The 9th Directive

Quiller #2

by Adam Hall

The setting is Thailand. A very important representative of the Queen is scheduled to visit Bangkok on a good-will tour. A threat has been made against his life, and somewhere amidst the golden spires awaits a deadly assassin.

The top-secret British espionage bureau feels ordinary security precautions are not sufficient, so they call in agent Quiller. He's a cynical loner, but the only man capable of tracking down the would-be killer. The tale is complex, set at a breathless pace!

Genres: Espionage, Thriller, Fiction, British Literature, Mystery Thriller

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1966

About the author

Author also wrote as Elleston Trevor.

Author Trevor Dudley-Smith was born in Kent, England on February 17, 1920. He attended Yardley Court Preparatory School and Sevenoaks School. During World War II, he served in the Royal Air Force as a flight engineer. After the war, he started writing full-time. He lived in Spain and France before moving to the United States and settling in Phoenix, Arizona. In 1946 he used the pseudonym Elleston Trevor for a non-mystery book, and later made it his legal name. He also wrote under the pseudonyms of Adam Hall, Simon Rattray, Mansell Black, Trevor Burgess, Roger Fitzalan, Howard North, Warwick Scott, Caesar Smith, and Lesley Stone. Even though he wrote thrillers, mysteries, plays, juvenile novels, and short stories, his best-known works are The Flight of the Phoenix written as Elleston Trevor and the series about British secret agent Quiller written as Adam Hall. In 1965, he received the Edgar Allan Poe Award by Mystery Writers of America and the French Grand Prix de Littérature Policière for The Quiller Memorandum. This book was made into a 1967 movie starring George Segal and Alec Guinness. He died of cancer on July 21, 1995.

Reviews

[Feliks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Superb as always. I nominate Hall as my favorite action author. To write with this much authority at such a frantic pace --and in the first-person-- puts him in the league of Hammett and the other great pulp craftsmen from the sister-genre of crime-writing. Just as in (for example) a Cornell Woolrich tale--there is no 'waste', 'drag', or 'surplus' in this kind of page-flipper.

Hall writes with total economy and poise in his brand of espionage. A powerful mix of psychology and thrills--all the psychological insights found in LeCarre, are here in the Quiller series. But all the action which LeCarre is lacking, is here as well. And the exotic locales from Hall, are just astounding.

In this book, 'Quiller' --a 'thinking man's spy'--is in Bangkok. At first, I worried that Hall would not be able to pull it off convincingly. Very difficult setting to convey. Most authors stumble, trying-too-hard to express the exoticness; and losing the thrust-of-the-plot to do so. Not Hall. Quiller is as comfortable here as he is anywhere. He knows this city. He simply gets on with the business of ass-kicking as he usually does.

As an author, Hall experiments with everything. In this tale the assassination takes place in the **middle of the book** and then the tension and suspense is drawn out for a full fifteen more chapters. Each time, you're sure he is going to wrap it up at last... but the twists don't stop coming.

Hall also never lets a chapter go by without some kind of wrenching surprise: that's just the way Hammett always did. And his protag, 'Quiller' really gets into some crazy dirty violence. Down-in-the-gutter violence. He never gets through a mission without rolling around in places no other spy would ever wind up.

What's also juicy is how well he knows his body: he is 100% astute about his 'physical limits'. Constant little 'asides' about how memory works, how reflexes function, how best to aim a weapon or survive a blow to the head. Quiller is all about defense and survival; he never assumes he can just skate through trouble unscathed. He talks about his fears, his worries, his anxieties.

Great one-liner in the first third of the book, (when he is dogged by a would-be femme-fatale): "Loman was a hell of an intelligence director if he couldn't keep this bitch out of my way.." Ha!

Quiller is no James Bond; (he carries no gun) but he has --if anything--even less compunction towards women (why not? in these plots, they're usually in bed with his enemies) than Fleming's hero. But if its any consolation, at least Quiller doesn't make phony love to them before booting them to the curb. He doesn't 'play it two ways'. He doesn't see them as sex-objects, he sizes them up only for how they help/hinder his mission. No more, no less. One has to admire that.

This novel is a tale of assassination--so it's got great content--and a steady build-up of suspense, as all such tales enjoy. This is familiar and reassuring to every thriller reader. You know its gonna be 'hot' at the end of this story, whatever happens. Except--as I mentioned above--the 'hit' happens in the middle of the book! Insane!

The only thing to count on is that Hall keeps the action throbbing along at manic pace. He is as solid in this style as Deighton and LeCarre are in theirs.

Highest recommendation.

[Bill · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Ninth Directive, aka Quiller in Bangkok, by Adam Hall is the 2nd book in the Quiller spy thriller series and the 4th I've completed. Like the others, I enjoyed the book but didn't love it. It's a mix of spycraft, lots of action and introspection. In this book, sometimes the spycraft got to be a bit much.

So Quiller is approached by Loman to take on a mission in Bangkok, which Loman is heading. They both work for a mysterious British organization, sort of outside the normal bureaucracy, and take on under the radar missions. In this case, a royal personage (they refer to him / her as the Person) is visiting Thailand as part of an Asian visit and a threat has been made to the Person's life. Now there is already tons of security, both Thai and British. What Loman wants is for Quiller to use his past knowledge of Bangkok to try and figure how this attempt might be made and how it can be stopped.

Firstly, Quiller doesn't want to take the mission but Loman finally persuades him. He narrows down the potential assassins to one and then begins the process of finding him (this being Kuo the Mongolian assassin) and then figuring out his plan. It's a neat process and Quiller is helped by a Thai import / export person, one Pangsapa, and also hindered by people from another British directorate, Mil 5, especially a young woman, Minia.

Along the way, there is plenty of action and the result leads to a follow-on chase which I won't get into. There is lots of spycraft, the whole 'tagging' (following) and the planning, the communications, the threat assessments. At times I found the story somewhat bogged down in this minutiae. Take Chapter 22 - Bait for example.

"Reaction time covers three phases: time required to sense the signal, to decide on the correct response, and to respond. Relevant factors: age, state of health, muscle-tone, ....."and on for a few more paragraphs. Now this is interesting to an extent but sometimes you just want to get to the story and the action. It is a spy thriller after all.

Having said that, it's still an interesting approach to the genre and the twists and turns all made for a neat little story. Try Quiller for yourself. It might be right up your alley. I'll continue with the series. (3.0 stars)

[Philip · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Every man has his own underworld and a part of him never leaves it."

With his first-person, hard-boiled persona, Quiller is the most noir of all the 60s spies, and Hall really begins finding his voice with this second Quiller book,* (although he has yet to start using the paragraph-long run-on sentences that are half the fun of his later stories), moving away from the retro Nazi-hunter plot of the previous book and dropping Quiller into Vietnam-era Southeast Asia.

The plot is good-but-not-great, and despite being famous as the "cerebral spy who never carries a gun," Quiller gets himself into a number of situations where he would have done far better with less thinking and more shooting — just sayin'. Other plot points hinge on dumb luck and questionable choices, (at one point, Quiller realizes the only way not to lose the bad guy he's trailing is to hop in the car with him — where he is immediately captured), but hey…it was the '60s, man.**

So anyway...a 3+ story, rounded up for signalling the potential of what was to come. Dude definitely deserves more recognition today.

(One minor — okay, pretty major — kvetch: Hall throughout refers to Beijing-controlled Communist China as "The Republic of China" [ROC; i.e., Taiwan], instead of the proper "People's Republic of China" [PRC]. Isn't that what editors are for?)
___________________________________

* This was the second Quiller book in the "original" series; i.e., books 1-10 published pretty much biannually from 1965-1981 and all titled "The (Adjective-Noun)"; e.g., The Berlin Memorandum, The 9th Directive, etc. At that point, Hall took a needed four year break before returning for another nine books all titled "Quiller Something-or-Other", (Quiller Salamander, Quiller Bamboo, etc.).

** Interesting to note that Hall published his first Quiller book the same month Ian Fleming published his last Bond novel. Also interesting — the layout and execution of the whole assassination plot here has a very "Dealey Plaza, 1963" feel to it — I've got to believe this is what Hall was going for here, as he probably started writing this barely a year after Dallas.

