#vintagethrillers — Public Fediverse posts

Castle Minerva, a 1955 psychological spy novel by Victor Canning. A British ex-spy has to babysit a prince. Lots of moral murkiness. Bad guys doing things for comprehensible motives. Gritty realism in the Graham Greene-Eric Ambler style.Superb.

My review: https://vintagepopfictions.blogspot.com/2024/10/victor-cannings-castle-minerva.html

#vintagethriller #vintagethrillers #spies #spynovel #spynovels #spyfiction #spythriller ##spythrillers #VictorCanning

Castle Minerva, a 1955 psychological spy novel by Victor Canning. A British ex-spy has to babysit a prince. Lots of moral murkiness. Bad guys doing things for comprehensible motives. Gritty realism in the Graham Greene-Eric Ambler style.Superb.

My review: https://vintagepopfictions.blogspot.com/2024/10/victor-cannings-castle-minerva.html

#vintagethriller #vintagethrillers #spies #spynovel #spynovels #spyfiction #spythriller ##spythrillers #VictorCanning

Castle Minerva, a 1955 psychological spy novel by Victor Canning. A British ex-spy has to babysit a prince. Lots of moral murkiness. Bad guys doing things for comprehensible motives. Gritty realism in the Graham Greene-Eric Ambler style.Superb.

My review: https://vintagepopfictions.blogspot.com/2024/10/victor-cannings-castle-minerva.html

#vintagethriller #vintagethrillers #spies #spynovel #spynovels #spyfiction #spythriller ##spythrillers #VictorCanning

Castle Minerva, a 1955 psychological spy novel by Victor Canning. A British ex-spy has to babysit a prince. Lots of moral murkiness. Bad guys doing things for comprehensible motives. Gritty realism in the Graham Greene-Eric Ambler style.Superb.

My review: https://vintagepopfictions.blogspot.com/2024/10/victor-cannings-castle-minerva.html

#vintagethriller #vintagethrillers #spies #spynovel #spynovels #spyfiction #spythriller ##spythrillers #VictorCanning

Castle Minerva, a 1955 psychological spy novel by Victor Canning. A British ex-spy has to babysit a prince. Lots of moral murkiness. Bad guys doing things for comprehensible motives. Gritty realism in the Graham Greene-Eric Ambler style.Superb.

My review: https://vintagepopfictions.blogspot.com/2024/10/victor-cannings-castle-minerva.html

#vintagethriller #vintagethrillers #spies #spynovel #spynovels #spyfiction #spythriller ##spythrillers #VictorCanning

The Ambushers, published in 1963, Donald Hamilton’s sixth Matt Helm spy thriller. Helm has to assassinate a rebel leader and rescue an American agent. Lots of double-crosses and moral murkiness and some scores to settle. Superb spy fiction.

My review: https://vintagepopfictions.blogspot.com/2024/09/donald-hamiltons-ambushers.html

#vintagethriller #vintagethrillers #spies #spynovel #spynovels #spyfiction #DonaldHamilton #MattHelm

John Flagg’s 1953 Woman of Cairo has everything you could want in a spy novel - a fascinating historical background, an exotic setting, a clever plot, an atmosphere of corruption and paranoia. A British bomber is stolen in the Middle East.

My review: https://vintagepopfictions.blogspot.com/2024/09/john-flaggs-woman-of-cairo.html

#spies #spythriller #spythrillers #vintagethriller #vintagethrillers #JohnFlagg

In Edgar Wallace's The Door with Seven Locks a retired cop has to deal with a burglar hired to pick the lock on a tomb, a stolen library book and keeping tabs on an errant lord. Hints of gothic creepiness. Hugely entertaining.

My review: https://vintagepopfictions.blogspot.com/2024/09/edgar-wallaces-door-with-seven-locks.html

#vintagecrime #vintagethriller #vintagethrillers #EdgarWallace

Philip Atlee's The Irish Beauty Contract is a routine 1966 Joe Gall spy novel. Embittered ex-CIA man Joe Gall is now a US Government hitman. This time he has to watch someone but not kill him. The background is good but the book lacks energy.

My review: https://vintagepopfictions.blogspot.com/2024/08/philip-atlees-irish-beauty-contract.html

#spyfiction #spies #spynovel #spynovels #vintagethriller #vintagethrillers #spythriller #spythrillers

The Saint and Mr Teal AKA Once More The Saint is a 1933 collection of three Saint novellas by Leslie Charteris. With some lovely twisty devious sting-in-the-tail endings. This is the second version of Simon Templar, without his gang but with Patricia. Stylish fun.

My review: https://vintagepopfictions.blogspot.com/2024/08/the-saint-and-mr-teal-once-more-saint.html

#vintagethrillers #vintagethriller #vintagecrime #TheSaint #SimonTemplar #LeslieCharteris

Peter O’Donnell’s The Impossible Virgin starts when a Soviet spy dies in a bush hospital in Tanzania. Modesty Blaise is the temporary nurse. There's an impossible virgin who must remain a virgin, and a gorilla. A fine 1971 Modesty Blaise novel.

My review: https://vintagepopfictions.blogspot.com/2024/08/peter-odonnells-impossible-virgin.html

#vintagethrillers #vintagethriller #spies #spyfiction #spynovel #spynovels #spythriller spythrillers #PeterODonnell #ModestyBlaise

Killer AKA Passion Killer, a 1965 sleaze/noir novel by Robert Silverberg (as Don Elliott). A man hires a hitman to kill his wife. Emotional and sexual betrayals follow. As sleaze it's good; as noir fiction it's OK. Has a good femme fatale.

My review: https://vintagepopfictions.blogspot.com/2024/08/robert-silverbergs-killer.html

#vintagethrillers #vintagethriller #vintagemystery #vintagemysteries #noir #noirfiction #crimefiction #hardboiledcrime hardboiledfiction #hardboiled #pulpfiction #vintagesleaze #sleazefiction #RobertSilverberg #DonElliott

West of Jerusalem, from 1967, one of a handful of Gérard de Villiers Malko spy novels translated into English. Austrian prince and CIA agent Malko has to impersonate the Director of the CIA who has jumped to his death. Fine action and suspense.

My review: https://vintagepopfictions.blogspot.com/2024/08/malko-west-of-jerusalem.html

#vintagethrillers #vintagethriller #spies #spyfiction #spynovel #spynovels #spythriller spythrillers #malko #GerarddeVilliers

The Naked and the Deadly: Lawrence Block in Men's Adventure Magazines is a superb collection. For me the highlights are the three Ed London PI stories and the two Evan Tanner tales. So much pulp fun here. Early Lawrence Block is always a treat.

My review: https://vintagepopfictions.blogspot.com/2024/07/the-naked-and-deadly-lawrence-block-in.html

#vintagethrillers #vintagethriller #vintagemystery #vintagemysteries #noir #noirfiction #crimefiction #hardboiledcrime hardboiledfiction #hardboiled #pulpfiction #LawrenceBlock #mensadventure

Mickey Spillane was definitely in the groove when he wrote the fifth Mike Hammer book The Big Kill in 1951. As so often it’s Hammer’s sensitive side that drives him on - it drives him even when he’s blowing away hoodlums with his .45.

My review: https://vintagepopfictions.blogspot.com/2020/03/mickey-spillanes-big-kill.html

#vintagethrillers #vintagethriller #vintagemystery #vintagemysteries #noir #noirfiction #crimefiction #hardboiledcrime hardboiledfiction #hardboiled #pulpfiction #MickeySpillane #MikeHammer

Carter Brown's Where Did Charity Go? is a 1970 entry in his Rick Holman Hollywood PI series. A movie star has lost his daughter. Rick has three dangerous dames to deal with. He sleeps with all of them, possibly a bad idea. Good pulp fiction.

My review: https://vintagepopfictions.blogspot.com/2024/06/carter-browns-where-did-charity-go.html

#vintagethrillers #vintagethriller #vintagemystery #vintagemysteries #noir #noirfiction #crimefiction #hardboiledcrime hardboiledfiction #hardboiled #pulpfiction #CarterBrown

Jimmy Sangster was a hugely successful screenwriter. His 1968 novel Touchfeather slots neatly into the “glamorous sexy lady spy” genre. A glamorous airline stewardess is really a spy. Cynical, and has some real punch. A great sexy spy thriller.

My review: https://vintagepopfictions.blogspot.com/2024/06/jimmy-sangsters-touchfeather.html

#vintagethrillers #vintagethriller #spies #spyfiction #spynovel #spynovels #spythriller spythrillers #JimmySangster

The Dragon’s Eye is a 1969 spy novel by Scott C.S. Stone. A reporter is forced to aid the defection of a high Chinese official. Makes good use of exotic settings. Captures the severely paranoid flavour of the Cold War. A good pulp spy thriller.

My review: https://vintagepopfictions.blogspot.com/2024/05/scott-cs-stones-dragons-eye.html

#vintagethrillers #vintagethriller #spies #spyfiction #spynovel #spynovels #spythriller spythrillers

Desmond Cory’s Trieste, published in 1954, a Johnny Fedora spy thriller. Johnny's girlfriend, a freelance spy captured by the Soviets, is part of an exchange of captured spies. A good solid tough Cold War spy thriller with some nice twists and a femme fatale.

My review: https://vintagepopfictions.blogspot.com/2024/05/desmond-corys-trieste-aka-intrigue.html

#vintagethrillers #vintagethriller #spies #spyfiction #spynovel #spynovels #spythriller spythrillers #DesmondCory #JohnnyFedora

The Savage Salome is a 1961 Carter Brown thriller featuring hip PI Danny Boyd. Danny is hired by an opera singer to find her dog's murderer. He finds a lot more than that. If you love trashy sleazy hardboiled PI thrillers you'll love this one.

My review: https://vintagepopfictions.blogspot.com/2024/03/carter-browns-savage-salome.html

#vintagemystery #vintagemysteries #vintagethriller #vintagethrillers #privateeyes #CarterBrown #pulpfiction #hardboiled hardboiledfiction

James Eastwood’s Seduce and Destroy, from 1968. His Anna Zordan sexy spy thrillers have a bit more depth than you expect from that sub-genre. Anna is ruthless but by no means an infallible unstoppable killing machine. Clever plot. Enjoyable.

My review: https://vintagepopfictions.blogspot.com/2024/03/james-eastwoods-seduce-and-destroy.html

#spies #spynovel #spies #spynovels #vintagethriller #vintagethrillers #spythriller #spythrillers #AnnaZordan

The India-Rubber Men, a 1929 Edgar Wallace thriller. London is hit by daring robberies carried out by men in rubber gas masks, armed with gas bombs. Lots of action on the river, breathless excitement, suspense, last-minute escapes. Great fun.

My review: https://vintagepopfictions.blogspot.com/2024/03/edgar-wallaces-india-rubber-men.html

#vintagethriller #vintagethrillers #EdgarWallace

Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Agent from 1907 is an important milestone in the development of the spy novel. It's the beginning of the pessimistic, sordid, cynical school of spy fiction. A study in the psychology of espionage, and of betrayal.

My review: https://vintagepopfictions.blogspot.com/2019/10/joseph-conrads-secret-agent.html

#spies #spynovel #spies #spynovels #vintagethriller #vintagethrillers #spythriller #spythrillers #JosephConrad

Don Smith’s 1971 spy novel Secret Mission: Tibet concerns a businessman doing a spy job for NASA. There are missing American and Soviet satellites and a Chinese super-laser. Good suspense and action, sexual tension and paranoia. Fine stuff.

My review: https://vintagepopfictions.blogspot.com/2024/03/don-smiths-secret-mission-tibet.html

#spies #spynovel #spies #spynovels #vintagethriller #vintagethrillers #spythriller #spythrillers

The Festival of the Dead, a fine collection of tales by Sidney Herschel Small published in the pulps in 1931, set in San Francisco’s Chinatown. Plenty of action and paranoia as a Chinese-speaking cop battles a diabolical criminal mastermind.

