Mark’s Comments (group member since Jul 02, 2013)

Mark’s comments from the Espionage Aficionados group.

Try some of the 60s- and 70s-era "Joe Gall" thrillers by the late James Atlee Phillips writing as "Philip Atlee."

My late father used to hand off these "Fawcett Gold Medal" paperbacks to me as a teenager.

Like some of the other spy series of that era, the books do not conform with modern political and social sensibilities. They should be re-read with cultural context in mind. On that score, the books might be seen as constructive reminders, though I would not recommend them for constructive reminding.

The Gall novels featured some exceptionally colorful travel writing. Dialogue was tightly woven, and, as I recall, realistic. Characters were big and entertaining. Even the lurid covers provoked notions of violence, exotic locale and political, even sexual intrigue.

As I also recall, the books seemed to provide, toward the end of the series, a credible fictional look into the shifting moods and attitudes at the U.S. covert services during the transformative Church-era reform period. That was about the same time the series wrapped up, and about same the time interventions such as those in Iran, Chile, Guatemala, Cuba, the Belgian Congo and Vietnam had finally been brought to an end. The Gall books were all about violent foreign intervention. Try one.

Steve, I read The Private Sector last year and found it at once interesting and slow. I will try another one of the Hone novels because the series looks like it might fall under the forgotten gems file, Mark

Philip Atlee (James Atlee Phillips) wrote the tough-guy "Joe Gall" series in the sixties and seventies -- my late father read them and passed them along to me in my teens.