THURSDAY AT NOON

by William F. Brown ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 16, 1986

Here--from the author of The Allah Conspiracy, 1981 (written under the pen name of Christopher Warren)--an espionage novel so full of stereotypes that it's almost generic, but, still, with a rude, pulpy force. It's 1962, and the Cynical Old Hand is brooding in a lowdown Cairo dive about all the Fair-Haired Boys who've screwed up The Company since Jack Kennedy took office. Suddenly, he's rudely interrupted by a Panicky Arab, who heaves his ""fat, sweating carcass"" onto a chair and babbles out some insane tale of Nazi officers and Secret Installations. The Cynical Old Hand dismisses him in disgust (this may be a dive, but it's a white man's dive) but gets interested when the Panicky Arab is found decapitated. In fact, everybody--including the Cynical Old Hand's Blustering Ambassador (and his assistant, The Boy Wonder)--thinks he's involved already anyway. So the Cynical Old Hand does some fairly dangerous Snooping Around and discovers that certain Crazed Moslem Extremists within the Egyptian Army have taken over an old military base and stocked it with Steely-Eyed SS Men and a Mad German Scientist upset that the Americans didn't pick up his option after the war. On Thursday at noon, nuclear missiles will rain down upon the Heroic Israelis, President Nasser will be assassinated, and a nice little jihad will begin. But stopping this kind of foolishness is all in a day's work for the Cynical Old Hand (helped by a Plucky Egyptian Captain), and even before the dust clears, other Old Hands, in lowdown dives all around the world, are shaking their heads and chuckling. Predictable, but this moves briskly enough, and should make Old Hand espionage fans nostalgic for the days when books like this came between garish soft-covers, and cost 50 cents.

Pub Date: Feb. 16, 1986

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1986

Categories: FICTION