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jdcorley's review
adventurous
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Fans of James Bond (and you can't talk about the Liquidator series without talking about James Bond) will usually emphasize that Ian Fleming doesn't think that Bond is an admirable person. He expresses a sort of ambivalent conservatism about him - Bond is needed to keep the world safe, but he also is an echo of the trauma and brutality of The War. You can't really have a good time when you're over Bond's shoulder, even if you're traveling to fancy places and smooching fancy ladies.
Gardner cures this with a bracing dose of absurdity - our hero doesn't actually kill, even though he's licensed to. His boss thinks he's a cold-blooded murderer but in the war his heroism was just by accident, and his business partner's wife really did get drunk and crash the car, and his business partner did actually fall out of a window by accident, and all the "license to kill" hits that he has to execute, he just...hires a hitman to do them, because he doesn't have the nerve. He keeps his job because he likes the pay and the travel and the women - which is what we actually would like about the James Bond experience! In this particular installment we're introduced to our hero, bending the rules to bed a secretary, then due to a mixup, being targeted prematurely by enemy agents. Those enemy agents then trick him in a way that brings his boss into the field, culminating in a double-cross and the theft of a new air force prototype. It's neat - it has everything we actually want from a 20th century secret agent experience without the somewhat crawling sensation Fleming suggests that things aren't right. This is why this series is, as light hearted adventure, much more palatable than Bond. Long live "L".
Gardner cures this with a bracing dose of absurdity - our hero doesn't actually kill, even though he's licensed to. His boss thinks he's a cold-blooded murderer but in the war his heroism was just by accident, and his business partner's wife really did get drunk and crash the car, and his business partner did actually fall out of a window by accident, and all the "license to kill" hits that he has to execute, he just...hires a hitman to do them, because he doesn't have the nerve. He keeps his job because he likes the pay and the travel and the women - which is what we actually would like about the James Bond experience! In this particular installment we're introduced to our hero, bending the rules to bed a secretary, then due to a mixup, being targeted prematurely by enemy agents. Those enemy agents then trick him in a way that brings his boss into the field, culminating in a double-cross and the theft of a new air force prototype. It's neat - it has everything we actually want from a 20th century secret agent experience without the somewhat crawling sensation Fleming suggests that things aren't right. This is why this series is, as light hearted adventure, much more palatable than Bond. Long live "L".
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder
rosseroo's review
3.0
I picked this up at a yard sale because I recognized Gardner's name as the author of the 10-15 licensed James Bond books that appeared after Ian Fleming's death, but also because I just liked the 1960s jacket design. I had no idea this was his first novel, no idea it was the first in a seven-book series, and more importantly, had no idea that it was written as a parody response to the Bond-mania that was in full force at the time, with the films just coming out.
The protagonist is the cringingly-named Boysie Oakes -- former WWII tank commander turned debonair British secret service assassin. The twist is that he's actually a coward, but no one has realized it. As a huge fan of George McDonald Fraser's "Flashman" series, featuring a Victorian hero/coward, I of course immediately assumed that Gardner had read Flashman and hit upon applying the same formula to 007. However, this book was published five years before the first Flashman book, so I now wonder if the influence went the other way...
In any event, Gardner has a lot of fun amplifying all the elements of the spy craze (especially the sexual antics of the hero), as Boysie's attempt at a dirty weekend in the French Riviera with his boss's secretary (a thinly veiled Ms. Moneypenny) turns pear-shaped. Amidst all the fun, there is a credibly decent thriller though, and the book is reasonably enjoyable on those merits as well. IT's a quick and fast read, so fans of Cold War-era action thrillers may want to check this out as a curiosity. I'm not sure I need to read any more in the series, but I might track down the film that was made of this one, just for fun.
The protagonist is the cringingly-named Boysie Oakes -- former WWII tank commander turned debonair British secret service assassin. The twist is that he's actually a coward, but no one has realized it. As a huge fan of George McDonald Fraser's "Flashman" series, featuring a Victorian hero/coward, I of course immediately assumed that Gardner had read Flashman and hit upon applying the same formula to 007. However, this book was published five years before the first Flashman book, so I now wonder if the influence went the other way...
In any event, Gardner has a lot of fun amplifying all the elements of the spy craze (especially the sexual antics of the hero), as Boysie's attempt at a dirty weekend in the French Riviera with his boss's secretary (a thinly veiled Ms. Moneypenny) turns pear-shaped. Amidst all the fun, there is a credibly decent thriller though, and the book is reasonably enjoyable on those merits as well. IT's a quick and fast read, so fans of Cold War-era action thrillers may want to check this out as a curiosity. I'm not sure I need to read any more in the series, but I might track down the film that was made of this one, just for fun.
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