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Secret Agent Adventure #6
The Exterminator
The man known as the Exterminator is wiping out Drake's fellow agents. Given the task of stopping the assassin, Drake isn't sure that the killer is not one of his own
Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1966
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 7, 2020
I only started watching old episodes of Danger Man (titled Secret Agent when broadcast in the United States) on a streaming service. I like Patrick McGoohan a lot as an actor in his roles in Ice Station Zebra and various times he played the murderer in episodes of Columbo. But Danger Man wasn't rerun when I was growing up and I had just never gotten around to reading it.
I've enjoyed the few episodes I've seen so far and like McGoohan's portrayal of an intelligent spy who outthinks his opponents and only resorts to violence when he absolutely has to. So when I stumbled across this tie-in novel in a used book store, I pretty much felt obligated to buy and read it.
The author portrays John Drake (McGoohan's character) well, capturing the sense that he's smart, alert and always thinking. The story--an original one not directly based on any of the TV episodes--is a good one. Drake is tasked with finding a Communist assassin called the Exterminator and take him out. The action takes place in Sicily, where Drake's effort to figure out which of two suspects is the Exterminiator is interrupted by such events as a fight with an octopus and a Mafia-planned kidnapping.
All this is great stuff. The author, though, depends on ending paragraphs with overly-dramatic sentences a little too often. For instance, we are reminded countless times that a new bit of evidence can be interpreted to mean either suspect is the Exterminator; or that a double-agent who is probably the Exterminator's next target is in great peril. Most of the time, the prose is straightforward and readable, but there are moments where it gets too over-the-top. Variations of sentences such as "It was a moment of truth--and a moment of death!" are repeated a bit too often.
But, even with its flaws, the novel does its job. It allows us to follow along with a character we like as that character has yet another adventure.
I've enjoyed the few episodes I've seen so far and like McGoohan's portrayal of an intelligent spy who outthinks his opponents and only resorts to violence when he absolutely has to. So when I stumbled across this tie-in novel in a used book store, I pretty much felt obligated to buy and read it.
The author portrays John Drake (McGoohan's character) well, capturing the sense that he's smart, alert and always thinking. The story--an original one not directly based on any of the TV episodes--is a good one. Drake is tasked with finding a Communist assassin called the Exterminator and take him out. The action takes place in Sicily, where Drake's effort to figure out which of two suspects is the Exterminiator is interrupted by such events as a fight with an octopus and a Mafia-planned kidnapping.
All this is great stuff. The author, though, depends on ending paragraphs with overly-dramatic sentences a little too often. For instance, we are reminded countless times that a new bit of evidence can be interpreted to mean either suspect is the Exterminator; or that a double-agent who is probably the Exterminator's next target is in great peril. Most of the time, the prose is straightforward and readable, but there are moments where it gets too over-the-top. Variations of sentences such as "It was a moment of truth--and a moment of death!" are repeated a bit too often.
But, even with its flaws, the novel does its job. It allows us to follow along with a character we like as that character has yet another adventure.
January 18, 2016
This is another book in the series of Secret Agent paperbacks and is copyrighted 1967. The basic story revolves around a character called the Exterminator who is killing various British agents. Tied in to this is that a yacht is in the city port whenever one of the agents is killed. John Drake is sent to exterminate the exterminator.
The novel is basically routine; one car-chase, a few killings, and a "twist" ending when it is revealed that the Exterminator is the daughter of a millionaire that drake had suspected of being the killer. The story is fairly interesting, but there is nothing really fantastically memorable to note about the book.
The novel is basically routine; one car-chase, a few killings, and a "twist" ending when it is revealed that the Exterminator is the daughter of a millionaire that drake had suspected of being the killer. The story is fairly interesting, but there is nothing really fantastically memorable to note about the book.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews