Killing Time

The Destroyer #50

by Warren Murphy, Richard Sapir

America's beautiful people are playing follow-the-leader with their latest guru, diet doctor Felix Fox. As Foxx's disciples are dropping pounds, however, U.S. military leaders are dropping like flies. Coincidence? Maybe. But CURE's been counting causalities, and Remo and Chiun are being dispatched to muscle in and settle the score. They arrive too late at Foxx's fat farm--a fool's paradise where the wealthy go to buy time. And where, it appears, the smart set are losing a lot more than cellulite ... Our heroes stumble onto an insidious plot--one that's eating away at the very core of Western civilization. And even racing against time, they've got a slim chance of stopping it ...

Genres: Pulp, Thriller, Adventure, Action

Nook

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

Warren Murphy was an American author, most famous as the co-creator of The Destroyer series, the basis for the film Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins. He worked as a reporter and editor and after service during the Korean War, he drifted into politics.

Murphy also wrote the screenplay for Lethal Weapon 2. He is the author of the Trace and Digger series. With Molly Cochran, he completed two books of a planned trilogy revolving around the character The Grandmaster, The Grandmaster (1984) and High Priest (1989). Murphy also shares writing credits with Cochran on The Forever King and several novels under the name Dev Stryker. The first Grandmaster book earned Murphy and Cochran a 1985 Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original, and Murphy's Pigs Get Fat took the same honor the following year.

His solo novels include Jericho Day, The Red Moon, The Ceiling of Hell, The Sure Thing and Honor Among Thieves. Over his career, Murphy sold over 60 million books.

He started his own publishing house, Ballybunion, to have a vehicle to start The Destroyer spin-off books. Ballybunion has reprinted The Assassin's Handbook, as well as the original works Assassin's Handbook 2, The Movie That Never Was (a screenplay he and Richard Sapir wrote for a Destroyer movie that was never optioned), The Way of the Assassin (the wisdom of Chiun), and New Blood, a collection of short stories written by fans of the series.

He served on the board of the Mystery Writers of America, and was a member of the Private Eye Writers of America, the International Association of Crime Writers, the American Crime Writers League and the Screenwriters Guild.

Reviews

[Gilbert Stack · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had hoped that Warren Murphy would have pulled out all the stops to make the fiftieth volume of his Destroyer series memorable for all the right reasons. Unfortunately, he did not. I read the whole series roughly twenty years ago and despite an excellent memory for plots, this is one that I had totally forgotten about. Having reread it now, I can see why. There’s really nothing great about it. A diet fad media doctor has a sideline in assassinating military figures. He, himself, is not particularly dangerous and the only challenge Remo and Chiun had was in playing detective—which Remo has never been good at. Overall, this was a totally lackluster volume.

If you liked this review, you can find more at www.gilbertstack.com/reviews.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

Don't hate them because they're beautiful. Some people, we've learned, just have good genes. Others, like the ones in this story, have injectables to keep them looking young.

Remo and Chiun are deployed to find out why the heads of each branch of the US military are being assassinated and run into a group of ever-young characters that depend on an injection of drugs to keep them looking like they are decades younger than they really are. This fountain-of-youth serum is extracted from certain persons and is formulated to provide everlasting youth to any who can afford it. That is, until it becomes unavailable or until they can longer afford it.

Remo encounters one of them, a "young" lady at a health spa type retreat. He employs his best interrogation techniques and they are tested to the limit. It seems for a while she is just too much for him. But in the end, she succumbs to his skill and, completely exhausted, spills the beans. His new found knowledge of the youth serum send him on a trek to find the "doctor" administering the serum to his vain, but beautiful, clientele.

Smith has a near crisis as he and his AI computers are also tested to their limits trying to put the data together and figure out who is killing the military generals.

In this episode, Remo and Chiun use all of their Sinanju skills to survive snowstorms, super soldiers, and plunges into icy waters. Their ability to regulate their heart rate and body temperature are what saves them, more than once. Their banter is spot on and hilarious and we find that Remo, again, catches the feels for the "young" subject of his interrogation. He should know better by now.

The story is good diversion and more chewing gum for the brain.

3/5

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating between 2 & 3 - probably 2.5

As the 50th book in the Destroyer series this one was a bit meh really.
I think this was the point I originally stopped reading them on publication, partly because of the variable quality and partly due to the lack of availability in the UK (with the corresponding difficulties in getting the new titles).
The initial story idea of eternal youth being sold by a quack doctor to the rich (and sometimes famous) whilst also recruiting trained combat soldiers from WW2 and keeping them young and fit for assassination jobs was potentially a good fit for the series. Some good action scenes for the two main characters, whilst also getting some barbed commentary on the rich & famous (aka the beautiful people). This should have given scope for some good Chiun - Remo bantering.
The story started well and had some good setup. But once they reached the health spa and stopped the doctor giving his ‘followers’ their monthly injections to keep them young, the story basically petered out.
The end of the story just felt it was going through the motions of what had been seen somewhere on the preceding 49 stories.
Overall then a good start, and okay middle and a dull ending. Not a bad book as far as the series is concerned up to now but not a great 50th celebration book.

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

These mid-period entries around #50 are considerably better. There are still disastrous first-person chapters every so often, and knowledge about women is thin on the ground, but the humor works better than in earlier (or later) entries, and the occasional foregrounding of the Smith character makes the story work more as a buddy-comedy, with Remo and Chiun travelling together, and Smith as the straight-person.

The prose has evolved to something tolerable, and the dialogue between Remo and Chiun has reached above-average, which is fantastic compared to earlier installments. The plot is silly in a fun way, with "science" based on misunderstandings of American Scientific articles conjectured out to infinity.

I read most of it in one night, and stayed up entirely too late to do so.

[Marko · Rating 2 out of 5]

A weaker entry in the series with a typical power maniac bad guy after a method to create super soldiers etc. Much too little interaction between Remo and Chiun (which is the best part of the better Destroyer stories).

[Jeff J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

#50 in the Destroyer series. Remo & Chiun battle a madman who has discovered the secret to prolonging life. Much chaos ensues.

[Trentrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Remo and Chiun visit a spa run by a doctor who seems to have harnessed the secret of eternal youth. A solid, fun entry in the Destroyer series, with some nice twists.

[Little Timmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the big men's adventure series from the 70's than ran an impressive 145 books. The series while an adventure/action story is also full of satire toward much of the mainstream fads and icons of the time. An interesting main character and the sarcastic mentor makes this a funny action/adventure read. Something is killing the top military leaders of America and CURE must find out who. Recommended

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

More of the same. Always consistent.