Skin Deep

The Destroyer #49: “Skin Deep” by Warren Murphy (Molly Cochran). “Someone has made off with a nuclear-armed jet bomber just as world leaders are meeting in New York to discuss peace, requiring Chiun and Remo to come to the rescue.” Zoran, a Nazi doctor in the concentration camps during WWII has evading Doctor Smith for 36 years. Now, he has stolen a Stealth plane with atomic warheads, and plans on striking New York. He has a camp next a leper colony on an island near Miami, and continued his experiments on the lepers. Chiun and Remo reach the village of the damned where they learn of Doctor Zoran. Remo is captured while Chiun swims to Miami to contact Doctor Harold Smith, then Smith returns to finally capture the doctor he’s been hunting all these years. This was actually one of the better novels during this time period. A nice read.

Profit Motive

The Destroyer #48: “Profit Motive” by Warren Murphy & Richard Sapir. It seems like a good idea at first--a bacterium developed to consume oil spills at sea. But when the bug mutates, threatening to convert all the petroleum in the world into wax, Western civilization is suddenly up for grabs. And a lot of slimy characters are determined not to let it slip through their fingers. Which is where Remo and Chiun come in--that is, until the Master of Sinanju cuts out ... joining the opposition. It seems that black gold generates a lot of the yellow kind and someone's offering to send a little something extra to a certain Korean village ... Remo's left in a real bind. And with his mentor bent on wiping out all that the ex-cop stands for, now, more than ever, it looks as if the Destroyer and CURE are nearing the end of the road. Well, not really, it’s all a plan to stop the madness, but the novel is a little sillier than normal, and the extra length (it is a super novel, after all) doesn’t help the reader any. Usually I don’t mind the silliness, but this was a bit too much. Not one of the best.

Dying Space

The Destroyer #47: “Dying Space” by Warren Murphy (Molly Cockran). Mr. Gordons is back. A Russian spy enters a secret lab to steal a super computer at UCLA. He can’t escape with it openly, so places in next to the trash bin for pick up the next day. That night the garbage truck arrives early and carts the LC 111 computer to the trash dump. It’s also the location where the remains of the robot, Mr. Gordons were left. Gordons is a survival robot and immediately incorporates its remains into the super computer and they assimilate. Mr. Gordons doesn’t have all his memory yet, but knows where LC 111 originated, and goes there to find the professor in charge. Chium and Remo are sent to find the missing computer, plus the Russian spy is trying to find it. Thinking the computer has been taken to Russia, the Remo and Chiun head there, and so do Mr. Gordons and the professor. This was a fun little story, and a fast read.

Next of Kin

The Destroyer #46: “Next of Kin” by Warren Murphy (Molly Cochran). The Dutchman, trained in Sinanju by Nuihc, on his 25^th birthday he’s supposed to kill Remo and Chiun, but they arrive on his island a year early. Still, they killed his master, so they must die. He trains by killing local drunks and tossing their bodies in the sea. A container full of his victims is discovered and Smith, head of CURE, thinks they were killed by Remo and sends them to the island where Chiun is to catch Remo in the act and kill him. Instead, they discover The Dutchman. Kind of silly, but a fast read.

Lucifer's Weekend

Digger #4: “Lucifer’s Weekend” by Warren Murphy. Digger, Julian Burroughs, is sent to Belton, PA to try to talk the widow, Louis Giillette, in accepting the accidental death clause of one million dollars in her husbands death, but she refuses, saying it would make her genius husband look like an idiot. She only wants the 500 thousand dollars, and forget the accident.  He had been electrocuted while attempting to change a fuse in a breaker box, when there are no fuses in a breaker box, and he’s an electrical genius and would have known that.  She and her daughter are the only ones in town who think he was murdered. Now Digger does also, and he’s willing to investigate. The usual tomfoolery and craziness, but a fun story, nonetheless.

Dead Letter

Digger #3: “Dead Letter” by Warren Murphy. Digger (Julian Burroughs) is going to Boston for his annual physical. His boss, and drinking partner, the night before asks him to look in on his daughter Allison at Waldo University while he’s there. It seems on her last visit she appeared depressed, and her father Frank Stevens found a newspaper clipping about the death of a bar owner in her possession. Why would his daughter be upset about a bar owner’s death? When Digger arrives he discovers everything is mixed up at the university, and there appears to be a chain letter circulating – a letter with a list of people to be murdered. Although Tamiko Funucci isn’t with him, he can still reach her in Vegas for help with the mystery. And he must solve it before Allison’s name is listed on the dead letter. This was the usual fun story not cluttered with a lot of people or too much mystery. The best of Warren Murphy is his dialogue, which is some of the best of any writer. A quick and fun read