What do you think?
Rate this book
Modesty Blaise
Cobra Trap
Created in a 1950s comic strip that is still in syndication in more than 40 countries today, the stories of Modesty Blaise have spawned a cult following around the world. These are the first new Modesty stories in 11 years, and they span her career, from the early days of running the Network, to her shadowy work for British Intelligence. From Tangier, to the Pyrenees, to a South American jungle—Modesty and her trusted lieutenant Willie Garvin dispatch an old nemesis, upset a particularly wicked gang of kidnappers, and risk their lives to rescue old friends from certain death. The skill and nerve that Modesty and her accomplices display in combat and under pressure will delight Modesty fans, both new and old.
267 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1996
5 people are currently reading
254 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.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
August 12, 2013
I first stumbled across Modesty Blaise in a secondhand bookshop in a beach town in the 80s. The vibe of that first book (The Silver Mistress) was very 1960s, very Avengers, very light-as-air. It made good holiday reading, had the touch of humour of the old 007 movies, and when someone asked me what it was about I replied, "Imagine James Bond with cleavage, an Asian houseboy, and a sidekick."
Every once in awhile I would stumble across another novel or the occasional comic, and read it the way you devour a small box of filled chocs--all at a sitting, feeling a bit guilty about the indulgence, but enjoying every non-nutritious bite. You lick your fingers and promise not to do it again, while secretly hugging yourself.
Then Cobra Trap. And oh dear oh my. Really, I feel that when a writer tires of his characters, he should just stop writing. Perhaps these tales were collected over the years, perhaps in scribbling them he was testing out ideas--they certainly read as unpolished bits of writing. As for the title story, the less said the better. It left a nasty taste in my mouth, not because of the matter but because of the mawkish sentimental style, the poor writing, and lack of plot and closure for the other characters involved. He seems to have forgotten that Willie can throw anything and hit his mark, but is useless with a gun, as we are told in 4 different novels. It doesn't even sound like it was written by the same person; however it reminded me that Mr O'Donnell also wrote romance novels, forsooth, under the name Madeleine Brent. I haven't read any of "her" output--and now I know I don't want to.
Hardline Blaise fans will be disappointed, and this book will do nothing to attract new readers.
Every once in awhile I would stumble across another novel or the occasional comic, and read it the way you devour a small box of filled chocs--all at a sitting, feeling a bit guilty about the indulgence, but enjoying every non-nutritious bite. You lick your fingers and promise not to do it again, while secretly hugging yourself.
Then Cobra Trap. And oh dear oh my. Really, I feel that when a writer tires of his characters, he should just stop writing. Perhaps these tales were collected over the years, perhaps in scribbling them he was testing out ideas--they certainly read as unpolished bits of writing. As for the title story, the less said the better. It left a nasty taste in my mouth, not because of the matter but because of the mawkish sentimental style, the poor writing, and lack of plot and closure for the other characters involved. He seems to have forgotten that Willie can throw anything and hit his mark, but is useless with a gun, as we are told in 4 different novels. It doesn't even sound like it was written by the same person; however it reminded me that Mr O'Donnell also wrote romance novels, forsooth, under the name Madeleine Brent. I haven't read any of "her" output--and now I know I don't want to.
Hardline Blaise fans will be disappointed, and this book will do nothing to attract new readers.
June 9, 2014
Cobra Trap by Peter O'Donnell. This book was mysterious and has 5 short stories. I used to read the one story for two or three times. The most story I enjoyed read it is the Dark Angels.
Actually, this book was the most boring book I read. It wasn't that much useful except of some new vocabulary.
Actually, this book was the most boring book I read. It wasn't that much useful except of some new vocabulary.
August 19, 2012
***SPOILER ALERT***, I was shattered that Modesty & Willie died, I thought they would settle together as old pensioners in one of her homes and live out their life with lots of money and their few special friends around them.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 27, 2011
Apart from the last short story, which I did not like at all, this was GREAT reading from the friends of Modesty Blaise. Really really enjoyable!
August 28, 2012
Love Modesty Blaise but this is not one of the better ones.
January 25, 2022
This final collection of Modesty Blaise short stories was well worth reading all the other novels and shorts collections in chronological order of publication. This compilation covers capers from early in her lawless days until a final one in South America.
I also read about a dozen of the full comic strip stories, though there are many more. I'll have to locate a couple of the bound collections, to finish them all.
Blaise is a clear inspiration for the Aeon Flux animations and one crappy movie adaptation, though Modesty had the skill to avoid death at the end of each episode.
I'll miss having more of these to read.
I also read about a dozen of the full comic strip stories, though there are many more. I'll have to locate a couple of the bound collections, to finish them all.
Blaise is a clear inspiration for the Aeon Flux animations and one crappy movie adaptation, though Modesty had the skill to avoid death at the end of each episode.
