I'm scanning some covers of the British paperbacks I've read recently. The first one is not much - it's just a photo of two persons looking at the camera. Well, the guy does have a gun. This type of cover art was popular in Sweden where many of these books came from to Finland.The book is Hong Kong Kill (Boardman 1958) by Bryan Peters. Peters is the same guy who later wrote the book that was made into Dr. Strangelove - he did that book as by Peter George, which I think was his real name. I've been told that there's no humour in the book and the screenwriters, mainly Terry Southern, had to make something up. The Hong Kong book is no fun either. It's a rather grim spy novel, but there's not enough originality. The plot drags at places, even though Peters writes pretty smoothly.
At the moment I'm reading a spy novel by Angus Ross. It's much better, with original characters and an interesting plot. I don't know what Ross's reputation is now, but based on my first impression he seems to be quite good.
There are more Americans reading this than Brits, I presume - I wonder if any of these books I've been talking about here have had American editions.
