Eye of the Archangel
by: Forest Devoe Jr.
Published by: Harper Collins
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Reviewed by Jeff Foster
Wow! I have not read a good 60’s-type spy thriller since Ian Fleming died. Forest DeVoe Jr. (pen name for Max Phillips) has captured the flavor of the genre that brought us favorites like James Bond and Travis McGee.
The story is set in the early sixties. It find DeVoe’s main protagonists Mallory and Morse in another sticky situation against a foe that has all the money and power that little- known, but nefarious covert operations possessed when the Cold War was at its height.
Mallory and Morse work for a shadowy group called the Consultancy that is on the side of good. It contracts with governments both friendly and adverse to the United States in keeping the world a safer place in those trying times of mutually assured destruction.
The story is expertly set around the Grand Prix racing season and its opening contest on the streets of Monaco. The world’s rich and famous and bold and beautiful are gathered to watch the racers defy death on the narrow streets of Monaco. At the same time, Mallory and Morse play a deadly game of chicken with their foe, the eccentric figure of Arne Jespers, known in underworld arms dealing circles as “The Dane.”
Through his worldwide network of contacts, Jespers has just offered for sale, at the price of $1 billion, a new satellite space technology first conceived by Hitler, stolen by Russia, and then stolen by Jespers. The technology will be sold to the highest bidder within a week. Mallory and Morse are contracted to recover the satellite and bring it into the hands of the West. If that can’t be done, they are to destroy it at all cost to prevent it from falling into the hands of the bidders, all of whom would use the satellite to trump the nuclear arsenals of any country in the world.
Eye of the Archangel is an extremely engaging story that has a plausible scenario and is technically sound. Set in the days before cell phones, fax machines and the Internet, one wonders how the world’s intelligence agencies actually got anything done!
Armchair Interviews says: Great vacation read. Pack this one with you wherever you plan to go.
From our armchair to yours...
