The Assignment Series, all written by Edward S Aarons, had 42 entries from 1955 to 1976. The series was an espionage thriller adventure series starring Sam Durell. Durell is a no-nonsense CIA man. There’s no cheeky in his spy. We don’t know if he likes his martini’s shaken or stirred and he has zero funky gadgets to get him through a mission. At the same time, he also not a gung-ho Men’s Adventure assassin. He’s cool and thoughtful, knows when to hit and when to lay low. I find the Assignment series to land perfectly in the middle of le Carre’s serious and dry spy and Ian Flemmings colorful spy fiction.
This go around Durell finds himself on a mission in the jungles of Burma in Southeast Asia. Hartford, the husband of a rich and influential woman, Eva, has gone missing in the jungles of Burma. He was secretly on a mission for the NSA and DC politician, Senator Wheaton, to rally the Northern Burmese people to try and put a stop to a new Communist Guerilla militia called the Laphet Hao, headed by a mysterious man named Major Mong. Durell must go in and bring Hartford back.
What we have here is a great early 60s post WWII war novel. As I started reading, I was a little daunted by the fact that I knew absolutely nothing about the history and political strife of Burma but as the story progresses it slowly fills you in with enough information that the backstory plot was comprehensible. As I understand it, during World War II the Japanese invaded and occupied Burma for three years. The Allies came in and helped the Burmese people boot Japan from their country. In this novel, it focuses on the US military, of course, and the three main characters who were there, Hartford, Emmett Claye- brother of Eva and a Japanese soldier who quits the military and goes on to live his life as a poor farmer in the Northern rural village of Nambum Ga.
I found the characters to be fully developed and realistic. That being said, I’m obviously not a World War II veteran or any veteran for that matter but I imagine the fictional incidents in the book, the reactions, attitudes and feelings were on point for any war time soldier. Nothing in here is cartoonish or over-the-top. It’s also not over-dramatized so it’s not too heavy. The story has the benefit of having one boot in the real world and one boot in the adventure fiction world to guide you through a highly entertaining and informative story with emotion and heart and the complexities of morality and vengeance with lots of esoteric political spy action.
In this book there is some prisoner of war survival, assassination bombings, opium smokin’, shoot outs, guerilla warfare, prostitution, politics and corruption (I mean…), pulp style air/river/jungle adventure, and at the head of it, the stern and serious thoughtful Cajun, Sam Durell. Damn, this book was great!
In fact, I’m going to go on record in saying this is the best entry in the Assignment Series I have read so far. I believe I’ve read around six of them.
Fawcett Gold Medal 1961
Cover art: Unknown
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