PERSONAL NOTE: My book was a nice leather-bound first edition, picked up for a buck or two at our local used book store; it has an embossed "Wilmington Public Library" seal halfway through, but no signs of a book pocket on either the front or back inside covers — pretty sweet.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn't sure what to expect when I found this on a list of "Five Best Spy Thrillers You've Never Heard Of." Published in 1966 and the second in the series, it's perfect for those who like their dialogue taut and crisp, their actions scenes riveting, and their spy a little less of a Bond-like "blunt instrument" and a little more cerebral and intelligent. Although there is a brief encounter with a woman MI6 agent, it also lacked the sexism prevalent in Fleming's work. Although I've never been to Bangkok, I also thought the author conveyed the feel of the city streets and the people who lived and worked there very well. Although very English in the same way as Fleming, this author seemed more aware of the world outside the British empire.
The main character, Quiller, is part of an elite and secretive espionage unit dispatched by the British to Thailand to prevent an assassination; although never named and only referred to as "the Person," it's clear that the target is Prince Philip, visiting and touring on a goodwill mission. Quiller likes to work alone and is sometimes exasperated by his handler, Loman, a "specialist in short-range penetration operations with a disciplined cell and planned access and good communications" (13) who "rarely left London to direct an operator in the field" (7). But Loman has to direct Quiller, whose mission is reminiscent of the plot of The Day of the Jackal - find the assassin before he can kill the political figure.
Given that the book was published in 1966, I expected it to be more "pulpy," and was pleasantly surprised by the skill and erudition of the author, whose first novel in the series, The Berlin Memorandum, won the Edgar Award for Best Novel in 1966, the year after The Spy Who Came In from the Cold. The first book also won the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière in 1966 for best international crime novel. Hall, whose real name was Elleston Trevor, went on to publish a total of nineteen books in the Quiller series, and The Berlin Memorandum was retitled The Quiller Memorandum in the United States and made into a movie starring George Segal and Alec Guinness.

[David Evans · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quiller works for the Bureau, a department that doesn’t officially exist, and does dirty work In counterespionage as a highly trained combatant. This time he’s in Bangkok where a professional assassin has arrived to make an attempt on the life of a visiting British royal, Prince Philip, although he’s only referred to as The Person.
Can Quiller foil the attempt? Why are MI6 shadowing him? Adam Hall takes us inside the mind of our hero with his rather useful habit of listing all the possibilities for any action or reaction to the rapidly changing circumstances of a plot which springs surprise after surprise.

[Dipanjan · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The Ninth Directive" is the second appearance of Agent Quiller in the readers' world. The setting is 1966 Thailand (a very different environment as compared to its current avatar). Unlike the "Quiller Memorandum" this is a straightforward battle of wits between two individuals, Agent Quiller and Kup, a professional hitman. But it's quite a treat just the same. The mission is purely recon and apprehend aiding a protection detail as an individual third party. Though Quiller is a "Spy" in this book, he is more of an "intelligence specialist". He continues to be human, making mistakes, getting outsmarted and outwitted but pulls off the mission with "street smart thinking" and improvisations. Unlike the earlier book, there are no grey areas but mainly the black and white road of To Do or Not To Do.

Keeping true to the essence of the Quiller series, this adventure is also full of intricacies, psychological insights into behavioural patterns leading to actions based on deductions and sound reasonings.

"The Ninth Directive" continues to be an old school intelligence where the mind is the only effective weapon against the adversary. Quiller, yet again, takes us through this intelligent journey where we get to see how he gathers intelligence; how he plays various scenarios to improvise, adapt and survive; how he exposes himself as bait and how he manages to pull off a failed mission into success at the last minute.

This is yet again a great intelligence novel that should be in the collection of the "espionage fan".

[cool breeze · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quiller in Bangkok trying to stop a plot to assassinate a British royal. Quiller famously doesn’t carry or use a gun, but he makes an exception this time. Quite a good Quiller novel (4.1), and that is really saying something, but downgraded 0.4 points for Hall's sycophantic treatment of the unnamed royal, who sounds very much like Prince Charles. C'mon, the guy is such a twit that his own mother would rather die on the throne than turn it over to him. The veritable poster child for Monty Python’s Upperclass Twit of the Year, but Hall fawns over him.

