The Ill Wind Contract

Joe Gall Mystery #9

by Philip Atlee

In this book Joe Gall finds himself in Indonesia, where the military and the Communists have bought the country to bloody civil war.

144 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published June 1, 1969

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

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Ill Wind Contract starts out as many of Joe Gall’s CIA contracts do with a visitor to his palace in the Ozarks, the one where he keeps three white tigers. His mission, which dies not necessarily seem important at first, is to go to Tokyo and take a contract to smuggle something from Indonesia to Japan. His cover story is that of a member of UNESCO expedition. He also knows that it involves a new drug effective in increasing memory.

Gall is a bit hardened now after his previous adventures and doesn’t take well to Ivy League part-timers or femme fatales so much so that even a simple seduction by Katja Ankloo is unwelcome unless it’s fully on his terms. Eventually Gall finds that he is to smuggle gold and silver ingots out of Indonesia, several tons worth.

But as he later figures out that’s not exactly what he’s needed for as the year is 1965 and he becomes instrumental in helping Suharto fend off a coup and then install himself as a dictator for another thirty eight years. Gall has no choice but to be involved in the civil war between the generals, not knowing official American policy, but having to save his own butt. He is shocked though that in the aftermath of the Suharto coup which prevented the Communist coup, hundreds of thousands of Communists or suspected Communists were massacred.

With this adventure, Atlee drew on historical record and dropped his taciturn hero Gall in the middle of history. This is yet another successful espionage adventure in the Joe Gall series.

[Ed · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Fawcett Gold Medal published the Joe Gall counterespionage series, of which The Ill Wind Contract appeared in 1969. Three years later one of the titles captured an Edgar nomination. A nice Raymond Chandler blurb appears on the front cover. This is the first Joe Gall book I've read. He's a hardboiled cuss with a cynical sense of humor somewhat remindful of Richard S. Prather's Shell Scott. Gall describes himself as "ruthless" but with "lots of integrity." For this mission, he flies to Indonesia to smuggle out several tons of gold and silver. While there, the Communist insurgents attempt a bloody coup. The body count runs high, and Gall meets a sexy Swedish lady who is in the thick of it all. Bottom line: Hardboiled fun read with a macho twist and colorful setting.