Quiller Book #10

I love me some Cold War era spy thrillers, and this novel by Adam Hall fits the bill. The Chinese connection drew me in, but the action, mystery, and fantastic writing kept me reading.

Before picking up this book at a thrift store in Utah this summer, I had never heard of either Adam Hall (an apparently prolific writer!) or his British Intelligence hero, Quiller. Thus, I had no idea going into it that Quiller was already a seasoned hero who’s survived many scrapes around the world. In fact, this is the 10th of 19 Quiller thrillers that Hall published between 1965-1996. Quiller is a regular Dirk Pitt, minus Clive Cussler‘s cliches and world-dominating masterminds.

I don’t know if “realism” is the right word to describe this novel—unless you are in fact comparing it to a Cussler book!—but there is something that sort of sets it apart from the other mainstream spy thrillers I’ve read. Perhaps it’s the realistic geopolitics, the violence and reasonable recovery times, the hassle of field-operative bureaucracy, the danger and suspense—whatever it is, this book felt more realistic than others.

Actually, I know exactly what sets the book apart from the rest: it’s the introspection that Quiller goes through as he’s running, fighting, waiting, and dying. Adam Hall’s method of writing the man’s thoughts intermixed with his dangerous scenarios is spot-on and kept me reading, even through the occasional vulgarity (which admittedly is nothing compared to Robert Ludlum).

I look at Chapters 11-12 as the real hooks that ensured I’d continue reading the book to its bitter end. Chapter 11 includes a car chase with clipped sentences, fast-paced action, and thoughts interspersed, all of which made it feel like I was watching it on screen—a writing talent that few can pull off. It was exciting and a fantastic example of what a “page-turner” should be. Chapter 12 sped the action way down following a crash, but the suspense remained in full throttle, as Quiller found himself floating in a river but not yet out of hot water.

The longer the book went on, the more Adam Hall’s writing felt like a rougher, rawer version of Geoffrey Household’s fugitive books (like Rogue Male and Watcher in the Shadows). There’s detail and explanation for why he chooses to hide in this building and not that, for what he sees in shadows and hears in the natural clicks of the night. Hall puts us there with Quiller as he’s hunted by an unknown enemy in a territory unfamiliar to us all. He also includes a number of details throughout the book that are good for any spy-novel writer to bear in mind. Here’s a few examples I noted in my reading:

The fatigue curve is constant; it dips faster as time goes on. But I wasn’t totally relaxed; one must never be totally relaxed and the red sector, if life is still to be held sweet. (80)

I’d worked only once before in the Orient, but I was beginning to remember how it felt: Nothing is what it seems; your feet are on shifting sands and the images you see are only reflections and the sounds you hear are only echoes and the logical process of Western linear thinking takes you through shadows and leads you into the ethereal haunts of illusion until you start losing your grip, and then you’re done. (87)

Paranoia isn’t all negative: It can keep you from getting too careless or too bold. (91)

He was waiting for me to show him any one of the four most dangerous aspects of a hunted man: movement, reflection, and human shape. (181)

I also liked this line he wrote when Quiller was so exhausted he wasn’t quite sure what was real: “Dreams are ciphers for a reality we haven’t got time to understand.” (248)

Apart from the occasional rough language that maybe should turn off a Christian reader, there was one undetailed sex scene in Chapter 17 that became uncomfortably memorable. It wasn’t violent like I found in The Destroyer, and it wasn’t gratuitous like that one scene in The Last Ship, but it still stands out from other books for the situation it represented. So, Reader, beware of that.

All told, this was an exciting book with excellent writing, and I’m actually surprised a) that it’s the tenth book in a long series, and b) that I’d never heard of it before. I’ll keep my eyes open for more Adam Hall books in the future, as I’ll probably be keen to read him again.

©2024 E.T.

Read More from Adam Hall:

• The Tango Briefing (1973)
• The Peking Target (1981)
• Quiller Bamboo (1991)