Six Days of the Condor - James Grady

   1974; 311 pages.  New Author? : Yes.  Genres : Espionage; Conspiracy Thriller; Suspense; Movie Tie-in.  Overall Rating : 8½*/10.

 

    Welcome to the Washington D.C. branch of the American Literary Historical Society!  You can tell by its name that its purpose in life is . . . um . . . something literary, I suppose.  Or historical, maybe.  That name seems a bit vague.

 

    Actually, the Society is a CIA front for one of its very unimportant branches.  Its function is to “keep track of all espionage and related acts recorded in literature.”  In other words, its agents sit around and read spy thrillers and murder mysteries, checking to see if any author out there has written a plot with details about espionage that are too close for comfort to how the CIA conducts its business.

 

    All in all, it’s a pretty tame assignment.  Yet today, some person or persons walked in through the front doors of the American Literary Historical Society and shot everybody in the department to death.

 

     Well, not quite everybody.  One member of the group had the good fortune of being out of the office, picking up lunch for the rest of his coworkers.  Ronald Malcolm.  Now all sorts of people, some CIA, others of unknown loyalties, would like to bring Malcom in for questioning.

 

    Or kill him.

 

What’s To Like...

    James Grady’s Six Days of the Condor is the basis for the 1975 blockbuster political-thriller film Three Days of the Condor, although “loosely based” would be a more apt description, as evidenced by the length of the book’s titular chase scene being cut in half.

 

    Malcolm’s chances of staying alive are slim.  The reader may know that Malcolm has had a narrow escape from death, but his employer, the CIA, doesn’t.  They quickly realize they have a turncoat in their midst, and the Number One suspect is that oh-so-lucky employee who just happened to be out of the office when the assassins struck.  Meanwhile, the baddies too learn they’ve overlooked a victim, and are determined to correct that oversight.  Tell me, Malcolm, where do you hide when everybody is after you?

 

    The storytelling is spellbinding.  The reader knows that everything is going to turn out okay, but the bad guys are just as resourceful as the good guys, and logic tells us that a bookish nerd will not fare well against well-armed and highly-trained gunmen.  The technical details felt well-researched, especially when it came to lethal firearms.

 

    Six Days of the Condor was published in 1974, and it was fun to re-experience that era.  At one point, Malcom avails himself to a “battered Corvair”, which I happened to have one of back then, and in battered condition as well.  Later, Malcolm hides out at a “homosexual hangout”, which the author informs us can also be called a “gay” bar.  Soon afterward, he hitches a ride with a driver looking for nubile girls who will do anything, and he means anything for some marijuana.  Even later, the action takes place at an airport, where security is so lax that evidently anyone and everyone can enter with a handgun hidden under their jackets.

 

    The ending is both exciting and twisty.  All the plot threads get tied up, the good guys prevail, and the bad guys are foiled.  There are some sequels, but they appear to be limited to six short stories and a novella.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.2/5 based on 1,853 ratings and 328 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.09/5 based on 16,761 ratings and 448 reviews

 

Things That Sound Dirty, But Aren’t…

    [The man], slightly wounded in the neck, desperately reached for the gun in his back pocket, but his pants were around his ankles.  (loc. 2714)

 

Excerpts...

    That morning at 3:15 Heidegger unlocked his door to the knock of police officers.  When he opened the door he found two men in ordinary clothes smiling at him.  One was very tall and painfully thin.  The other was quite distinguished, but if you looked in his eyes you could tell he wasn’t a banker.

    The two men shut the door behind them.  (loc. 688)

 

    The terminal was beginning to fill with the bustling people who would pass through it during the day.  A wheezing janitor swept cigarette butts off the red rug.  A mother tried to coax a bored infant into submission.  A nervous coed sat wondering if her roommate’s half-fare card would work.  Three young Marines headed home to Michigan wondered if she would work.  A retired wealthy executive and a penniless wino slept in adjoining chairs, both waiting for daughters to fly in from Detroit.  A Fuller Brush executive sat perfectly still, bracing himself for the effects of a jet flight on a gin hangover.  (loc. 2672)

 

Kindle Details…

    Six Days of the Condor sells for $8.99 at Amazon right now.  James Grady has seven other e-books available at Amazon, including two that have tie-ins to Six Days of the Condor.  They range in price from $1.99 to $11.99.

 

“I Imagine there are many who frown on the U.S. government pushing dope.”  (loc. 2560)

    The quibbles are minor.  The cussing, frankly, was a lot less than I expected, just 12 instances in the first 25%.  OTOH, there were also a half dozen rolls-in-the-hay.

 

    Each of the twelve chapters starts out with a quote.  Some are by US presidents about the CIA, and those were quite applicable.  Others were from Fred Reinfeld’s The Complete Chess Course and left me scratching my head, despite the fact that I’m an avid chessplayer.

 

    Last of all, it surprised me that in the one or two gunfights betwixt nerdy Malcolm and the ruthless killers, our hero fares rather well.  Of course, I admit it would’ve been a short, forgettable tale if the Malcolm had been blown away in the first hour of the chase.

 

    But I pick at nits.  For me, Six Days of the Condor was an intense, exciting, fingernails-biting story, and it’s easy to see why it was picked up and developed into a big-budget movie featuring big-budget stars like Faye Dunaway, Robert Redford, Cliff Robertson, and Max von Sydow.  Despite all the changes they made to James Grady’s original story, including renaming most of the characters (Ronald Malcolm becomes Joe Turner) and relocating the setting (Washington DC is replaced by New York City), I may have to see if Netflix carries this movie.

