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.

Assignment Find Cherry

Curt Stone #5: “Assignment: Find Cherry” by Jack Seward. The Far East Investigations is hired by the Monday Club to find relatives of a Shogun whose ship was sunk with almost two tons of gold aboard. There was supposedly a map and another group, called the Pure Nation Society, whose members wish to return to the old ways, want the gold to finance their rise to power. Curt Stone locates a surviving relative in Hawaii, a beautiful nightclub dancer named Cherry, and buys the map from her. But someone may be a spy in the Monday Club, working with the Pure Nation Society, as the enemy knows his every step. This was another nice plot, but the author’s writing remains a bit awkward. Sentences in Japanese, then repeated in English, slowing down the pace; plus, he tells a lot of the action instead of showing it, which would make for better reading. This was the final story in the series, and I don’t know why it was discontinued. The covers were typical men’s action scenes, with sexy women, and Curt Stone shown with a gun that he seldom carried. I guess guns were illegal in Japan, even for a private detective. A fun read, however.

Twelve Hours To Destiny

Steve Carradine #4: “Twelve Hours To Destiny” by Manning K. Robertson. Working for British Intelligence, Steve Carradine is sent to Hong Kong to find why their agent there has disappeared. His job is to find him, and discover the secret he held of a new super weapon in Chinese hands. In Hong Kong, Carradine discovered a double agent, then is contacted by the missing agents niece. Her uncle has been taken to the mainland, where he’ll be tortured for what he knows about China’s secret weapon. The girl is part of a Chinese acrobat troupe, and they have free movement in China. She smuggles Carradine into China, then her troupe helps him rescue her uncle from a guarded facility. The troupe hate the communists, and have been fighting them on their own, using their acrobat show as a camouflage. After rescuing her uncle, however, Carradine discovers they only have twelve hours before the new weapon will be tested, and they must again travel into deeper country, and enter a well-guarded compound to destroy the facility and weapon. This is a really nice plot, with good action. Everything seemed to go like clockwork, however, and if it hadn’t been for the troupe of Chinese acrobats, it’s doubtful one man could have pulled everything off. Personally, I thought Steve Carrigan out-Bond Britain leading spy, James Bond.

The Chinese Pleasure Girl

Curt Stone #4: “The Chinese Pleasure Girl” by Jack Seward. Curt Stone’s Far East Investigations is hired by an ex American CIC agent to find out who is trying to sabotage his bars in Yokosuka. A pretty good plot, with a nice bit of action, and we see a lot of Yokusuka. It’s a fun read, but we still have the main problems with this author. He’s trying to teach us the Japanese language in a fiction novel. We get dialogue in Japanese and repeated in English, which distracts from the flow of the story; plus, just when something is about to happen, he gives us a page or two of documentary on some aspect of Japan, its history, or a subject he wants us to know about Japan. By the time we get back to the scene of action we’ve forgotten what was happening. It slows the pace of the story drastically. It’s a good series, and the interaction between the main characters is fun., I’m just not interested in learning the language, and I can look up whatever information I need on Japan. The author would have been better off sticking to the action.

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.

The Hong Kong Incident

Mark Hood: #3 “Hong Kong Incident” by James Dark (James E. MacDonnell). Karate spy Mark Hood is in Hong Kong, supposedly for a Grand Prix race, but it’s merely a cover to assist a Chinese scientist to defect. As a hurricane bears down on Hong Kong, the enemy is also after the defector, and the story runs nonstop from the first page.

There is really no plot, and no super villain – except maybe the hurricane. The defector is killed immediately, before telling Hood some terrible secret, and there is a bar incident and prostitutes, then a battle ship chasing a submarine. The whole story takes place in a 24-hour period. No sex this time around, and very little to do with karate, except to wonder what his master would do in certain situations. This was an easy read and fast-paced at 60,000 words, but not very exciting.