Robert B. Parker (2) (1906–1955)

“My house in Budapest, my
My hidden treasure chest
Golden grand piano
My beautiful castillo”

These song lyrics kept circulating in my brain as I read the beginning of this book!

A man traveling on the Orient Express attempting to find his brother comes to the unfortunate reality that the fake passport he is carrying has actually come from the body of a murdered man! Add to that a manila envelope whose importance to Russia or the United States could mean the difference between war and peace! show more Plus, a woman who he falls in love with within the first 24 hours of meeting her! It’s international, post WW2 espionage, set primarily in Hungary!

This book is extremely fast paced, almost as if it was in a hurry to end! And the ending suffered from that factor! Just sort of wrapped itself up without answering too many questions! But if you like trains, Hungary, and some post war shenanigans between countries on the brink of a Cold War, you may very well enjoy this! show less

Passport to Peril was one of three spy novels written by Robert Bogadus Parker Jr., the original Robert Parker. He was, as his daughter explains in an afterward, "first and foremost a newspaper man." He was a war correspondent and reported from the front lines throughout World War 2. He also worked extensively with the OSS, the forerunner of the CIA, particularly in Budapest.
This story takes place shortly after the war ended and after Eastern Europe was overrun by the Soviets. The narrator show more of the story is one of the young innocents with no intention of getting caught up in the spy game. As he explains, "It wasn't until the Orient Express was nearing the Hungarian frontier, about two hours out of Vienna, that I found I was traveling on the passport of a murdered man." Wow. What an opening to the story!

It so happens that Maria Torres sits down in the train car with the narrator, John Stodder, thinking that she is meeting up with her employer, Marcel Blaye. It turns out though that Blaye never made it to the train and Stodder bought a false passport from a contact that had belonged to Blaye only with Stodder's picture now in it. To make matters worse, it turns out that Blaye was selling secrets from German scientists who had survived the war to the Soviets. And, Stoddard has not a clue what those secrets are or why they are important.

It is a well-told story, particularly the beginning as Stoddard tries to figure out what he and Maria have gotten themselves into with the Soviets after them, the Germans trying to re-establish a Fourth Reich, and the American spies are there too. There is plenty of intrigue here and gunfights. It is also remarkable how early this was written and how much spy fiction came after
Most of the action takes place in Soviet-controlled Hungary and Parker does a great job of capturing the life under Soviet domination with

locals afraid to speak their minds and secret police everywhere. Even the cocktail waitresses at the nightclub were fearful to say anything that could be misconstrued. It was not a happy time in Eastern Europe to say the least. Parker points out that for many of the peasants there was not much difference between Soviet and German control.

All in all, it is a fine addition to the Hard Case Crime series. show less

"Passport to Peril" is a Hard Case crime book by the *original* Robert B. Parker (if you want a laugh, look it up on Amazon and see how many negative reviews it got from people pissed off that it's not the Robert B. Parker who wrote the Spenser books). It was a nifty little spy/espionage novel taking place after WW2. John Stoddard is traveling to Hungary to investigate what happened to his brother, who was last seen parachuting out of a plane in the area. On the train, he meets a beautiful show more woman named Maria, who is looking for her boss, who was supposed to be on the train. Her boss's name is Marcel Blaye, and Stoddard immediately knows something is wrong, since he's traveling on Blaye's passport that he bought in Geneva, not realizing it's a murdered man's passport. Maria has an envelope that Blaye intrusted to her, an envelope full of names that Russians and Germans and everyone else under the sun seem to be after. It was pretty interesting. show less

A fine pulp spy thriller

If you are in the market for a good old fashioned pulp spy thriller then this is perfect. Written in the 50's by X who had a rather fascinating life himself. We have murders on trains, Nazi's still dreaming of WWII, chases in snowy forests, evil Russians, femme fatales and a beautiful dame in distress. Cold war conspiracies and gunfights what more do you want? In short, hugely engaging story with one of those fantastic hard case crime covers

Recommended.