Assignment: Burma Girl

Sam Durell #14: “Assignment Burma Girl” by Edward S. Aarons. Emmett Claye and Paul Hartford had fought side by side against the Japanese in the jungle of Burma twenty years before, but it was always thought that Emmett had died there. Emmett and his sister, Eva, came from the hills of coal miners, and were poor, but eventually Eva inherited a hundred million dollars from their uncle, now she wants to find the grave of Emmett. She forces her husband Paul Hartford to go into the jungle to find the grave, though she really believes her brother is still alive. When Paul disappears in the jungle, General McFee send Durell to find him, and if possible kill Major Mong, the rebel terror controlling the jungle of Burma. This was another great assignment for Durell, and one of torture and killing, and traitors. A fun read.

Mindanao Pearl

Mindanao Pearl By Alan Caillou. David Calib’s father sends him after a thief named Smith that stole from his San Francisco company. Reports put Smith somewhere in the Pacific islands around Mindanao. David is to locate Smith and turn him over to the police in Manila; a simple task, though David isn’t used to roughing it. A few years in the Army, but he was more accustomed to the finer things in life. Things are not as easy, as his father let on. Arriving in Mindanao, he’s mistaken for Smith’s cohort, a man after pearls Smith stole from the Ordue brother on a plantation on the island of Pangalau. The brothers capture and torture him, but their sister, Andree, helps him escape. They head for the volcanic island where Smith is thought to be hiding out, with the brothers in hot pursuit. Gaston Ordue is a giant of a man with incredible strength, and has beaten men to death before, and Andree is afraid he will kill David if she doesn’t help him. There was a lot of similarity in this story and stories by Dan Cushman, but where Cushman is strong on dialog, Caillou is strong on description. Regardless, the story is a fun read.

The Turncoat

The Turncoat by Hal G. Evarts. David Grant lives in Hong Kong, working for an Import company. He’s an American born and raised in China and speaks the language fluently. His parents died during the Typhus epidemic in 1948, and he returned to the US. He served in the Army during the Korean War as an interpreter, but was captured and tortured, until he finally went to their side (against his will), become an American turncoat, and spent a year in the stockade. America never forgave him, so he chose Hong Kong to live and work. But now his past is catching up to him. Someone in the Embassy has him fired from his job, and then offers him another one. Work for them (who they are is never really explained, but probably CIA); they want him to enter China and locate the Panchen Lama and who is hiding from the Reds, and bring him to Honk Kong. If he does this, they will reinstate him in his job, and give him back his honor. A pacifist, he doesn’t consider himself a spy or killer, and doesn’t understand why he has been chosen for the task. He is eventually forced to accept, and illegally enters China. He must cross the Himalayas with a guide, and locate the missing Lama believed to be hiding in a village controlled by a vicious Chinese colonel and his mistress, Sonya Rosov, a beautiful woman who is of Russian and Tibetan descent. At the end of the story he does become an operative for the agency(a curious note, there is a spy series later featuring a n agent named David Grant, but written by someone else). This was a well-written and exciting tale, of an unlikely hero he must face danger, and maybe even death to clear his name. A Good read.

The Kingdom of Johnny Cool

The Kingdom of Johnny Cool by John McPartland.  Mafia Grand Master, Giovanetti “Johnny Cool” Colini, retired and living in Italy, wants even more power from the mob in America. Capturing the bandit, Guiliano, known as the King of the Hills, he trains the killer for two years, teaching him everything he needed to know about the Mafia organization in America, telling Guiliano he will be his son, and inherit his power and wealth after killing certain men, and taking control of the mob in America. Taking the name of Johnny Cool, Guiliano sets up his plans upon reaching America. I read this when it was first released in 1959, then saw the movie version in the early 1960s, starring Elizabeth Montgomery and Henry Silva. Both were great. McPartland wrote novels featuring tough men, like Tokyo Doll and Affair In Tokyo. Johnny Cool is also a tough man. Guiliano had been a killer bandit in the Italian hills, and he brings his fierce code to America to wrest control of the Mafia leadership. The ending is brutal, as McPartland often makes his stories. The movie was kept close to the paperback story, as well as I remember it.

Jungle She

Jungle She by Dan Cushman. Frisco Dougherty is back. This time the beautiful half-cast wife of a huge and powerful Dutchman named Van Hoog, who has escaped from his plantation, wants Dougherty to enter his Borneo estate and discover the secret of his fortune.  But things go awry, as usual, and Dougherty becomes a prisoner of Van Hoog, and is betrayed by his Chinese connection, the Wash’eng. Cushman uses the same formula in all his jungle adventures, just changing a few names, and altering the plot. But his dialogue is some of the best I’ve ever read, and his characters come to life. Although the immensely strong Hoog (this character appears in every novel, just a different name) beats Dougherty several times in the story, the final fight scene on a rope bridge high above a jungle river is straight out of the Saturday Matinee serials. And in each novel, at some point, some one will be reading a pulp, or a comic book, or a paperback mystery novel. These jungle adventures by Cushman are a lot of fun.

The Dragon's Eye

The Dragon’s Eye by Scott C.S. Stone. Michael Hawkins, a freelance reporter was tired of wars and death. Beginning in Korea, and then in Vietnam, after one of his friends, Jerry Ward, died when a soldier stepped on a land mine, Mike gave it all up. Moving to Hawaii, he was learning to surf when another friend turned up at his door. Leslie Trent, like Hawkins and Ward was a reporter in Asia, but now it appears he tuned spy. An Englishman who had gone over to communism wanted to defect from China, and asked to be brought to America, with his lovely Chinese wife. But he would only do so with the help of Hawkins, who he had met during the Korean peace talks in 1952. Against his better judgment, Hawkins agrees, and goes with Trent to Asia, where they have stops in Taipei, Hong Kong, and Bangkok. Their mission appears to be compromised from the very beginning, as the enemy agents seem to know their every move, and friendly agents die before they ever reach the Englishman and his wife. And once they do, it could well mean their own death. This was a very good story set in Asia, and the author must have known the area well, as he wrote of it with great detail of accuracy.