My review: https://vintagepopfictions.blogspot.com/2024/03/sidney-herschel-smalls-festival-of-dead.html

#vintagecrime #vintagemystery #vintagemysteries #pulpfiction #vintagethriller #vintagethrillers #pulpfiction #pulpmagazines

Thea von Harbou's Spies (original German title Spione) is a 1929 spy novel and the basis of her husband Fritz Lang's movie. With moral ambiguity and sex, unusual for a 1929 spy novel. A story of espionage and a story of love. Extremely good.

My review: https://vintagepopfictions.blogspot.com/2024/02/thea-von-harbous-spies-spione.html

#spies #spynovel #spies #spynovels #vintagethriller #vintagethrillers #spythriller #spythrillers #TheavonHarbou #FritzLang

The Bloody Medallion, Richard Telfair’s first Monty Nash spy novel, from 1959. Monty's pal Paul is dead. He was a double agent and Monty is under suspicion too. He has a dangerous sexy possibly treacherous woman to worry about. Good stuff.

My review: https://vintagepopfictions.blogspot.com/2024/02/richard-telfairs-bloody-medallion.html

#spies #spynovel #spies #spynovels #vintagethriller #vintagethrillers #spythriller #spythrillers

Peter O’Donnell’s A Taste for Death (1969), a Modesty Blaise novel. With a murdered archaeologist and a kidnapped girl with an odd talent. The Modesty Blaise comics are excellent but the novels have more depth and are more daring. Great stuff.

My review: https://vintagepopfictions.blogspot.com/2024/01/peter-odonnells-modesty-blaise-taste.html

#spies #spynovel #spies #spynovels #PeterODonnell #ModestyBlaise #vintagethriller #vintagethrillers

Fredric Brown’s The Far Cry was published in 1951. A man is digging up evidence on a Lonely Hearts murder eight years earlier. A psychological crime novel, but focusing on the psychology of the amateur detective rather than the killer. Not bad.

My review: https://vintagepopfictions.blogspot.com/2023/12/fredric-browns-far-cry.html

#vintagecrime #noir #noirfiction #crimefiction #vintagethriller #vintagethrillers #vintagemystery #vintagemysteries #FredricBrown

Such Power Is Dangerous is a 1933 Dennis Wheatley thriller. No occult stuff, but it has an over-the-top conspiracy theory, a bizarre and convoluted plot, a healthy dose of paranoia and a set of ludicrously but delightfully excessive villains.

My review: https://vintagepopfictions.blogspot.com/2014/03/such-power-is-dangerous.html

#vintagethriller #vintagethrillers #DennisWheatley

Such Power Is Dangerous is a 1933 Dennis Wheatley thriller. No occult stuff, but it has an over-the-top conspiracy theory, a bizarre and convoluted plot, a healthy dose of paranoia and a set of ludicrously but delightfully excessive villains.

My review: https://vintagepopfictions.blogspot.com/2014/03/such-power-is-dangerous.html

#vintagethriller #vintagethrillers #DennisWheatley

Such Power Is Dangerous is a 1933 Dennis Wheatley thriller. No occult stuff, but it has an over-the-top conspiracy theory, a bizarre and convoluted plot, a healthy dose of paranoia and a set of ludicrously but delightfully excessive villains.

My review: https://vintagepopfictions.blogspot.com/2014/03/such-power-is-dangerous.html

#vintagethriller #vintagethrillers #DennisWheatley

Such Power Is Dangerous is a 1933 Dennis Wheatley thriller. No occult stuff, but it has an over-the-top conspiracy theory, a bizarre and convoluted plot, a healthy dose of paranoia and a set of ludicrously but delightfully excessive villains.

My review: https://vintagepopfictions.blogspot.com/2014/03/such-power-is-dangerous.html

#vintagethriller #vintagethrillers #DennisWheatley

Mr Moto Is So Sorry (1938), the fourth of John P. Marquand’s spy novels featuring Japanese superspy Mr Moto. A young American woman has a cigarette case and people will kill to get it. Mr Moto knows its significance. A top-notch spy novel.

