Espionage Aficionados discussion

Folks, lately I am becoming very interested in these forgotten treasures from the 60s and 70s. There's a lot of thrillers and espionage works lurking back there, which are unfairly neglected today. Donald Hamilton's "Matt Helm" series, for example; or this surprisingly tasty-looking series from author William Arden (pseudonym of mystery writer Dennis Lynds). Ever heard of him? I bet not.

These romps have a lot to offer: written in a less-polite, less-cowardly time-period, there's a lot of brutal action, sleaze, and no-mincing-of-words.

For my money, too many glossy modern thrillers are all look-alike & sound-alike. Self-conscious, tricky, and overly-careful. If you want to see how it's really done, if you want to see an unfettered action writing tradition, look back to someone like this guy Arden. His protag in these novels is 'Kane Jackson'; but he wrote extensively under numerous other monickers including the juvenile series 'Three Investigators'.

Arden also wrote the highly regarded espionage short story, "Success of a Mission," which was a finalist for the 1968 Edgar Award for best short fiction.

I've added his titles to our library. They are:
A Dark Power
Deal in Violence
The Goliath Scheme
Die to a Distant Drum
Deadly Legacy

Try some of the 60s- and 70s-era "Joe Gall" thrillers by the late James Atlee Phillips writing as "Philip Atlee."

My late father used to hand off these "Fawcett Gold Medal" paperbacks to me as a teenager.

Like some of the other spy series of that era, the books do not conform with modern political and social sensibilities. They should be re-read with cultural context in mind. On that score, the books might be seen as constructive reminders, though I would not recommend them for constructive reminding.

The Gall novels featured some exceptionally colorful travel writing. Dialogue was tightly woven, and, as I recall, realistic. Characters were big and entertaining. Even the lurid covers provoked notions of violence, exotic locale and political, even sexual intrigue.

As I also recall, the books seemed to provide, toward the end of the series, a credible fictional look into the shifting moods and attitudes at the U.S. covert services during the transformative Church-era reform period. That was about the same time the series wrapped up, and about same the time interventions such as those in Iran, Chile, Guatemala, Cuba, the Belgian Congo and Vietnam had finally been brought to an end. The Gall books were all about violent foreign intervention. Try one.

Good tip!!! I am going to add this author to the group bookshelf.

That was the best era for thrillers, I say. I don't want thrillers to conform to today's mincing, mamby-pamby, don't-hurt-my-feelings world. I think today's thrillers are weaker--more 'porous'--precisely because of this.

A good thriller is one where the author calls a spade a spade. If there's a stinking Nazi villain, the hero should cut his throat or riddle him with bullets! No compunction whatsoever. If a femme-fatale stabs the hero in the back with a hidden stiletto, the hero should turn around and kick her out of a plane at 30,000 feet to fall to a screaming, agonizing death. While he sneers. No hesitation or 'second-thoughts' should cross his mind.

Mark, thx for your mention of Philip Atlee. I was aware of him already but needed to get re-focused on just what that series is all about. It looks a doozey. Your comment was a very timely reminder.

So, I've made a thread recommending it--not in this group--but in my other group ('Spy/Spec-Ops') because it surely is more of an action rec than an espionage suggestion. However, I will add the titles to the bookshelves for both groups.

cheers!
FD