Come Die With Me is the first in a series of International espionage adventures by James Dark.
In the style of James Bond, this secret agent pushes things just over the top, while carving out his own personal place in thrillers. A great combination of spy tropes and originality, certainly worth continuing the series.
Tall and broad, Mark Hood has the impressive skills of an internationally renowned cricket player, a LeMans race car driver, an ocean yacht sailor, black belt karate master, and all around sportsman - the type of international playboy who causes autograph crowds. No one knows he is also an agent of Intertrust, a secret multinational non-political organization dedicated to the swift elimination of any planned nuclear assault. Simply disguised under the facade of a publishing house, there has never been any indication whatever that it exists. Mark is dispatched from Geneva to the Port of Nassau where an American torpedo boat armed with tritium atomic torpedo warheads has been stolen - the crew killed, it has vanished from the waters. With the help of Prudence Balfour, secretary to the British Governor, they find the culprit is Herr Gauss, a global machinery exporter and proudly declared Nazi whose ultimate goal is the reestablishment of the Nazi Bund and the triumphant resurgence of Germany. Mark is caught and captured by Gauss, who makes him an unusual offer - impressed by his racing skills he gives Mark a job in his organization, he never says what that is - under threat of his and Prudence's lives. Gauss feels he has bought yet another Yes man, and Mark watches to see where the ball bounces. Somewhere in the Brazilian mountains south of Rio, Mark is sequestered in Gauss' new Berchtesgaden: a granitic, turreted fortress perched on the edge of a sheer oceanside cliff. There is indeed an impressive Mercedes and Jaguar collection (and elaborately hidden bays where two other stolen torpedo boats wait). Working in the castle is Maria, a top Brazilian bacteriologist whom Mark confides in, and within hours they've been to bed. Things move quickly as Mark figures out Gauss wants to become 'Overlord' of the world by bombing American carrier ships for worldwide attention, and then release bacteriological parasites to ruin crops ...that part gets a little murky... and how he will single-handedly stop Gauss in just two days.
"Introducing an explosive new series of espionage thrillers starring mark Hood, the audacious secret agent from Intertrust"
Mark is a terrific character - yes, in the mold of Bond - but with enough panache to stand on his own. American buffed by a couple years at Oxford, he has a little more flash, a few more quirks that make him unique. His drink is a Negroni, which would go down well while reading this. The danger is to make these too outrageous, but the author keeps it together with just a handful of characters in close quarters. The first half is strongest with intrigue and a really fast pace; lots of hand to hand - palm of the hand breaking noses action. Once at the fortress the plot strays a little, and although the ending is explosive I would have enjoyed a little more - at just 128 pages he ties it all together a little too quickly for me. Luckily, James Dark wrote 12 more Mark Hood thrillers for me to obsessively seek out and read.
If you like 1970's spy thrillers you won't be disappointed, this holds its own. I think this was a real find.
1965 / Paperback / 128 pages
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