Philip Atlee (1915–1991)

A very strange book, with a plot that isn't apparent to its protagonist, secret agent Joe Gall in his cover as a hack writer, or to the reader either. Atlee almost lost me on the first few pages with his use of language full of odd little juxtapositions of words that seemed to deliberately call attention to themselves and his dropping of more brand names of luxury products than even Ian Fleming might manage to fit in. On the other hand, despite the fact that the reader has no idea what is show more going on other than a few tantalizing clues that could just be red herrings, the novel is compelling enough, with its exotic Canary Islands setting (with side trips to Barcelona and a few other points in Spain, France, Sweden--you name it. Author Atlee manages to seem like an insider when it comes to telling this type of tale, and perhaps he should, as his brother was a notorious CIA agent. In the end, however, this is one of those books where everything requires a two page explanation that hardly delivers the closure an atmospheric tale like this one deserves. show less

This is a frustrating little (140 pages) book in the Joe Gall series. Neither the reader nor Gall knows what his assignment is beyond "do what you're told". First he's to ignore the baroness, then he's ordered to marry her. Is he investigating the zealous CIA agent, or the baroness or the Swedish cutie he also hooks up with? As in most of the early Galls, Joe gets pretty bruised and battered, but it's the women who take the brunt of the violence. When the final revelation comes, it would be show more more effective if the revealed bad guy had been a mainstay for several books.. show less

Nice cast and fast cars, but film sort of peters out near the end with an unfortunate anti-climax. Interesting to see Mitchum's son playing his (much) younger brother. Some of the acting is pretty amateurish, but the leads are very good.

Our rich, tough, smart, heroic, and ultra-manly hero is Joe Gall -- a secret agent under contract to "The Agency." After a really weird and long interlude where Gall goes hunting with a friend who makes a fake lake to attract geese, Gall is attacked on his way back to his hidden palatial home. He naturally outsmarts the attackers, who turn out to be two black guys, one the son of a sheriff and the other recently discharged from active duty in Vietnam. When he finally makes it to his door he show more is surprised by a shadowy figure which he attacks first and realizes is a sexy lady later. Sexy lady is a lawyer that is trying to sign him to a contract working for her corporation. Gall invites her in, shows her around the ritzy pad (including the sauna hidden behind the waterfall), cooks her a giant dinner, and then shows off the pair of white tigers he has roaming the property .

After all of that, we finally get to the story: the two guys who tried to kill Gall were after him because he was the agent most likely to be sent to overthrow their group: a highly organized militia of black veterans (The Republic of New Africa) who are planning to take over the South by force and eject all the whites. Naturally Gall must infiltrate them from the inside so he takes pills to make his skin dark and glues an Afro wig to his head. Then he gets himself thrown in jail, where he is recruited into the organization.

Gall is a pretty right-wing dude and really shows very little interest, sympathy, or understanding for the black group and there is a lot of casual racism in the book that should make any modern and/or normal reader a little uncomfortable. Of course, there isn't always that much time for careful consideration of political positions and racial attitudes between the explosions, assassinations, secret meetings, more weird sex scenes, and half-developed characters and plot-lines. This was a fast read, and occasionally entertaining, but mostly inconsistent and not a great representative of the genre.

[full review here: http://spacebeer.blogspot.com/2008/06/trembling-earth-contract-1969.html ] show less