 

    8½ Stars.  At the beginning of the e-book is a “Confession” section wherein James Grady gives the background to his writing Six Days of the Condor, a short biography of his life pre- and post- the book being published, and his experience as a technical adviser on the movie.  This takes up 15% of the e-book.  I suggest reading it after you’ve read the story, not before.

The Janson Command - Paul Garrison

   2012; 436 pages.  Book  2 (out of 4) in the “Janson Directive” series.   New Author? : Yes.  Action-Adventure; Intrigue; Espionage.  Overall Rating : 7½*/10.

    Paul Janson just landed a job, and a well-paying one to boot.  The Houston-based American Synergy Corporation (“ASC”), the largest oil company in America, wants him to “retrieve” one of their trauma doctors, Terry Flannigan, and bring him home.

    This could be quite the challenge, since the doctor has been taken hostage by rebel forces on the Isle de Foree, a small island country off the west coast of Africa, close to Nigeria.  But Janson is a former black-ops agent, so he’s well-qualified for the task.  With some careful planning and a world-class sharpshooter for a partner, things should go swimmingly.

    And they do.  Oh, there were a couple of surprises, including a bunch of Russian tanks and a fighter jet of unknown origin, but a few hiccups along the way were to be expected.  The doctor is rescued and it’s time to take him back home.  

    Alas, that's when everything goes haywire.  Terry Flannigan insists he’s not an employee of ASC, never has been, is happy where he is as he nurses the rebel leader back to health, and frankly thinks Janson’s been sent here to kill him.

    And when the doctor slips away to parts unknown, Paul can feel his “retrieval fee” slipping away as well.

What’s To Like...

    The Janson Command is the second book in a 4-book series, that appear to be completed, since the fourth one was published in 2015.  Robert Ludlum penned the first book in the series, Paul Garrison wrote #2 and #3, and Douglas Corleone authored the last one.  This is the only book in the series I’ve read.

    The action starts immediately, the pacing is fast, and the only time things slow down a tad is when Paul Garrison wants to introduce some intrigue into the tale.  There are a bunch of settings, most of which are exotic: Nigeria, New York, Cartagena in Spain, Zurich, Baghdad, Sydney and Canberra in Australia, Corsica and Sardinia, and Singapore.  The last one resonated with me, as I spent 24 hours there on business one time, and Garrison’s portrayal of it felt very “real” to me.

    I liked the “Janson Rules” that he plays by, and expects anyone work for him to abide by as well: 1.) no torture, 2.) no civilian casualties, 3.) no killing anyone who doesn’t try to kill you.  Those are difficult rules to follow when you’re doing covert espionage missions, and Janson in particular is sorely tested by them.

    You’ll learn a little bit of French (the fictitious Isle de Foree appears to be a former French colony), including a French cussword or two; and a smidgen of Spanish as well.  On a more practical note, you’ll learn how to make a smoke bomb using only items that are available in a cruise line gift shop.  There are 44 chapters plus a prologue, and the book is divided into four parts, each one signaling the main plot thread is about to become deeper and twistier, which leaves both the reader and Janson wondering just what the heck is really going on.

    The ending is suitably exciting, although not particularly twisty.  Everything goes according to Janson’s well-contrived plans, and despite their numerical superiority, the bad guys seem to be outmatched.  Some of the secondary plot threads, such as who’s really behind all this, remain unresolved, presumably to be addressed in the next book.  Nonetheless, The Janson Command is a standalone novel, and I didn’t feel I was missing anything by having not read the first book.

Excerpts...

    “The downside I see to working with a woman is that in the clutch, when the lead is flying, it’s only natural that you’d be distracted, worried about her getting hurt.  Particularly if she’s your protégée.  Devoted followers have a habit of getting killed in our line of work.  I’ve lost them; so have you."

    “Jessica is predator, not prey.”  (pg. 40)

    “Isle de Foreens dislike Nigerians.  They accuse us of being overbearing.  It is relatively typical of small nations to dislike big nations.  As many nations hate America, so many hate Nigeria.”

    “To have Nigeria as a neighbor is to sleep with a hippopotamus.”

    “My nation and your island are separated by two hundred miles of open gulf.”

    “Hippos can swim.”  (pg. 310)

“What’s our Coast Guard doing six thousand miles from home?”  (pg. 78 )

    There’s not a lot to nitpick about in The Janson Command.  There’s a fair amount of cussing, but I didn’t feel it was overdone.  There’s one instance of sex, and one instance of sexual abuse; but both are handled deftly.  A bunch of acronyms crop up in the story, so you might want to keep notes about what things like SR, Cons Ops, ASC, GRA, and FFM stand for.

    Judging from the Amazon reviews, the biggest gripe seems to be the book cover itself.  Glance at the image above.  What jumps out at you?  Robert Ludlum and Jason Bourne, right?  Well, the first one didn’t write this book, and the second one doesn’t appear in it.

    Some readers apparently were duped and irked by this, but honestly a second glance should have told them who the actual author and protagonist were.  Further, it should be noted that utilizing a replacement when a well-known author of a series passes away is not an uncommon practice.  It’s been done for Tony Hillerman, Lawrence Sanders, and Robert Jordan, just to name a couple right off the top of my head.  Yes, it’s a marketing ploy, but I think it’s more savvy than misleading.

    In closing, I enjoyed The Janson Command, mostly from the aspect of being an “airport novel”.  Is it as good as the Bourne series?  No, but how many other action-adventure stories are, including ones penned by Ludlum himself?  I expected to be entertained from the first page to the last, and didn't care if the writing wasn't elegant and deep.  By those standards, The Janson Command measured up quite well.     

    7½ Stars.