Original Cover

This was the original cover for The World of Susie Wong, although this is a Penguin Books 1997 edition, the 40-year anniversary of the book. The first paperback edition was from Signet in 1957.

The World of Susie Wong

“The World of Susie Wong” by Richard Mason is not a karate-chop action novel like the Earl Norman and other spy/mysteries set in the Far East, but it is a ground breaking book about Americans and prostitution in Hong Kong, and well worth the read. You could substitute Hong Kong with anywhere else in the Far East, and this novel would be right on the mark. It was made into a movie with William Holden and Nancy Kwan that is still highly regarded today.

Operation Tokip

“Operation Tokyo” by Ted Middleton. Published in 1956, the story is set in Japan during the Korean War. Naval Lt/Commander Emerson Thackeray Higgins is a pilot billeted with two other officers. One dies in a plane crash, and the other one leaves a note indicating suicide, but he is missing. Navy Intelligence (ONI) is investigating, and brings in Higgins for questioning, though he isn’t a suspect in the odd things happening on the Naval base at Tanikawa. Still, there is something strange. Higgins is further drawn into the case when his girl, a secretary at the State Department in Tokyo, appears involved in the mystery in some way. It turns out that the office did not commit suicide, but had discovered a secret in tunnels running beneath the base, where a treasure was buried. His squadron was preparing to ship out to Korea, and he figured it was time to disappear – with the treasure, if he can find it. This novel came out about the same time as “Tokyo Intrigue” by William Bender, whose main character was an Air Force pilot, but wasn’t as good as “Tokyo Intrigue”, and didn’t have as many interesting characters. Other than the plots, however, the two stories are quite similar.

Kill Me In Atami

I have a duplicate copy of Earl Norman's Kill Me In Atami. I'm looking for any of these in trade: Kill me On The Ginza, Kill Me In Yokohama, Kill Me In Yokosuka, or Kill Me in Roppongi. I'm looking for only the American Berkley editions, not the Erle editions. Trade offers should be emailed to fadingshadows40@gmail.com

Tokyo Intrigue

"Tokyo Intrigue" by William Bender, Jr. Major Mark Talbot, an Air Force pilot in the Korean War is grounded after a flight of North Korean planes shoot down his wing man. Talbot chases them across the border, destroying the flight before they reach their airfield, then strafes the airfield. After the war he's transferred to Germany, where he now works for the public information office (PIO). Here they must play the Cold War game with Russia, until strange orders send him back to the Far East. Now assigned to Japan as ISO where he's to investigate the death of a colonel under mysterious circumstances, as well as the strange disappearances of Air Force aircraft. Talbot's main job is to uncover the killer, and beat the Russians at their own game of propaganda. I had to laugh at what the author says, though: "As it happens, our Air Force doesn't work that way. We are officially dedicated to truth and accuracy." Meaning, we don't use propaganda in any form. Gee, we played the propaganda game with Hitler during WWII, so we were old hands at the game.

I wasn't able to find anything on the Internet about the author, but if we are to believe the Introduction by him, he was a captain in the Air Force in Tokyo, assigned to the information office when he wrote this book. I have no reason to doubt the claim. There is a lot of military jargon that rings true, and he writes of Tokyo from first hand experience, not from an encyclopedia. Yes, there are a few stretches of the truth, but basically everything is correct. I found several things very interesting in this 1956 novel. First, there are a lot of similarities between Talbot and the future "American Avenger" series. Whether or not the similarities are a coincidence, or the author of American Avenger read Tokyo Intrigue is a matter of conjecture. Second, the similarities to Earl Norman's (Norman Thompson) Burns Bannion series two years later I don't think can be questioned. Norman worked for DOD in Japan at that time, bringing entertainment to all the bases in the Far East. He would have known William Bender through this connection, and probably read his book. Bannion is a lot like Talbot, though there isn't as much karate in Tokyo Intrigue as Norman brings in his later stories. There is the police inspector who shadows both of our heroes, and the reporters who may have mysterious ways. Without a doubt this novel would have influenced the future "Kill Me In …" series by Earl Norman. This is a good read, and I'm curious why the author didn't write more books. Perhaps a career in the Air Force took precedence to a writing future.

Hang Me In Hong Kong

Here is the Jade Orient hardback edition of Earl Norman's Rick Shaw novel published in Hong Kong, "Hang Me In Hong Kong". I suppose Norman was tired of Burns Bannion, or just wanted to try a new series character. Rick Shaw was a neat play on words, by the way.

Kill Me In Roppongi

Burns Bannion #9: “Kill Me In Roppongi” by Earl Norman (Norman Thompson). In this final novel of the “Kill Me In …” series, Hedges sends ex-Stars & Stripes newspaperman, Addis Racquets to him for help. Racquets now runs his own small paper, and has received a death threat along with an ad. He hires Bannion to answer the ad, and find out what’s going on. Although Inspector Izawa and Hedges are mentioned, they have no active part in this story. It involves the IOON (International Order of Nationalists) Nazi organization. They are running an illegal abortion scheme in Japan, bringing women from all over the world that need an abortion, then blackmailing them to work as their sex spies. Unfortunately, this was the final Burns Bannion novel. Not a great series, but definitely a fun one with sex and karate as the main theme. The series was published by Berkley in the U.S., but distribution in the Far East must have been poor, so Norman Thompson, who had contacts with the military and Stars & Stripes, had the series printed by a Japanese publisher under his ERLE BOOKS Logo. This enabled him to get his books on the racks in the PX system of military bases, where millions of G.I.s became familiar with them. I don’t know if Berkley was aware of this double-dealing or not. Sadly, the ERLE Editions seem to have been printed without editing or proofing, so there are many typos in them. If readers have a choice, buy the American editions published by Berkley instead.