Third in the fourteen book series that started with “Come Die With Me.” The last one published was “The Reluctant Assassin.” This is another jump on the secret agent bandwagon and it’s pretty good despite being pretty dated.
Mark Hood works for Intertrust. It’s a super secret group put together by the then four nuclear powers, America, England, France and Russia. Even the agencies in the countries involved don’t have a clue to Intertrust’s existence. Of course Hood is a karate expert, a Grand Prix race driver, a crack shot and just about everything else. One thing he can’t do is deliver one liners like James Bond. He doesn’t even try.
In this entry he’s called off a race track in Hong Kong where he’s zooming around (in record time of course) in a Ferrari. His mechanic, Tommy Tremayne, is an English agent with Intertrust. Hood is assigned to meet a defector from China who has news of a plot against the U.S. seventh fleet. Rumor has it that China is going to fire on the fleet and blame it on North Vietnam to discredit America’s defenses.
Hood meets him at the border and the two are on the run. They separate and that leads to a good sequence as Hood is chased by two Communist agents. Back in the city Hood meets up with Tommy and they head to a crowded bar where the defector told Hood to meet him.
B girl Karen says the man he’s looking for is in a bar across the street. Before he leaves another girl warns him about going there. Her boss tells her to get back to work. Hood goes but his man isn’t there. When he returns Tommy’s gone. The book takes him through the back room of the bar where Hood pulls no punches. It all leads to a good finale on board a destroyer.
This is a good tight series and will appeal to spy fans who want a no nonsense, hard boiled hero.