My review: https://vintagepopfictions.blogspot.com/2023/11/john-p-marquands-mr-moto-is-so-sorry.html

#JohnPMarquand #MrMoto #spies #spythriller #spythrillers #spynovel #spynovels #vintagethriller #vintagethrillers

The Hell-Makers contains three excellent early Modesty Blaise comic-strip adventures by Peter O’Donnell, drawn by Jim Holdaway. With some insights into the Modesty-Willie relationship. The Modesty Blaise comics are just as good as the novels.

My review: https://vintagepopfictions.blogspot.com/2023/10/modesty-blaise-hell-makers.html

#spies #vintagethriller #vintagethrillers #spyfiction #PeterODonnell #ModestyBlaise #comics #1960scomics

The Hell-Makers contains three excellent early Modesty Blaise comic-strip adventures by Peter O’Donnell, drawn by Jim Holdaway. With some insights into the Modesty-Willie relationship. The Modesty Blaise comics are just as good as the novels.

My review: https://vintagepopfictions.blogspot.com/2023/10/modesty-blaise-hell-makers.html

#spies #vintagethriller #vintagethrillers #spyfiction #PeterODonnell #ModestyBlaise #comics #1960scomics

The Hell-Makers contains three excellent early Modesty Blaise comic-strip adventures by Peter O’Donnell, drawn by Jim Holdaway. With some insights into the Modesty-Willie relationship. The Modesty Blaise comics are just as good as the novels.

My review: https://vintagepopfictions.blogspot.com/2023/10/modesty-blaise-hell-makers.html

#spies #vintagethriller #vintagethrillers #spyfiction #PeterODonnell #ModestyBlaise #comics #1960scomics

The Hell-Makers contains three excellent early Modesty Blaise comic-strip adventures by Peter O’Donnell, drawn by Jim Holdaway. With some insights into the Modesty-Willie relationship. The Modesty Blaise comics are just as good as the novels.

My review: https://vintagepopfictions.blogspot.com/2023/10/modesty-blaise-hell-makers.html

#spies #vintagethriller #vintagethrillers #spyfiction #PeterODonnell #ModestyBlaise #comics #1960scomics

The Hell-Makers contains three excellent early Modesty Blaise comic-strip adventures by Peter O’Donnell, drawn by Jim Holdaway. With some insights into the Modesty-Willie relationship. The Modesty Blaise comics are just as good as the novels.

My review: https://vintagepopfictions.blogspot.com/2023/10/modesty-blaise-hell-makers.html

#spies #vintagethriller #vintagethrillers #spyfiction #PeterODonnell #ModestyBlaise #comics #1960scomics

Bloody Sunrise from 1965, second of Mickey Spillane’s Tiger Mann spy novels. Tiger works for a private spy agency. He doesn't have to play by the rules. This tale involves a defector and a woman who isn't who she appears to be. Good stuff.

My review: https://vintagepopfictions.blogspot.com/2023/09/mickey-spillanes-bloody-sunrise.html

#spies #spynovel #spynovels #spyfiction #vintagethriller #vintagethrillers #MickeySpillane #TigerMann #pulpfiction

The Green Ribbon is a 1929 Edgar Wallace thriller involving an ingenious horse-racing racket with a large and varied collection of villains. And an elaborate system of caves and tunnel, a classic Wallace touch. Top-tier Wallace. Great stuff.

My review: https://vintagepopfictions.blogspot.com/2023/07/edgar-wallaces-green-ribbon.html

#crimefiction #crimenovel #crimenovels #vintage crime #vintage mystery #vintage mysteries #vintagethriller #vintagethrillers #EdgarWallace

Leslie Charteris's The Saint Goes West, a 1942 collection of three Saint novellas. A transitional slightly Americanised version of Simon Templar which for me works less well than the earlier and later versions. But the stories are excellent.

My review: https://vintagepopfictions.blogspot.com/2023/05/the-saint-goes-west.html

#crimenovel #crimenovels #crimefiction #vintagecrime #vintagethriller #vintagethrillers #vintagemystery #vintagemysteries #LeslieCharteris #thesaint #SimonTemplar

Mickey Spillane’s 1967 spy thriller The Delta Factor. A thief is forced to do a job for the government, breaking a scientist out of an impregnable 17th century fortress. He also wants revenge. Fun, and more lighthearted than his Hammer books.

