The Star Ruby Contract

Joe Gall Mystery #6

by Philip Atlee

With trouble brewing in Burma, it’s time to call in the agent of last resort, in this thriller by “the John D. MacDonald of espionage fiction” (Larry McMurtry, The New York Times).   In Washington, they call him the Nullifier—the man to hire when every diplomatic option has failed. Joe Gall is now on his way to Burma, where the government is at its wits’ end trying to expel a nationalist Chinese general and his army.   And if he needs backup, he has the ability to call in firepower from the famed Gurhka regiment, in this action-adventure thriller from the Edgar Award–nominated author.   “I admire Philip Atlee’s writing tremendously.” —Raymond Chandler

224 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 1, 1967

About the author

Pseudonym of James Atlee Phillips

Born in Fort Worth, Texas, Atlee's first book was an expose about local country club members. An avid flyer, he was a member of the Flying Tigers before WWII. He joined the Marines after Pearl Harbor. He ran Amphibian Airways in Burma, probably for the CIA, and it is from this experience that his first Joe Gall book, Pagoda, came.

Reviews

[Kurt Reichenbaugh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sixties spy novel. Free agent Joe Gall goes to Burma, hires an escort, has lots of sex and curry, gets captured, gets a finger cut off, blows shit up, plays poker for his life against a drunken monk, is captured by a tribe of headhunters, plays one dictator off against another, and comes out in mostly one piece by the end. Beyond that I'm not sure what it was about. Told with lots of hardboiled laconic delivery. I liked it for a what it was. I'll read some more by this author.