ordinary tale, with some interesting technical inventions on military technology to make it possible, if not entirely plausible.
A bit of a stretch in places, as with some in characterization, although it contributes to the tale.
A bit of a stretch in places, as with some in characterization, although it contributes to the tale.
April 13, 2016
Absorbing as usual, with the action scenes in the desert well complimented with the bureaucratic tangling in London. Sadly the last of the series...
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews