Inside Sinanju

by Warren Murphy, Richard Sapir, Will Murray (Editor)

In 1982, Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir wrote The Assassin's Handbook, a reader's guide to their long running Destroyer series of books. It was hailed as "oddball," "satiric," and a work of "unbridled weirdness." Over the years, the book has become a collector's item. Finally, the book has been returned to print by Warren Murphy's Ballybunnion Books.

Genres: Thriller

268 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

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.

Reviews

[Gilbert Stack · Rating 4 out of 5]

This quick guide to the Destroyer series doesn’t really offer very much other than a great novella reviewing the events of Remo’s training in the first book from the perspective of his trainer, Chiun. When Sapier and Murphy wrote Created, the Destroyer, they did not yet have a full understanding of what Sinanju was. (Let’s be honest, they probably didn’t have any real understanding of it.) This retcon permited them to tweak the origin story to fit in to the understanding developed later in the series and by itself it is worth the price of admission.

There are also a bunch of throw-ins such as a list of major villains, snippets about the main cast, and tongue-in-cheek addressing of some of the issues that have come up in the series. The one thing I found most interesting was Warren Murphy’s list of his ten favorite Destroyer novels and why he felt that way. In a couple of cases I strongly disagreed with him, but his reasoning interested me.

[Isaac Davis · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read this book without ever having heard of the destroyer series, and the whole time I was reading the book, I thought that the series was just a fictional part of the story of "The Assassin's Handbook", which made it a pretty weird read. Based on how bad this book was, I can't imagine how bad the series must be. It seemed like it was written by a 13 year old boy in 1974. If you love racist caricatures and stupid plot lines, you'll love it. I got his book at an estate sale, the owner of the estate was a long time detective and he had lots and lots of books on how to commit crime, mostly published by Loompanics. I assume he thought this was a serious how to. Haha. bet he was disappointed.

[Jeff J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun companion book to the Destroyer series, written from the perspective of Chiun. The interview with the cowriters was especially illuminating.

[Bradley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Awesome read. Now I have to collect the Destroyer series. Heh.

[K. Roe Buy · Rating 5 out of 5]

GOOD READ. . .
The adventure begins. . . 8|

[Anthony · Rating 3 out of 5]

Funny. A flipside of the Destroyer books. If you're a fan of Remo, you'll love this book, too.