The Striker Portfolio

Quiller #3

by Adam Hall

"The fly fell down." Quiller sent the message off to London as requested. He had just seen a supersonic jet plunge 60,000 feet to its destruction. It was the 36th crash, and more were to come--unless Quiller finds out who is to blame.

That meant entering the deadly shadow world between East and West, where the name of the game was betrayal and the stakes were sky-high.

"If you are a Quiller fan this is for you. If you have never met him, it's time you did." (Charleston Evening Post)

Genres: Thriller, Espionage, Fiction, Mystery, Germany, Action, Spy Thriller

Paperback

First published January 1, 1968

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

[Glen]

Quiller is on assignment to find out why airplanes are crashing that shouldn't be crashing. Is it sabotage, a new weapon, or what?

I've never really been able to get into the Quiller series.

[Feliks · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cracking good so far. As always, with Adam Hall. Quiller is as tough as a tungsten railroad spike! The character is just out there. No savings, no dependents, no next-of-kin. Apparently he was forced to hone his survival skills to a pitch in WWII and now gets restless when he isn't involved in some kind of threat or challenge. Addicted to action. Like a shark that can't sleep because it has to stay moving.

This particular adventure helps to solidify Quiller's traits and habits; the mystery itself is somewhat grim and depressing. It is set in the bleakness of the GDR in wintertime; Quiller takes a lot of physical damage as usual and in particular a chilling ordeal inside an East German prison.

It is a short read; no sex/romance; some gruesome punishment; nice emphasis on cars/engines/vehicles; just pretty dark/cold/icy/wet tale overall. He doesn't carry a gun at all, as is standard in these tales; but there's so much else going on you never miss it. Quiller is usually 5-7 steps ahead of anyone relying on a pistol.

Overall, glad I gulped this one down but it won't be my favorite. Best so far was Quiller in Bangkok in book #2. Exotic locales help to offset such a tightly wound guy as this is.

Still, it is really what the James Bond series could have --and should have-- been had Fleming started later. Hall is that gifted.

[stormhawk]

I am ever so grateful that I accidentally discovered Quiller late one night in the 70s ... a British TV show, starring Michael Jayston, introduced me to an entirely different kind of spy, and thanks to my local library, I was able to start following his adventures. Over the years I've managed to chase down new and used copies of Adam Hall's books, and have never been disappointed, which is something I rarely say about any author, much less one as prolific as Hall.

Planes are dropping out of the skies of West Germany, and a British field agent is sent in with little information to unravel the plot. There's no reliance on tricks or gadgets, and the first-person protagonist has a very workmanlike approach to spycraft.

Even though these stories were written before the end of the Cold War, a world with two Germanies still bearing the scars of World War II, before cell phones and personal computers, they are fantastic. Read Qulller. You won't regret it.

[Vladimir Ivanov · Rating 3 out of 5]

Агент Квиллер снова в ФРГ. На этот раз его ждет дело мировой важности — в стране один за другим разбиваются новейшие военные истребители Striker. Никакие технические проверки перед вылетом ничего не находят, просто в какой-то момент пилот перестает выходить на связь и машина теряет управление и разбивается. Потеряно уже 36 самолетов (но мысль временно приостановить полеты Striker не посещает немецких генералов).

Квиллер ведет расследование в своей уникальной манере — просто ездит туда-сюда по городу и ведет себя максимально подозрительно, чтобы злодеи поскорее обратили на него внимание и попытались убить или взять в плен, а тогда... тогда он что-нибудь придумает. Его, разумеется, опять берут в плен, опять рассказывают ему все злодейские планы, опять пытают, опять он бежит из плена в последний момент. В первые разы этот оригинальный подход воспринимался еще свежо, а с третьего сиквела уже начинает приедаться. Впрочем, книжка короткая, читается живо, надоесть не успевает.

И все бы ничего, но разгадка тайны падающих самолетов поражает своей тупизной. Оказывается, это ГДР-овские штази задумали хитрый план — подкупить в Западной Германии армейского психолога (он там, судя по всему, ровно один на все военные базы по стране), чтобы он давал военным пилотам сильное снотворное под видом обычного седатива и велел пить по таблетке перед полетом (на кой чорт вообще военному летчику пить успокоительное перед полетом??) Таким образом, уснувшие пилоты разобьют все современные истребители, после чего опозорившуюся Германию ВЫГОНЯТ ИЗ НАТО (не шучу!) и ГДР сможет ее захватить.

Если бы не феерический финал, книжка вытянула бы на 4 с минусом. А так — трояк.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quiller is sent to find out why the "Striker" military planes are crashing regularly all over West Germany, who is behind it and why. Then if he can put a stop to it. This is the third Quller book by Adam Hall and the fifth or sixth I have read but the first review I have written on Goodreads.
If you like spy thrillers, even a little, you should read Adam Hall's Quiller books. Quiller gets the job done without guns or gadgets just a lot of know-how and daring. The action scenes are truly marvelous I have never read any better, very vivid and realistic, but not gratuitously violent or gory. Hall is realistic in his hero, injury and exhaustion are not magically overcome but continue to create dilemma's that must be overcome as the story progresses. Even details like a torn coat are remembered and accounted for.
The Striker Portfolio is rather slow getting started, or rather there is action going on but it is a long time before you really learn anything which is a little bit frustrating and makes this not my favorite Quiller, but it is still a fun exciting read.
Hall's style takes a bit of getting used to he will often leave you in the middle of a scene, jump to the middle of another scene then go back and fill in the gap. He also expects the reader to connect the dots themselves rather than spelling everything out for you. He will periodically write in a foreign language without translating, but generally nothing vital. As a reader you live in Quiller's mind and he can sometimes drone on tiresomely about his personal philosophy and practice of espionage, but you can't just skip over these because often there are clues hidden within about what is really going on.
There are usually one or two sexual references per book not generally graphic but they are there. Bad language is minimal.

[Dipanjan · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The Striker Portfolio" is the third journey into the world of Agent Quiller.
Quiller is hard, Quiller is grim, and the world he moves through is as hard as grim as can be. To make things more interesting Quiller is always unarmed, therefore his intelligence becomes the only weapon.

The plot opens in Germany where Quiller has been sent by agency to investigate why 36 fighter jets have crashed with no plausible explanation. This time around, it’s a battle of survival along with investigating the strange malfunction on the fighter jets in the skies. This one is a short book and a very fast read. There is no wasted verbiage and everything is right to the point. Quiller is a spy who is just one man, finding dirty secrets in a dirty world at great personal cost. He does what he does for reason which he can’t even explain to himself but desperately tries to rationalize the enormous risks taken. Quiller, unfortunately does not fight his way through with technology toys and beautiful women in his bed. Quiller is unsentimental, straightforward and realistic. His adventures are not an escapist’s fare.

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

"The Striker Portfolio" 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".

[Rhondda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had seen the books by Adam Hall on the library shelves for years but thought I would read them when they were being culled from the collection.
It was a good spy story. Set in the late 60s in West Germany at the height of the cold war, the main character is Quiller. A spy, he is a loner, hard and grim and the world he inhabits is the same. It is different kind of spy in that Quiller is always unarmed so his intelligence (part gut instinct and part experience and training) is his main weapon. He works for an unnamed British spy agency and is sent to wherever they need him to be.
This time Quiller has been sent by his agency to investigate why the West German "Striker" fighter planes are regularly crashing with no plausible explanation. He is to find out why it is happening and stop it if he can.
It is a good mystery, nicely paced and contains lots of spycraft. I also enjoyed writing that does not spell everything out but asks you to make some of the connections for yourself.

[Alex Gherzo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Adam Hall's third Quiller book isn't nearly as good as the first two. This time, Quiller is sent to Germany to investigate a series of downed military aircrafts. What follows is a tedious series of car rides and conversations, with prose and descriptions so dull you have to reread every few pages to catch what's going on. (Not much.) The only high point is a pair of late chapters where Quiller is being held in a mental hospital that functions as a communist re-education facility, but the payoff sucks. I hope they pick back up again after this dud.

[Jay Rothermel · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Striker Portfolio (1968) is a short, sharp spy thriller. Secret agent Quiller zigzags between West and East Germany, struggling to "get in the way" of a Stalinist cell crashing Luftwaffe jets and forcing the political downfall of FRG politicians and military leaders opposed to reunification on the GDR's terms.

[Dr Susan Turner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hall's thriller Striker takes time to build up and I found the first third of the book rather slow going. Quiller eventually gets into full mode as he tries to escape the opposition and eventually pulls through. The details of high-flying aeroplanes make up the nitty gritty whichmay not appeal to all but the action is there in anexciting car chase.

[Will · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like him back in Germany but the story was a tad hard to follow with random jumps in timelines and conversation. Felt in a fog until the final 25%, which made sense, since the narrator was as well, lol

[Nigel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Always somewhat fatal in an audio book to lose interest at various points. This eas fine, I like Hall's stuff, but, just, y'know, maybe in smaller doses.

[Justin Nelson]

Another good Quiller thriller ;-)

[William Hamilton · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great read

Utterly gripping book. Will buy more Quiller. I read it in paperback years ago, but lost it or lent it out

[Ape · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ok, so it didn’t look promising… a 25p second hand book, printed in the 70s with a terrible cover – the guy “jumping from danger” looks like a daddy-dancer if I ever saw one. And it’s a BBC tv series according to the book cover, which makes you think it must be a tv tie in and therefore a bit rubbish. I’ve never heard of the tv series or this book series, Quiller before.

It was actually quite a surprise! It was a pretty good spy story. It’s set in the late 60s in West Germany and it’s about a spy, Quiller, who works for some British spy agency. He’s in there to solve some mystery about fighter planes. He’s an interesting character in that he is so into his job. He has no life outside of it – no family, friends or anything. And he’s so anylytical. All the time, he’s working out the possibilities of escape, analysing what people say or do… or all the science behind the different kinds of cars in the car chase, and his chances of getting away and what he needs to do. It just made it all really interesting and feel real.

It’s an old, sun-stained little book with a few of the pages threatening to fall out, but this book is older than I am and I hope it is looked after and gets a few more readers yet.

In the meantime I feel the need to quote a passage here that I really liked!

“I subscribe to Coue, Maltz and the Frenchman who said sit u neux to peux. They all make the same point but Coue put it quite well: in any contest between the imagination and the will, the imagination always wins.

We’ve tested this out in training sessions using alcohol, electric shock techniques, artificially induced fatigue states and varying degrees of auto-hypnosis. An example would be: if the ship’s been sunk under you and it’s a ten mile swim to the shore, you’ll stand more chance of getting there by using imagination instead of will-power. You can grit your teeth and will yourself to do it but the command is conscious and your subconscious is on board for the trip and it can be a lead weight it it’s left to its own little games: once it starts brooding about the black silent fifty-fathom void below your body the will-power is going to lose a lot of steam. But if you bring in the subconscious to work for you it means the imagination will be programmed in and in the place of lead weight, you’ve got yourself a propeller. Feed it the key-image ‘shore’ and you’re there already, prone as a log and coughing up water but safe and alive.

Maltz confirms that the nervous system can’t tell the difference between a real and an imagined experience. If this weren’t true they could never produce a burn-mark on the back of the leg with an ice-cube by convincing the subject that it’s a red-hot poker and they do it every day at St George’s as a change from making tea.

The trick isn’t fool-proof because so many other factors are in play: your personality patterns, state of mind, so forth. If only works with some people some of the time.”

P71.

2016: taken from my 2008 bookcrossing journal

[Larry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three dozen state-of-the-art German jet fighters have crashed. Quiller, one of the ferrets for the Bureau, Britain's secret intelligence agency (the one that gets to act decisively) goes into the field to find out why. When a contact commits suicide under suspicious circumstances, Quiller's director instructs Q to "get in the way" of the group responsible for both the crashes and the murder. Quiller does so with his customary skill, and is soon the target of the opposition group--an interest that he uses to track them back to their leaders. It's a high-risk game, and Adam Hall's (i.e., Elleston Trevor's) third Quiller novel (out of nineteen) is well worth rereading, having read it for the first time in 1968. Taken as a whole, the Quiller books rank with those of Len Deighton and Eric Ambler. Theposthumous publication of "Quiller Balalaika" in 2005 was a sad moment because it reminded me of how much I missed Quiller. Having said that, the Quiller books are worth rereading every so often.

[Terry · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm going through the reading list I put together as a sidebar to a feature story I wrote more than twenty years ago about a prof who taught a course in espionage fiction. This book wasn't on that list, but the author, pen-named Adam Hall, was. Hall created Quiller, the "shadow executive" featured in about a dozen novels and the memorable film, "The Quiller Memorandum." I'm going to see if I can track that DVD down at my library: script by Harold Pinter, starring George Segal, Max von Sydow, Senta Berger and Alec Guinness. Soundtrack by John Barry.

[Brendan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Published 1968, a cold war spy thriller with a nicely irreverent hero, car chases and includes lots of tips and tricks for the wannabe secret agent. Don't read it for the premise or the resolution of the mystery, but for the fun journey of saving East and West Germany from themselves.

[cool breeze · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quiller in Germany investigating a series of fighter plane crashes. Not as many plot twists as usual, or as much action, or even a particularly interesting story line, so only 3.5 stars. It does have a gruesomely well rendered torture chapter.

[Jeremy Aaron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Took me a little while to get into it but really liked it overall.

Although mainly a spy novel, it touched on quite a few grander themes about life, philosophy, politics, that made it more than just a thrilling page turner.

Don't discount it because of the slow start. Good read.

[Matt Raubenheimer · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second Quiller novel that I have read. A thrilling, briskly paced and well written spy story. The intense first person narration makes for gripping reading throughout. A fine example of a short and sharp spy thriller.

[Karen]

Quiller in Germany.

[Kdfrawg · Rating 5 out of 5]

See my notes under "The Quiller Memorandum"

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

You can't read a Quiller when you're tired; it'd be like walking out of the room for a snack during the movie 'Memento'. But it was SO nice to be back in the Cold War for just a little while....

[Larry Loftis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Typical Elleston Trevor (Adam Hall) ... great mystery, pace, tight prose, spycraft, etc. The ending was a bit weak, however (otherwise 5 stars).