I'll miss having more of these to read.
October 2, 2016
Modesty Blaise #13: “Cobra Trap” by Peter O’Donnell. This final novel actually contains five novelettes: BELLMAN, THE DARK ANGELS, OLD ALEX, THE GIRL WITH THE BLACK BALLOON, and COBRA TRAP.
BELLMAN begins shortly after Modesty has taken over The Network and recruited Garvin. Modesty goes after Bellman, the man behind a drug ring responsible for many drug addiction cases with children. She can’t make the man fight her, so she’ll have a chance to kill him, so she frames him and sends him to prison. Once out he only wants revenge on Modesty and Garvin. This is a play on THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME, as Bellman captures them and leaves them without weapons on a small island, stalked by three killers: Charlie Brightstar, a Choctaw Indian; Van Rutte, a black African mercenary; and Crichton, a big game hunter. But Modesty and Garvin make their own weapons and turn the tables on the hunters.
THE DARK ANGELS is a three-man team of assassins, highly trained in acrobatics. They are hired by a group of powerful British rich who want foreign investors out of English business. When a foreign company starts a building construction on British soil it’s time to kill the head honcho. Tarrant is wise to the situation, but doesn’t know who is behind the killers. Instead of asking Modesty and Willie to look into it, he tricks them by pulling a gimmick on Modesty to make her think it’s her idea. In the meantime, The Dark Angels are willing – and even anxious – to kill them and collect their pay.
OLD ALEX: Modesty is on a walk-about in the Pyrenees when a sniper shoots her with a dart. She awakes in a cave, the entrance blocked by a big boulder, where she cannot escape, and is left die. But an old farmer finds her while out looking for logs with his ox. He takes her to his farm to meet all the family. There is a mystery about Old Alex: he speaks French, but throws about English words now and then, as if he wasn’t always a French farmer. Matilda the old lady that has been with him since he was found fifty years ago shows Modesty a uniform he had been wearing when they found him. He was an British flying officer, shot down in WWII, but he can only remember from the time the family here had found him, his past a complete blank. Modesty uncovers the truth, and discovers that The Salamander Four had placed a contract on her; the sniper had left her for dead. There is a lot going on in this story, several stories are unraveling at the same time, and strangely they are all connected. The Salamander Four are destroyed in this story.
THE GIRL WITH THE BLACK BALOON: A group of men are kidnapping important men and holding them for ransom. When they kidnap an important British gentleman, Tarrant is able to get a man inside their group but his body is returned horribly mutilated. He was a friend of Modesty Blaise, and when she learns of the death, she decides to tackle the case with Willie Garvin. The girl with the black balloon is an innocent bystander who accidentally blows their cover, but since she has a hot air balloon with a basket, they ask her for help in getting above the castle where the kidnappers are holding their captive. But things go wrong when the captive doesn’t want to cooperate.
COBRA TRAP. It’s now over 8 years since Tarrant’s death, and four years since their last serious action. Modesty is 52 years old and beginning to show her age, and they’re both slowing down. Modesty has been acting strangely also, showing more motherly love to Willie, as if holding a deep secret. Steve and Dinah, also older, with two children, are away in Montelara, Central America, when a rebel force attacks the government. Willie is with them, and along with the government officials and a trainload of children, hope to evade the Cobra Army. Willie contacts Modesty about the situation, and she tells him she’s coming to help. The tracks are blown up before the train can reach the border, and Willie must take tracks from behind them to replace the damaged ones in front, which is going to take a lot of time, and the Cobra Army is heading for them. Modesty arrives in a small plane; bails out, letting the plane crash into a pass delaying the army, giving her and Willie time to set up a fire zone to delay them until the train can get away. Here Modesty tells him she has a tumor in her brain, and is dying, and this is her way out, and she will hold the fire zone while he returns to the train to help Steve and Dinah. It’s the way she prefers to die, instead of suffering longer with the tumor. Willie agrees, but when she dies from a gunshot would, and his ankle is damaged by a heavy rock, he sets plastic explosives and moves out, blowing a ton of dirt over her body for a grave, then moves out with the Cobras following close behind. He is picked off by a sniper in the end. Steve and Dinah successfully escape in the train.
The author killed Modesty and Willie to insure no one else would ever write stories featuring them, so I can understand his reasoning, but that didn’t make it any easier to finally read of their deaths. Still, he waited until they were middle age and slowing down, even allowing Modesty a reason for dying. Of course, Willie could not have lived with her gone, so both had to die. There were only 13 novels, two of which were short story collections. The series was based on a popular comic book series by the author. The stories are all topnotch, and I highly recommend the book, but only after all the others have been read first.