Other than having to stifle the retching in those passages, this is an absolutely first rate espionage thriller, in the same rank as John le Carre, Len Deighton and Ian Fleming.

[Vladimir Ivanov · Rating 4 out of 5]

На этот раз агент Квиллер выполняет задание в Таиланде. Его агентство получило информацию, что высокопоставленного британского дипломата во время визита в Бангкок попытаются убить. У Квиллера есть неделя, чтобы выяснить, кто стоит за покушением, и предотвратить его.

Разумеется, операция пойдет не по плану, и все окажется совсем не так, как рассказывало начальство, но Квиллер обязательно разберется во всех хитрых заговорах, спасет невинных и покарает злодеев, не теряя сурового выражения лица.

Неплохой, энергичный шпионский триллер. Незамысловатый, заметно проще первой части по содержанию и идеям, но все равно очень неплохой.

[Secret Agent Fan · Rating 3 out of 5]

“The Ninth Directive” finds Quiller in Bangkok, where a British VIP will be arriving shortly. This is an important State visit, which will include a motorcade in an open car through the city. British Intelligence has word that there may be an assassination attempt on the VIP. Quiller’s job is counter-assassination. Determine the most likely vantage point a sniper would use, and take the sniper out before the sniper can take out the VIP.

This is a tense thriller, taking place over a few days, as Quiller tracks down leads, tries to identify the assassin, and tries to avoid getting killed himself.

As well crafted as the novel is, the stakes just don’t seem to be very high for a spy thriller. Hall keeps telling us how important this unnamed VIP is, but never really explains why. And the VIP’s insistence on riding in the motorcade without protective barriers on the car just makes him seem irresponsible and vainglorious--especially given that hundreds of Thai police and law enforcement personnel have been deployed to protect his life, not to mention the lives of the people who will be riding with him in the motorcade.

Kuo, the assassin, is Mongolian, and Quiller's attitudes towards the Chinese reek of British Imperialism. At one point he says of Kuo, "He was a Chinese and vulnerable--like all his race--to superstition. . ." His attitudes towards women aren’t a whole lot better, but are fairly typical of spy novels from the '60s. Quiller complains bitterly about a female agent who has been assigned to protect him, and is rather dismissive of female agents in general.

On the plus side, Quiller at one point makes a reference to Fellini movies. It's hard to imagine very many of Adam Hall's fellow spy-series writers of the '60s--such as Mickey Spillane, Donald Hamilton, or Philip Atlee--ever going to a Fellini movie.

[Salriel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I went through a bunch of Quiller books recently; this is the first I had read, and I think it was the one I liked most.

Hall writes to a formula; his style is quick, sharp, and cynical, and he's often at his best with complex details of tradecraft and manipulating the details of clandestine scheming and plotting. A lot of the interest of the books to me comes from Quiller trying to work out the wheels-within-wheels schemes going on, both those of the people he's working against, and the ones he's working for. I'm generally a lot less interested in the action scenes, and in Quiller's noble-stoic-cynical-hero persona.

In this book, Quiller is assigned as a counter-assassin working against a professional killer in Bangkok. I thought Hall used the setting extremely well, and the feeling of Bangkok as a setting for this clandestine duel was fantastic. I also liked the level of twisting back and forth between different gambits and countergambits, and the details of Quiller's work in setting up his plans and so on.

Overall, recommended for those who enjoy fast-paced 70s espionage action (however many people that is).

[Andrew Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good thriller - a page-turner with plenty of unexpected twists... and yet... maybe I'm just getting too old for this kind of thing... there was little in the way of character, and still less character development. I suspect that's the genre, not a fault in this book - I've not read a classic thriller for years. But I did miss that aspect, and won't be rushing to read any more of Hall's work, good craftsman though he was.

[Nigel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hard-nosed pragmatism, strict emotional control, highly focused intellect and a few antediluvian attitudes lead to nervewracking suspense as the highly strung Quiller tries to thwart an assasination attempt.

[Chatgemini · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story starts slow but then evolves into an interesting tale of international intrigue. Enjoyed it thoroughly.

[Will · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not as much fun as the first book. Would have liked to understand who “the person” was. Ending seemed a little dull.

[박 연희 · Rating 3 out of 5]

I rarely read action novels and this wasn't so bad at all. There are confusing times though and I think it focused too much on Quiller. Back stories of other characters are not emphasized. Also, I think I was looking for more explanation to the ending

[Ed · Rating 4 out of 5]

#2 in the Quiller series in 1965 thriller by author Adam Hall (Elleston Trevor). Cross, double-cross and plot twists in Vietnam War era Thailand.

[Justin Nelson]

Better than The Quiller Memorandum - pacy and fierce

[Tmac32 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great thriller. Went down to the last page before you know the outcome. I heard about Quiller listening to Spybrary. Happy I started the series and will continue.

[stormhawk · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love spy novels, and I love Quiller most of all. The stories ring true, not always cohesive at the beginning, but as the plot unfolds, it has a labyrinthine reality, plans within plots, not unlike a lotus or mandala, opening in pieces of insight.

All of the events are viewed through Quiller's eyes, we know what he knows, which usually is very little at the beginning, but takes more definite shape as the story proceeds. There are no egomaniacal villains who declare their plans while our hero lies helpless in their control and manages to escape at the crucial moment to thwart plans for world domination. Quiller, rather, slips through the smallest of opportunities like the ferret he often compares himself to.

[James Varney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quiller in Bangkok. It's a bit strained with "the Person" all the time (Prince Charles?), and Loman, the "brilliant" director Quiller hates, talking about him like he's a saint, but it was written in the mid-1960s when maybe that sort of talk seemed less artificial. The action here is first rate, and the exotic locale brings out the best in Quiller's attention to detail. At one point, when Quiller is setting up a shot on Kuo, the professional assassin, Quiller even brings up the fact Bangkok is surrounded by rice fields, and that the heatwaves coming off them can have a "distorting factor" on the light, complicating telescopic sights. There's the Hollywood moment with the woman (lethal in her own right), but overall another excellent edition in the great Quiller series.

[Ruth · Rating 3 out of 5]

"At this time, when the whole of the South-east Asian picture is confused and threatening, Her Majesty's Government consider it highly desirable that a goodwill mission is undertaken by someone who is neither a statesman nor a diplomat but who commands international respect and admiration, particularly in Thailand. Thus in three weeks time a representative of the Queen is to visit Bangkok on a goodwill tour. With careful precision he said: "During the visit we want you to arrange for his assassination."



"

[Yash Desai · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book 2 in the series continues to build upon the character of the likeable spy, Quiller. Like the first book this also has some great plot twists. Contrary to his reputation, Quiller does use a gun in this book. What i really like about Adam Hall's writing is that his books are peppered with explanations & descriptions of various techniques used by spies. Some might find these techniques dated as the book was written in the sixties, but i find them fascinating.

[Scott E · Rating 4 out of 5]

2nd in Hall's Quiller series. Much like the 1st installment, packed with action that progresses continuously until the conclusion. The Quiller series, thus far, seems more thriller than espionage. Good stuff!

[David Michael Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quiller makes James Bond seem like a fop and a sissy. This guy is a REAL spy! You read one Adam Hall book and you will not want to stop until you have read the entire series. Which can be a challenge as many of his novels are out of print.

[Pamela · Rating 3 out of 5]

As always with Hall's Quiller character, there's detail upon detail of tradecraft--one of the things I like best. Quiller character is front and center in all his flawed glory. Downgraded from 4 stars to 3 because of the sycophantic worship an undisclosed royal called "The Person".

[Lee Felker · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like the way Hall just gives the story to readers in such a straightforward manner. Quiller is my boy, and love easing at how he interprets situations and then gets out of them somehow. It's a quick, fun read for anyone who likes spy novels.

[Nathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the second book in the Quiller spy series. I really enjoyed the book due to the fast-paced story and interesting characters.

[Karen]

Quiller in Bangkok,

[Dennis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quiller is assigned to protect a high level "person" from an assassin. Another white knuckle read from Adam Hall.

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

An old-fashioned spy novel. Surprisingly, the backdrop to the book is very large. Quiller had seemed to be a more daily grind type of character. Nonetheless, still a very fast, solid read.