My review: https://vintagepopfictions.blogspot.com/2023/04/mickey-spillanes-delta-factor.html

#spynovel #spynovels #spies #spyfiction #MickeySpillane #vintagethriller #vintagethrillers

The Girl With No Place To Hide (1959), a Marvin H. Albert Jake Barrow PI thriller written under the name Nick Quarry. Rescuing a girl leads Jake into the worlds of high fashion and photography and high-stakes gambling.

Good noirish stuff.

My review: https://vintagepopfictions.blogspot.com/2023/03/nick-quarrys-girl-with-no-place-to-hide.html

#noir #noirfiction #hardboiled #hardboiledfiction #vintagecrime #1950scrime #crimefiction #privateeyes #vintagemystery #vintagemysteries #MarvinHAlbert #NickQuarry #vintagethriller #vintagethrillers

Dennis Wheatley's 1933 novel Such Power Is Dangerous has no occult elements but plenty of classic Wheatley features - an over-the-top conspiracy theory, a bizarre convoluted plot, lots of paranoia and ludicrously but delightfully excessive villains.

And it has another feature familiar to Wheatley aficionados - an intense dislike of much of the modern world.

Great fun.

My review: https://vintagepopfictions.blogspot.com/2014/03/such-power-is-dangerous.html

#vintagethriller #vintagethrillers #DennisWheatley

Dennis Wheatley's 1933 novel Such Power Is Dangerous has no occult elements but plenty of classic Wheatley features - an over-the-top conspiracy theory, a bizarre convoluted plot, lots of paranoia and ludicrously but delightfully excessive villains.

And it has another feature familiar to Wheatley aficionados - an intense dislike of much of the modern world.

Great fun.

My review: https://vintagepopfictions.blogspot.com/2014/03/such-power-is-dangerous.html

#vintagethriller #vintagethrillers #DennisWheatley

Dennis Wheatley's 1933 novel Such Power Is Dangerous has no occult elements but plenty of classic Wheatley features - an over-the-top conspiracy theory, a bizarre convoluted plot, lots of paranoia and ludicrously but delightfully excessive villains.

And it has another feature familiar to Wheatley aficionados - an intense dislike of much of the modern world.

Great fun.

My review: https://vintagepopfictions.blogspot.com/2014/03/such-power-is-dangerous.html

#vintagethriller #vintagethrillers #DennisWheatley

John Flagg's Death and the Naked Lady is a 1951 spy novel starts when the hero finds the jade owls in his luggage. They're not his and they're going to lead to trouble. Plus there are three femmes fatales to deal with.

Fast-paced and enjoyable with a nicely devious plot.

My review: https://vintagepopfictions.blogspot.com/2023/02/john-flaggs-death-and-naked-lady.html

#JohnFlagg #Spies #spynovels #spynovel #spyfiction #vintagethrillers #thrillers

The Killer Likes Candy, a 1968 French-Italian-German eurospy film. An assassin has one weakness - candy. He leaves candy wrappers at crime scenes.

Lacks the over-the-top fun of the best eurospy films but has decent suspense and some fine action.

My review: https://princeplanetmovies.blogspot.com/2018/05/the-killer-likes-candy-1968.html

#cultmovies #cultmovie #60smovies #thriller #crimethriller #eurospymovies #eurospy #eurocult #eurocultmovies #vintagethrillers #retrothrillers

Assignment Helene (1959), an excellent Sam Durell spy novel written by Edward S. Aarons.

Durell ends up in the jungle on the track of gun-runners with two beautiful women, both decidedly untrustworthy, an equally untrustworthy US diplomat and a broken-down American ex-CIA agent.

There's a good mystery here, and there's action.

My review: https://vintagepopfictions.blogspot.com/2023/01/edward-s-aarons-assignment-helene.html

#pulpfiction #spies #spythrillers #spythriller #spynovel #spynovels #thrillers #vintagethrillers #EdwardSAarons #SamDurell