Departure Deferred

Secret Agent Adventure #2

by W. Howard Baker

In an endeavor to speed up their nuclear program, the Chinese have kidnapped the daughter of a noted physicist as extortion for his help. Drake has 36 hours to free the girl.

128 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1965

About the author

Aka W.A. Ballinger

Specializing in action noir, William Arthur Howard Baker got his break writing for the Sexton Blake series of detective thrillers in the mid 50's, eventually becoming an editor. He reused many of the plots from this popular set of stories for his own spy series. A penname of his was Peter Saxon.

Reviews

[Philip · Rating 2 out of 5]

As with No Way Out, the last "Secret Agent" book I read, this one starts out interesting - Cold War Albania vs. Cold War Macau - but then the author really does nothing to set the location other than throw in a few street names gleaned from a map of Tirana. In fact, after the initial scene, the story doesn't actually get to Albania until 2/3s of the way through. The plot hinges on the often-used but never realistic device of the good spy bearing an uncanny resemblance to the dead bad guy, (the only overused plot trick worse than this is Mission Impossible's use of masks).

Obviously, you can't expect these TV tie-in books to be of the same quality as, say, Alistair MacLean's The Secret Ways, (similar time/setting). But they could have made a little more of an effort. Oh well.

This was the last of the old John Drake Secret Agent novels, (only four of them). Unfortunately, I've still got a good 30 Man/Girl From U.N.C.L.E., Avengers, I Spy, Mission Impossible and others to get through someday. They're fun to read in a nostalgic, back-to-the-60s, back-to-my-early-teen-years way, but I really need to spend more time reading much better, much more recent stuff...

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had problems with the logic in the story. I was willing to suspend my disbelief on the existence of a guy who so strongly resembled John Drake, but for his boss to use him as bait for a dangerous trap before leaving the country on a life-or-death assignment made little sense. Even a moderate injury during this side mission would have derailed the rescue of the scientist's daughter, which was supposedly far more important.
Also, the final resolution depends too much on luck and coincidence, such as the sudden outbreak of an unlikely attempted coup in Albania. It's difficult to root for the hero when his own fate is based on seemingly random things.
Still, it wasn't bad, and did have the feel of a Secret Agent episode, or maybe a two-parter, to fit in all of the extraneous stuff.

[Cristina · Rating 5 out of 5]

ame el libro posta. No tiene historia de relleno, todos los detalles que tiene son los necesarios, ame, super recomiendo

[James Crawford · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this novel, John Drake meets his boss, an old man named Fenner. It seesm that an atomic physicist by the name of Shequeri was in Albania, and was wanted by the Chinese to help their atomic bomb program. he didn't want to go and was smuggled out by some friends. Unfortunately his daughter was left behind, captured, tortured, and held for "final" sentencing. Drake has to get her out of Albania to prevent the scientist from going back, but he has nly 36 hours before the girl is due to be executed.

A man who looks just like Drake is killed by British agents, so Drake is to take the man's place and go to Albania and free the girl. Unfortunately, the agent that thought he killed the man is upset that the "dead" man has turned up "alive" (he wasn't told Drake is impersonating the dead man) and he tries to kill Drake. He fails, and Fenner kills him.

The agent was also a traitor, and complications soon arise for Drake and a woman named Dandi Malater, who was his former enemy. Drake is recognized by a girlfriend of the man he replaced, but she won't tell, since she wants out of the country and thinks Drake can help her. Then Drake and Malater are called to the office of the secret police where his ruse is discovered. What follows is a wild pattern of acton with considerable bluffing by Drake, trying to play off two opposing factions in a revolt starting in Albania.

Drake finally wins out and the girl is saved from execution and all concerned leave Albania well, sound and successful.

Overall this is another good Secret Agent story, with a lot of action and intrigue, yet not an overly large amount of violence, and definitely without any of the over-reliance on fancy technological gadgets.