Dead Run: A Stephen Dain Mystery

by Robert Sheckley

THE INTELLIGENCE SERVICES OF THE ENTIRE WESTERN WORLD WERE BAFFLED, HELPLESS. THE WORD WENT “CALL STEPHEN DAIN!” In broad daylight, in the middle of a London street, a little man nobody knew snatched a steel-lined briefcase from the hands of armed secret agents. The briefcase held the fate of nations! Stephen Dain had to get it before the enemy did. He had one clue—a beautiful, clever, dangerous woman!

Genres: Fiction

Paperback

About the author

One of science fiction's great humorists, Sheckley was a prolific short story writer beginning in 1952 with titles including "Specialist", "Pilgrimage to Earth", "Warm", "The Prize of Peril", and "Seventh Victim", collected in volumes from Untouched by Human Hands (1954) to Is That What People Do? (1984) and a five-volume set of Collected Stories (1991). His first novel, Immortality, Inc. (1958), was followed by The Status Civilization (1960), Journey Beyond Tomorrow (1962), Mindswap (1966), and several others. Sheckley served as fiction editor for Omni magazine from January 1980 through September 1981, and was named Author Emeritus by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 2001.

Reviews

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the early Sixties with Fleming's Bond at the height of popularity, everybody tried to get in on the action. Renowned science fiction author Robert Shechley and offered up five espionage novels starring CIA Agent Stephen Dain, who operated on his wits without any high technology. This one, released in 1961, involved a South American thief Carlos who moved in on a Russian operation in London without knowing what was going on and made off with a briefcase of American secrets. Off across Europe he goes with the Russians and Dain after him. Mildly entertaining, but there's nothing particularly special about the novel.

[Ralph Carlson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love everything Sheckley wrote. Have read this series several times.

[Mark Rabideau · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is another magnificent representative of noir detective novels.

[Teresa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I expected this to be dated but fun. Wrong. It was tedious and senseless. Mercifully it was short.