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The Man from U.N.C.L.E. #16
The Splintered Sunglasses Affair
Who had kidnapped Napoleon?
It was almost unbelievable: Napoleon Solo, U.N.C.L.E.'s top enforcement officer, ha been captured on the doorstep of U.N.C.L.E. Headquarters, and carried away helpless before his fellow agents could act.
There were no clues to tell who had been behind the kidnapping; there was no trail to follow to rescue him. Yet Illya Kuryakin and the rest of U.N.C.L.E. had to try.
Meanwhile, Napoleon awoke in a strange fortress and dicovered why he had been captured - and knew the security of the world depended on his escape...
It was almost unbelievable: Napoleon Solo, U.N.C.L.E.'s top enforcement officer, ha been captured on the doorstep of U.N.C.L.E. Headquarters, and carried away helpless before his fellow agents could act.
There were no clues to tell who had been behind the kidnapping; there was no trail to follow to rescue him. Yet Illya Kuryakin and the rest of U.N.C.L.E. had to try.
Meanwhile, Napoleon awoke in a strange fortress and dicovered why he had been captured - and knew the security of the world depended on his escape...
142 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1968
65 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
July 3, 2020
For one blissful summer day I fell again into the world of international espionage. I used to pounce on these books when they were released, parting with my 50 cents and running home to read it over and over again. Now I rely on eBay and Amazon to replenish my collection - one nice thing about being in a relatively obscure fandom - prices are still very reasonable for collectibles. This book was fun and fast moving and it amuses me highly that even at my age I still have to skim over the (extremely mild) torture. Because it's my guys, you guys! Don't hurt them!
July 4, 2024
If Peter Leslie's third of five contributions to this series demonstrates one thing, it is that the author was indeed capable of penning an U.N.C.L.E. novel that does not feature the presence of Irish/North African information dealer Habib Tufik. Leslie's book cleaves into two fairly discrete sections. In the first, Napoleon Solo is brazenly kidnapped at the very entrance of U.N.C.L.E.'s NYC HQ and spirited away to an unknown destination. He awakens in a luxurious country estate (shades of the then-popular TV series "The Prisoner"), its location a complete mystery, and is wined and dined and engaged in conversation by a man named Carlsen and a beautiful brunette, one Lala Eriksson...both of whom may or may not be agents of Thrush. In the book's second half, Napoleon and Illya Kuryakin, now in the region of Turin, in northern Italy, team up with a lovely agent of the Italian S.I.D., Giovanna del Renzio, to search for the missing whatsit--a piece of glass, plastic, whatever--that a recently assassinated U.N.C.L.E. agent had used in the making of a holographic image; a hologram containing information on potential Thrush recruits in Europe that is unreadable without the vital missing piece.
It is a clever MacGuffin on which to hang his novel, and Leslie's book is at once credible, suspenseful and altogether gripping. He provides his readers with three outstanding set pieces here: Solo's escape from that country estate, overcoming machine gun-toting guards, an electrified fence, and killer Dobermans; the electrified Chinese water torture that Illya and Solo are forced to undergo; and Napoleon and Kuryakin's breakneck, cross-country escape from a gaggle of Thrush goons toward the end. Oh...not to mention the numerous attempts made on our heroes' lives, by a bomb attempt in the NYC streets, a sabotaged car brake, a sabotaged elevator, a run-in with a pack of Italian street thugs, a bomb in a bouquet, and still another bomb in another auto. Leslie adds a patina of realism to his conceit with his mentions of various weapons (the Belgian FN machine pistol, the p. 14 rifle, the Mannlicher rifle), vehicles (the Mercedes 230 SL, Fiat 2300, Lancia Flaminia, Alfa Romeo Giulietta, Lancia Flavia, the Simca, the Gilera motorcycle), obscure Italian place names, many of which you'll need a good atlas to find (Oulx, Sestriere, Susa, Santhia, Buronzo, Leini, Cigliano, Chivasso), and yummy-sounding French dishes (truite aux feuilles vertes, tournedos Rossini). Whether Leslie was familiar with those places by dint of personal travel or simple research (and ditto for the North Africa of his "Radioactive Camel Affair" and the Mato Grosso of his "Diving Dames Affair"), I don't know, but the net result is a convincing one. Other things to appreciate here are a passing reference to the events in "The Diving Dames Affair," as well as the inside joke when Carlsen gives Solo an appetizer of pate de grives; that is to say, pate of thrush! Readers should be aware that Leslie, an English author, employs any number of British terms here; thus, an electrical cord is a "flex," and Solo is heard to say "We've rumbled your nasty little game," instead of "tumbled." Anyway, that's the good news.
On the other hand, Leslie, despite his plethora of Ian Fleming-like detail, can be woefully inadequate at making the reader visualize his word pictures. It is ironic, somehow, yet something that I'd noticed in his previous U.N.C.L.E. books. Other problems: He shows us Illya wondering whether or not Mr. Waverly has a secret entrance to his office, whereas he had learned of that very entrance in the previous Book #15 (granted, "The Utopia Affair" had not been published in the U.K.). Perhaps worst of all, he tells us that Illya was gazing, from Waverly's office, "across the river" at the United Nations, whereas any New Yorker could tell you that from U.N.C.L.E. HQ in midtown Manhattan, the U.N. should be in front of the East River. And while I'm nitpicking, was it necessary to have the newspaper vendor across the street from that HQ be named Zimmermann, and one of the country estate goons be named...Zimmerman? In all, though, an exciting, occasionally dry, somewhat overwritten U.N.C.L.E. outing, with a trio of memorable action sequences that in themselves are worth the price of admission, as well as a couple of surprising twists regarding two of the characters. And thanks, Mr. Leslie, for turning me on to the word "scroop"!
(By the way, this review originally appeared on the FanLit website at https://fantasyliterature.com/ ....)
It is a clever MacGuffin on which to hang his novel, and Leslie's book is at once credible, suspenseful and altogether gripping. He provides his readers with three outstanding set pieces here: Solo's escape from that country estate, overcoming machine gun-toting guards, an electrified fence, and killer Dobermans; the electrified Chinese water torture that Illya and Solo are forced to undergo; and Napoleon and Kuryakin's breakneck, cross-country escape from a gaggle of Thrush goons toward the end. Oh...not to mention the numerous attempts made on our heroes' lives, by a bomb attempt in the NYC streets, a sabotaged car brake, a sabotaged elevator, a run-in with a pack of Italian street thugs, a bomb in a bouquet, and still another bomb in another auto. Leslie adds a patina of realism to his conceit with his mentions of various weapons (the Belgian FN machine pistol, the p. 14 rifle, the Mannlicher rifle), vehicles (the Mercedes 230 SL, Fiat 2300, Lancia Flaminia, Alfa Romeo Giulietta, Lancia Flavia, the Simca, the Gilera motorcycle), obscure Italian place names, many of which you'll need a good atlas to find (Oulx, Sestriere, Susa, Santhia, Buronzo, Leini, Cigliano, Chivasso), and yummy-sounding French dishes (truite aux feuilles vertes, tournedos Rossini). Whether Leslie was familiar with those places by dint of personal travel or simple research (and ditto for the North Africa of his "Radioactive Camel Affair" and the Mato Grosso of his "Diving Dames Affair"), I don't know, but the net result is a convincing one. Other things to appreciate here are a passing reference to the events in "The Diving Dames Affair," as well as the inside joke when Carlsen gives Solo an appetizer of pate de grives; that is to say, pate of thrush! Readers should be aware that Leslie, an English author, employs any number of British terms here; thus, an electrical cord is a "flex," and Solo is heard to say "We've rumbled your nasty little game," instead of "tumbled." Anyway, that's the good news.
On the other hand, Leslie, despite his plethora of Ian Fleming-like detail, can be woefully inadequate at making the reader visualize his word pictures. It is ironic, somehow, yet something that I'd noticed in his previous U.N.C.L.E. books. Other problems: He shows us Illya wondering whether or not Mr. Waverly has a secret entrance to his office, whereas he had learned of that very entrance in the previous Book #15 (granted, "The Utopia Affair" had not been published in the U.K.). Perhaps worst of all, he tells us that Illya was gazing, from Waverly's office, "across the river" at the United Nations, whereas any New Yorker could tell you that from U.N.C.L.E. HQ in midtown Manhattan, the U.N. should be in front of the East River. And while I'm nitpicking, was it necessary to have the newspaper vendor across the street from that HQ be named Zimmermann, and one of the country estate goons be named...Zimmerman? In all, though, an exciting, occasionally dry, somewhat overwritten U.N.C.L.E. outing, with a trio of memorable action sequences that in themselves are worth the price of admission, as well as a couple of surprising twists regarding two of the characters. And thanks, Mr. Leslie, for turning me on to the word "scroop"!
(By the way, this review originally appeared on the FanLit website at https://fantasyliterature.com/ ....)
January 28, 2019
U.N.C.L.E. takes on THRUSH again this time involving a holographic image that contains THRUSH's future plans. Napoleon and Illya have to recover the means to restore the holograph and decode the plans
February 16, 2019
OK UNCLE story, heroes got saved by a kind of boring method.
Can't really recommend it
Can't really recommend it
December 12, 2021
The good guys win again!!
November 20, 2007
"It was almost unbelievable: Napoleon Solo, U.N.C.L.E.'s top enforcement officer, had been captured..."
Is that actually supposed to be 'almost unbelievable'? Because I have been under the impression that that happened just about once a week for four seasons.
I want to see Napoleon and Illya investigate a real mystery; perhaps the mystery of why the hell am I reading these trashy books in the first place.
Is that actually supposed to be 'almost unbelievable'? Because I have been under the impression that that happened just about once a week for four seasons.
I want to see Napoleon and Illya investigate a real mystery; perhaps the mystery of why the hell am I reading these trashy books in the first place.
July 20, 2008
Loved this novel as a kid. After all, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. was my favorite series at the time.
Years later, while reading Dead Man's Tale, an Executioner novel, I realized for the second time that Mr. Leslie was rewriting his old U.N.C.L.E novels into Bolans.
I don't know whether he ever rewrote anymore because I stopped buying the Mack Bolan series after that. After all, they were advertising them as new, never before published. I was offended.
Years later, while reading Dead Man's Tale, an Executioner novel, I realized for the second time that Mr. Leslie was rewriting his old U.N.C.L.E novels into Bolans.
I don't know whether he ever rewrote anymore because I stopped buying the Mack Bolan series after that. After all, they were advertising them as new, never before published. I was offended.
November 15, 2011
Yes, I like Man from UNCLE. I had ordered a few more off abebooks.com and never had a chance to read them. So I'm getting caught up now. This author had written a few other UNCLE books. But I have to say that this is not one of his better ones. The characters come off ... wrong. They just don't sound like Napolean and Illya.
July 9, 2016
Note to authors: if your entire plot hinges around the discovery of a single object, don't name that single object in your book's title. This was an engaging enough Affair with some devious twists and turns, sullied slightly by the running gag that Illya isn't familiar with English/American idioms. But it was fun, if a little humdrum at times.
April 29, 2015
Excellent book adaptation of the TV series. Great spy adventure book. This is how the CIA and FBI should operate. Recommended
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews