In my on-going research on later American paperback crime and adventure writers, I read one of the Secret Mission books by the Canadian Don Smith. I'd read earlier two of his books featuring the international private eye Tim Parnell and liked them quite a bit, so I thought this might also be to my liking.
The hero of the Secret Mission books is Phil Sherman, an international traveler and entrepreneur, just like Don Smith seems to have been, who also helps CIA and other officials out. In Secret Mission: Morocco, he's asked to dig up something about an European millionaire who looks like he's smuggling counterfeit gold bars from Morocco. Stuff ensues.
Don Smith is not a very colourful writer, and Phil Sherman is not a very colourful character. In fact, both are quite bland. I liked this trait in the Tim Parnell books, but this one left me colder. Maybe it was the Finnish translation. Nevertheless, the book is quite realistic in tone and milieu (Don Smith lived in Morocco, so that explains the believable description of the locales), and the bad guys are not your pulp-style crazy bastards. Still, there's a weird sadistic scene in the book in which Sherman is captured and whipped while a sexy woman fondles and kisses her.
Here's Spy Guys and Gals on Don Smith. The guy has an interesting history, that must be said.
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Out now: Dark Places and Little Tramps: writings on noir, hardboiled, sleaze and other genres.
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