Countertrap

I Spy #5

by John Tiger

The men from I SPY meet a Russian mastermind in OPERATION COUNTERTRAP

A secretive mastermind with a plan to set the world on fire...a beautiful American girl chosen as pawn in his scheme...a high-placed diplomat forced to sell out -- or die ten thousand deaths...

These three extraordinary people draw Kelly Robinson and Alexander Scott into a high-stakes game of poker behind Kremlin walls -- where plot meets counter plot -- and the fate of every man, woman and child on earth hangs on each shuffle of the cards...

128 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1967

Reviews

[Jiří Pavlovský · Rating 2 out of 5]

Další objev z antikvariátu. Na rozdíl od Get Smart či Avengers jsem tady původní seriál nikdy neviděl, jen zcela zapomenutelný filmový remake, které ale nemá s originálem skoro nic společného. Co jsem z knihy pochopil, tak síla seriálu byla nejen v suchém hláškování černobílého dua hlavních hrdinů, ale i v tom, že v seriálu byly i realističtější prvky a morální deprese.
I když asi největší část potěšení ze čtení spočívala v tom, že člověk chodil s knížkou s Billem Cosbym na obálce, tak to překvapivě nebylo zase tak špatné. Ostatně, autor stojí i za románem, kterým posloužil jako předloha k druhé Smrtonosné pasti.
Kniha má vážně hodně jednoduchý příběh. Na začátku máte vraždu člověka pracujícího pro CIA, následuje další smrt a odhalení, že všechno se točí kolem televizní kamery, která má být odvezena do Sovětského svazu. Hrdinové ji následují přes východní Německo, jsou zajati, utečou a vyhrajou. A to je tak všechno. Na druhou stranu je to celé psané dost ironický stylem, s velký odstupem a občas i zábavným hláškami. Ostatně, celá kniha začíná větou "Byla to naprosto rutinní vražda."
A fakt se mi chvílemi stýská po dobách, kdy brakové knihy byly malé a tenké, že se vám vešly do kapsy. Dneska by to vyšlo vázané, v obřím formátu a s textem nafouklým tak, že by to mělo 400 stran.

[Kevin Findley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoy the back and forth between Scotty and Kelly in these books. The writer was doing very well with that here, and hit every main point that you'd expect in a Cold War era novel. An agent's death, intro of the heroes, explanation of the villain, more deaths, and then covertly inserting into not just East Germany, but Russia as well!

Both agents got a chance to shine, with Kelly beginning to show the stress of the job more than Scotty. Showing this much of the human effect was part of the show (not common for TV at this time) so I am glad to see it here.

Definitely a book for anyone who enjoys spy novels, TV tie-ins, or an action thriller.

Find it. Buy it. Read it.

[Tim Deforest · Rating 4 out of 5]

A tie-in novel for the 1960s spy show, "Countertrap" gives us a good story involving a plot by the head of the KGB, in which he plans to assassinate his own Prime Minister, frame the Americans for the killing, then take over the USSR and return to Stalinism. Scott and Kelly, without knowing what the actual plot involves, follow a lead from Canada to West Germany, then behind the Iron Curtain to East Germany and eventually Moscow. Except for one bump in the road I'll mention later, the plot unfolds logically and the novel is appropriately fast-paced.

The author also does a good job of replicating the humorous repartee that highlights Kelly and Scott's partnership.

Two complaints: One is that the author refers to Kelly over and over and OVER AGAIN as either "the tennis bum" or "the spy with the movie star's face." Scott is repeatedly designated "the scholar" or "the trainer." This gets old really fast and I really wish the novel had stuck with just using their names.

The other complaint is that the novel uses the cliche of having the villain, after Scott and Kelly are captured, explain his entire plot in detail. The author tries to justify this by acknowledging the cliche and making a joke out of it, but it falls flat when tacked on to a plot that was otherwise pretty strong.

[Ralph · Rating 4 out of 5]

A novel based on the 60's television series I Spy, very popular at the time and a bit on the progressive side since it paired a Caucasian and a Negro...a new concept for TV then, although it had been done before by Mark Twain and has since become one of the solid sub-genres of the "buddy film" in Hollywood. One of the draws of the television series was the constant wisecracking and rapid-fire repartee between CIA spies Kelly Robinson and Alexander Scott. It did not always work on the screen, and sometimes falls flat in the book, but one of the advantages of writing around characters already firmly established in the public imagination is that force of personality can sometimes make the gimmick work.

One of Walter Wagner's (writing under the name John Tiger) strengths is in plotting and in delineating his own characters. He was also adept in painting vivid word pictures of the many exotic locales. In this story, the assassination of a CIA informant in Canada leads to East Berlin, then Moscow. When Wagner deals with the characters of Robinson and Scott, he deviates just a bit from television fare to make them a bit rougher, a bit more ruthless and a bit more violent. Robinson also gets a bit of a dumbing down (his good looks are constantly recalled) and Scott gets brained up (always referred to as a scholar, university graduate and the fellow with total recall). As mentioned earlier, the author replicates the well-known patter between the two spies, but since much of it recalls cultural and political memes of the day it often comes across as very dated.

It an undemanding book, with a fast moving plot, and plenty of action and adventure in exotic locales. While it may not have the depth of other spy novels of the time, it will surely appeal to an omnivorous reader of espionage fiction, especially one who misses the uncomplicated morality of the Cold War.