BELLMAN begins shortly after Modesty has taken over The Network and recruited Garvin. Modesty goes after Bellman, the man behind a drug ring responsible for many drug addiction cases with children. She can’t make the man fight her, so she’ll have a chance to kill him, so she frames him and sends him to prison. Once out he only wants revenge on Modesty and Garvin. This is a play on THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME, as Bellman captures them and leaves them without weapons on a small island, stalked by three killers: Charlie Brightstar, a Choctaw Indian; Van Rutte, a black African mercenary; and Crichton, a big game hunter. But Modesty and Garvin make their own weapons and turn the tables on the hunters.
THE DARK ANGELS is a three-man team of assassins, highly trained in acrobatics. They are hired by a group of powerful British rich who want foreign investors out of English business. When a foreign company starts a building construction on British soil it’s time to kill the head honcho. Tarrant is wise to the situation, but doesn’t know who is behind the killers. Instead of asking Modesty and Willie to look into it, he tricks them by pulling a gimmick on Modesty to make her think it’s her idea. In the meantime, The Dark Angels are willing – and even anxious – to kill them and collect their pay.
OLD ALEX: Modesty is on a walk-about in the Pyrenees when a sniper shoots her with a dart. She awakes in a cave, the entrance blocked by a big boulder, where she cannot escape, and is left die. But an old farmer finds her while out looking for logs with his ox. He takes her to his farm to meet all the family. There is a mystery about Old Alex: he speaks French, but throws about English words now and then, as if he wasn’t always a French farmer. Matilda the old lady that has been with him since he was found fifty years ago shows Modesty a uniform he had been wearing when they found him. He was an British flying officer, shot down in WWII, but he can only remember from the time the family here had found him, his past a complete blank. Modesty uncovers the truth, and discovers that The Salamander Four had placed a contract on her; the sniper had left her for dead. There is a lot going on in this story, several stories are unraveling at the same time, and strangely they are all connected. The Salamander Four are destroyed in this story.
THE GIRL WITH THE BLACK BALOON: A group of men are kidnapping important men and holding them for ransom. When they kidnap an important British gentleman, Tarrant is able to get a man inside their group but his body is returned horribly mutilated. He was a friend of Modesty Blaise, and when she learns of the death, she decides to tackle the case with Willie Garvin. The girl with the black balloon is an innocent bystander who accidentally blows their cover, but since she has a hot air balloon with a basket, they ask her for help in getting above the castle where the kidnappers are holding their captive. But things go wrong when the captive doesn’t want to cooperate.
COBRA TRAP. It’s now over 8 years since Tarrant’s death, and four years since their last serious action. Modesty is 52 years old and beginning to show her age, and they’re both slowing down. Modesty has been acting strangely also, showing more motherly love to Willie, as if holding a deep secret. Steve and Dinah, also older, with two children, are away in Montelara, Central America, when a rebel force attacks the government. Willie is with them, and along with the government officials and a trainload of children, hope to evade the Cobra Army. Willie contacts Modesty about the situation, and she tells him she’s coming to help. The tracks are blown up before the train can reach the border, and Willie must take tracks from behind them to replace the damaged ones in front, which is going to take a lot of time, and the Cobra Army is heading for them. Modesty arrives in a small plane; bails out, letting the plane crash into a pass delaying the army, giving her and Willie time to set up a fire zone to delay them until the train can get away. Here Modesty tells him she has a tumor in her brain, and is dying, and this is her way out, and she will hold the fire zone while he returns to the train to help Steve and Dinah. It’s the way she prefers to die, instead of suffering longer with the tumor. Willie agrees, but when she dies from a gunshot would, and his ankle is damaged by a heavy rock, he sets plastic explosives and moves out, blowing a ton of dirt over her body for a grave, then moves out with the Cobras following close behind. He is picked off by a sniper in the end. Steve and Dinah successfully escape in the train.
The author killed Modesty and Willie to insure no one else would ever write stories featuring them, so I can understand his reasoning, but that didn’t make it any easier to finally read of their deaths. Still, he waited until they were middle age and slowing down, even allowing Modesty a reason for dying. Of course, Willie could not have lived with her gone, so both had to die. There were only 13 novels, two of which were short story collections. The series was based on a popular comic book series by the author. The stories are all topnotch, and I highly recommend the book, but only after all the others have been read first.
August 13, 2019
I knew I'd bloody well cry my guts out.
July 14, 2012
The final Modesty Blaise book is a collection of five novelettes and novellas covering the full span of Modesty Blaise's career, from the early days of the Network to Modesty and Willie coming out of retirement for one last caper. It's a fine collection for long-term fans, providing both new stories and closure for several long term story threads from the series. I don't think it's the ideal place for a new fan to start, because the references to events in earlier books may act as spoilers for those who haven't read those books yet, and the impact of the title story will be blunted for those who haven't had several books in which to become attached to the characters. It is however possible to enjoy these stories without ever having read any other Modesty Blaise books or the comic strip, and while ideally new readers should start with an earlier book in this series, they shouldn't be put off starting with Cobra Trap if it's the only one readily available to them.[return][return]The stories are classic Modesty Blaise. Once again O'Donnell demonstrates the appeal of a heroine and hero who are quite willing to go outside the law, but never to step outside their own moral code. For Modesty and Willie the ends do not justify the means. You know that the villains will lose in the end, but there will be no easy solution, and the good guys may well pay a high price for their victory. The stories are often hilarious, sometimes heart wrenching, and always thrilling to read. Some of the stories rely on the most outrageous coincidences, but with this level of writing there is no problem in suspending disbelief. This is a beautifully written and wonderfully entertaining book, and the final story is a bittersweet but emotionally right conclusion to the series.
June 6, 2016
It took five years for this 13th and final Modesty Blaise cult classic to reach American shores, and fans who have followed the action-packed exploits of the lethal crime-fighting team of femme fatale Blaise and her knife-wielding partner, Willie Garvin, will not be disappointed with this collection of five short stories.
O'Donnell's immensely satisfying farewell to the team (which originated in a 1963 comic strip and the 1965 novel Modesty Blaise) spans Modesty's entire career, thus serving as a fitting introduction to newcomers and satisfying retrospective for fans. "The Bellman" finds Modesty and Willie being hunted on a deserted island by three assassins. In "The Dark Angels," the two protect an oilman from a team of acrobatic killers. "Old Alex," a direct sequel to the novel DEAD MAN'S HANDLE, mixes an amnesia tale with a fight to the death with the industrial spy group Salamander Four. "The Girl with the Black Balloon" is a devilishly clever kidnapping/rescue caper. And the final, title story features a 52-year-old Modesty, long retired but back in action to save friends from a South American uprising.
Often called a female James Bond and certainly the first of the breed Modesty never lapses into self-parody and her illegal capers are governed by a moral code never crossed. Emphasizing hand-to-hand combat over automatic weapons, the octogenarian author still dazzles with exciting action, surprising twists and refreshing humor. His heroine will be missed.
O'Donnell's immensely satisfying farewell to the team (which originated in a 1963 comic strip and the 1965 novel Modesty Blaise) spans Modesty's entire career, thus serving as a fitting introduction to newcomers and satisfying retrospective for fans. "The Bellman" finds Modesty and Willie being hunted on a deserted island by three assassins. In "The Dark Angels," the two protect an oilman from a team of acrobatic killers. "Old Alex," a direct sequel to the novel DEAD MAN'S HANDLE, mixes an amnesia tale with a fight to the death with the industrial spy group Salamander Four. "The Girl with the Black Balloon" is a devilishly clever kidnapping/rescue caper. And the final, title story features a 52-year-old Modesty, long retired but back in action to save friends from a South American uprising.
Often called a female James Bond and certainly the first of the breed Modesty never lapses into self-parody and her illegal capers are governed by a moral code never crossed. Emphasizing hand-to-hand combat over automatic weapons, the octogenarian author still dazzles with exciting action, surprising twists and refreshing humor. His heroine will be missed.
December 18, 2012
A story collection rather than a novel, with five adventures spanning the career of Modesty and her lieutenant Willie Garvin from their early days in North Africa up to semi-retirement 40 years later.
The first story, 'Bellman', opens with a flashback to the days when Modesty ran The Network, a multinational criminal organisation based in Tangier. In 'The Dark Angels', Willie and Modesty are pitched against an infallible assassination ring sent to eliminate an American supermarket tycoon. In 'The Girl with the Black Balloon', a gang of kidnappers has been extorting millions from different governments, using the guise of different oddball organisations as cover. The final story, 'Cobra Trap', features a more mature Modesty and Willie, now in their 50s.
Full review on Past Offences
The first story, 'Bellman', opens with a flashback to the days when Modesty ran The Network, a multinational criminal organisation based in Tangier. In 'The Dark Angels', Willie and Modesty are pitched against an infallible assassination ring sent to eliminate an American supermarket tycoon. In 'The Girl with the Black Balloon', a gang of kidnappers has been extorting millions from different governments, using the guise of different oddball organisations as cover. The final story, 'Cobra Trap', features a more mature Modesty and Willie, now in their 50s.
Full review on Past Offences
April 20, 2012
I knew this was the last book but I wasn't expecting the last story to end like it did. It was a bit anticlimactic. Modesty and Willie are the kinds of characters I'd rather just imagine as going on forever, but if they had to be killed off, I would have liked much higher stakes and a more dramatic ending.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 25, 2011
Really only read The Dark Angels which is one of the short-stories here but I found no specific entry for that one in the database so take the rating "2" for what it is.
August 12, 2017
Must read for completion, but not the best.
August 3, 2018
Would give it "only" 4 stars, but as it is the very last book, where Modesty dies in the last story, it must have 5 stars! Again a joy to read!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews