What do you think?
Rate this book
Modesty Blaise Story Strips #12
Modesty Blaise 12: Death Trap
The dark underworld of espionage and crime is lit up by the fatal charms of the gorgeous Modesty Blaise — high priestess of pulp crime and goddess of cult thrillers!
When Modesty and Willie are lured into an attempted Eastern European coup, could they be walking into a Death Trap ? Also collected in this edition, our heroes investigate human traffickers in The Vanishing Dollybirds , and take aim at vicious drug smugglers in The Junk Men !
Featuring brand new story introductions by Modesty creator Peter O’Donnell, plus an exclusive O’Donnell interview, this latest addition to the Modesty Blaise library is not to be missed!
When Modesty and Willie are lured into an attempted Eastern European coup, could they be walking into a Death Trap ? Also collected in this edition, our heroes investigate human traffickers in The Vanishing Dollybirds , and take aim at vicious drug smugglers in The Junk Men !
Featuring brand new story introductions by Modesty creator Peter O’Donnell, plus an exclusive O’Donnell interview, this latest addition to the Modesty Blaise library is not to be missed!
104 pages, Paperback
First published November 27, 2007
50 people want to read
About the author
Peter O'Donnell
373 books116 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Peter O'Donnell also wrote as Madeleine Brent.
http://www.cs.umu.se/~kenth/modesty.html
is an excellent resource on this author.
To help keep the novels and the adventure strip collections separate, here's some info about the Modesty Blaise works.
In 1963, O'Donnell began his 38-year run as writer of the Modesty Blaise adventure story strip, which appeared six days a week in English and Scottish newspapers. He retired the strip in 2001.
Each strip story took 18-20 weeks to complete. Several publishers over the years have attempted to collect these stories in large softcovers. Titan Publishing is currently in the process of bringing them all out in large-format softcover, with 2-3 stories in each books. These are called "graphic novels" in the Goodreads title.
Meanwhile, during those 38 years, O'Donnell also wrote 13 books about Modesty Blaise: 11 novels and 2 short story/novella collections. These stories are not related to the strip stories; they are not novelizations of strip stories. They are entirely new, though the characters and "lives" are the same. These have been labeled "series #0".
There is a large article on Peter O'Donnell on Wikipedia, with a complete bibliography.
Peter O'Donnell also wrote as Madeleine Brent.
http://www.cs.umu.se/~kenth/modesty.html
is an excellent resource on this author.
To help keep the novels and the adventure strip collections separate, here's some info about the Modesty Blaise works.
In 1963, O'Donnell began his 38-year run as writer of the Modesty Blaise adventure story strip, which appeared six days a week in English and Scottish newspapers. He retired the strip in 2001.
Each strip story took 18-20 weeks to complete. Several publishers over the years have attempted to collect these stories in large softcovers. Titan Publishing is currently in the process of bringing them all out in large-format softcover, with 2-3 stories in each books. These are called "graphic novels" in the Goodreads title.
Meanwhile, during those 38 years, O'Donnell also wrote 13 books about Modesty Blaise: 11 novels and 2 short story/novella collections. These stories are not related to the strip stories; they are not novelizations of strip stories. They are entirely new, though the characters and "lives" are the same. These have been labeled "series #0".
There is a large article on Peter O'Donnell on Wikipedia, with a complete bibliography.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 8, 2020
A reprint of the Modesty Blaise comic strips 36, 37, and 38.
“The Vanishing Dollybirds” starts in London when a sheikh whom Modesty and Willie helped in the “Willie the Djinn” has come to a visit. A woman Willie knows, Dolores, throws a soda can at the sheikh’s car startling everyone inside. It turns out that Dolores’ sister supposedly got a job in the Middle-East and vanished. Dolores is convinced that the poor girl has ended up as a slave in a harem. Dolores works as a knife-thrower’s assistant in the circus where Willie is one of the two owners. Dolores is convinced that a wealthy couple is behind her sister’s disappearance. They supposedly organize jobs in the Middle-East for poor and “troubled” girls but have a reputation as good citizens and Dolores doesn’t have any evidence. Modesty and Willie sympathize but don’t want to get involved, so Dolores investigates by herself. Of course, the couple are the villains and send goons after Dolores.
This is a very intense comic and has one of the more unhappy endings. But it also has lots of fun scenes. The circus’ knife-thrower arm was broken, so Willie must put on a wig and perform. When Dolores goes missing, Modesty takes her place as the living target. The villains aren’t very original but have a twist. Without the circus scenes this would have been a very dark comic.
“The Junk Men” is set in the wilds of Turkey. Willie is a stunt-man in a small budget scifi film where everything seems to be going wrong. Willie and Modesty know the film’s director, Eddie Grant. When Modesty arrives, Eddie complains that the film has been haunted with strange accidents. But Willie says that the people of the local village seem to be afraid of the gang of men whom the film’s producers insist on working on the film. At the same time, three powerful drug lords meet. They need to get back a huge shipment of heroin which went down in a plane in the wilds of Turkey.
This was another fun adventure but it’s drugs related so it’s one of the darker strips. The drug lords and their minions are ruthless. It doesn’t have nearly as many funny scenes as the previous comic.
“Death Trap” is a revenge story. Sir Tarrant has captured three agents from a small Eastern-European nation. One of the country’s leaders, Brosni, wants to discredit Tarrant in return. As an added bonus, Brosni gets revenge on Modesty who has beaten him in the past. Brosni and his cronies come up with a brutal plan so that Modesty would storm to the country in a rage and Brosni’s men can capture her. They target her new boyfriend.
Modesty is vacationing in Spain with Professor Roberto Abril who is a gentle biologist. When Modesty and Roberto are climbing up a very difficult mountain side, Brosni’s hired killer appears and whips Roberto to death right in front of Modesty. She’s shaken but can’t reach the killer who escapes. However, she knows who the killer is.
The local police keep Modesty in Spain for two weeks. During that time, she has time to think and decides that she won’t go after the killer, because Roberto wouldn’t approve. However, Brosni and his cronies don’t give up. They send a request for Modesty to come and identify the killer whom they’ve “arrested”. Of course, Modesty, Tarrant, and Willie know that it’s most likely a trap. However, because there is a slight chance that the killer has been arrested and would face real justice, Modesty goes. Of course, she’s prepared.
This is also a very dark story, the beginning is especially brutal. It doesn’t have much humor in it, either, to balance the darkness, like “the Vanishing Dollybirds” has. It showcases Modesty’s ethics and smarts, especially near the end.
These three are quite dark stories, especially the last two which lack the light-hearteness that most Modesty stories usually have. I still enjoyed them a lot.
“The Vanishing Dollybirds” starts in London when a sheikh whom Modesty and Willie helped in the “Willie the Djinn” has come to a visit. A woman Willie knows, Dolores, throws a soda can at the sheikh’s car startling everyone inside. It turns out that Dolores’ sister supposedly got a job in the Middle-East and vanished. Dolores is convinced that the poor girl has ended up as a slave in a harem. Dolores works as a knife-thrower’s assistant in the circus where Willie is one of the two owners. Dolores is convinced that a wealthy couple is behind her sister’s disappearance. They supposedly organize jobs in the Middle-East for poor and “troubled” girls but have a reputation as good citizens and Dolores doesn’t have any evidence. Modesty and Willie sympathize but don’t want to get involved, so Dolores investigates by herself. Of course, the couple are the villains and send goons after Dolores.
This is a very intense comic and has one of the more unhappy endings. But it also has lots of fun scenes. The circus’ knife-thrower arm was broken, so Willie must put on a wig and perform. When Dolores goes missing, Modesty takes her place as the living target. The villains aren’t very original but have a twist. Without the circus scenes this would have been a very dark comic.
“The Junk Men” is set in the wilds of Turkey. Willie is a stunt-man in a small budget scifi film where everything seems to be going wrong. Willie and Modesty know the film’s director, Eddie Grant. When Modesty arrives, Eddie complains that the film has been haunted with strange accidents. But Willie says that the people of the local village seem to be afraid of the gang of men whom the film’s producers insist on working on the film. At the same time, three powerful drug lords meet. They need to get back a huge shipment of heroin which went down in a plane in the wilds of Turkey.
This was another fun adventure but it’s drugs related so it’s one of the darker strips. The drug lords and their minions are ruthless. It doesn’t have nearly as many funny scenes as the previous comic.
“Death Trap” is a revenge story. Sir Tarrant has captured three agents from a small Eastern-European nation. One of the country’s leaders, Brosni, wants to discredit Tarrant in return. As an added bonus, Brosni gets revenge on Modesty who has beaten him in the past. Brosni and his cronies come up with a brutal plan so that Modesty would storm to the country in a rage and Brosni’s men can capture her. They target her new boyfriend.
Modesty is vacationing in Spain with Professor Roberto Abril who is a gentle biologist. When Modesty and Roberto are climbing up a very difficult mountain side, Brosni’s hired killer appears and whips Roberto to death right in front of Modesty. She’s shaken but can’t reach the killer who escapes. However, she knows who the killer is.
The local police keep Modesty in Spain for two weeks. During that time, she has time to think and decides that she won’t go after the killer, because Roberto wouldn’t approve. However, Brosni and his cronies don’t give up. They send a request for Modesty to come and identify the killer whom they’ve “arrested”. Of course, Modesty, Tarrant, and Willie know that it’s most likely a trap. However, because there is a slight chance that the killer has been arrested and would face real justice, Modesty goes. Of course, she’s prepared.
This is also a very dark story, the beginning is especially brutal. It doesn’t have much humor in it, either, to balance the darkness, like “the Vanishing Dollybirds” has. It showcases Modesty’s ethics and smarts, especially near the end.
These three are quite dark stories, especially the last two which lack the light-hearteness that most Modesty stories usually have. I still enjoyed them a lot.
May 29, 2019
Towards the end of Romero's first stint on 'Modesty', this one, and a good example of what many consider the strip's 'Silver Age'. The opening to the title story is one of O'Donnell's master classes in narrative economy (If you're working in the three-panels-a-day format, you've got to be coming up with master classes in narrative economy on a very regular basis). The first one in the collection ends on a very downbeat note which will be surprising to anyone who's not familiar with much of the rest of the 'Modesty' series - 'The Long Lever' in particular. Nothing of quite the stature of 'The Head Girls', 'Milord', 'Return of the Mammoth', 'The Special Orders' or 'The Grim Joker' - but plenty of almost-top-quality Modesty.
I was fortunate enough to get hold of a copy offloaded by a US public library for less than silly money. The ludicrous amounts being charged on Amazon and Abe demand that I repeat my call for Titan to reprint the whole series.
I was fortunate enough to get hold of a copy offloaded by a US public library for less than silly money. The ludicrous amounts being charged on Amazon and Abe demand that I repeat my call for Titan to reprint the whole series.
May 22, 2017
Perhaps O’Donnell was going through a darker period in the era he penned these strips. Not that the Modesty Blaise stories ever have completely fairy tale endings, but they are usually “happier” than some of the downbeat stuff featured here. “The Vanishing Dollybirds” is a topical (for the time) story about flesh trading of white girls to the Middle Eastern harems. It has some great characters and the usual heroics and actions, but the ending is a bummer with a frustrating (but not unwarranted) twist. “The Junk Men” also sees injustice done with the murder of a complete (if ignorant) innocent involved in a Turkish heroin hunt. And “Death Trap” is one of the best ever stories, with some great Cold War espionage tropes and a very clever escape.
So, so great.
So, so great.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews