The Devil in Davos

by Gil Brewer

Al Mundy was young, handsome, sophisticated...and an accomplished safecracker and thief. Which made him particularly valuable as a secret agent for the SIA.

Mundy didn't want to work for the SIA, but it was a choice between that and a long prison term. So he became the SIA's top man for international "glamour jobs"--exotic locales, beautiful women, the finest hotels, food and drink.

But when Mundy's assignment took him to a famous ski resort in Switzerland to steal back microfilmed information about a U.S. operative behind the Iron Curtain, he was faced with the ugly side of his job: deception, torture and death. For Al Mundy was captured by a very deadly enemy....

Genres: Adventure

160 pages, mass market paperback

Published January 1, 1969

About the author

Florida writer Gil Brewer was the author of dozens of wonderfully sleazy sex/crime adventure novels of the 1950's and 60's, including Backwoods Teaser and Nude on Thin Ice; some of them starring private eye Lee Baron (Wild) or the brothers Sam and Tate Morgan (The Bitch) . Gil Brewer, who had not previously published any novels, began to write for Gold Medal Paperbacks in 1950-51. Brewer wrote some 30 novels between 1951 and the late 60s – very often involving an ordinary man who becomes involved with, and is often corrupted and destroyed by, an evil or designing woman. His style is simple and direct, with sharp dialogue, often achieving considerable intensity.

Brewer was one of the many writers who ghost wrote under the Ellery Queen byline as well. Brewer also was known as Eric Fitzgerald, Bailey Morgan, and Elaine Evans.

http://www.gilbrewer.com/

Reviews

[Tim Deforest · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've never seen "It Takes a Thief," though I think I'd like it if I did. This tie-in novel, at least, was quite good.

Al Mundy is a highly-skilled burgler who is forced to work for the SIA (apparently that universe's version of the CIA) to keep from going to jail. In this novel, he's ordered to Switzerland to get some important microfilm back from an enemy agent before that agent can sell it to the Russians. Al is also ordered to kill the agent, something he's not happy with.

There's an attempt to kill him almost as soon as he sets foot in Switzerland. During his burglery attempt, he's captured by Russian agents and--in a surprisingly brutal sequence--tortured with a drug that fills him with fear and causes hallucinations. Escape attempts follow, which is complicated by a plot twist involving a supporting character and the hidden location of the microfilm.

Though not as good as Gil Brewer's original novels, this is still a strong spy story. I hope the series will pop up on a streaming service one day--I'd like to find out how closely the novel represents the series.

[Randy · Rating 5 out of 5]

By one of the great crime writers of the fifties and sixties.

[Glen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fairly good adaptation of the 1960's spy series starring Robert Wagner and Malachi Thorne.

There's some good prose, but not much of a plot, and a cliched drug sequence.