Shockwave

Johnny Fedora #13: “Shockwave” by Desmond Cory. Johnny is in Spain in response to a call from a girl he knows. An actress friend is reported to have committed suicide, but she believes the girl was murdered. Johnny doesn’t like being a detective, but he promises to look into the case. Before he gets far into the investigation another odd death occurs with a witness he just talked to, and now he suspects murder also. Contacting the dead actress’s sister, he’s led to a rich man with many contacts who is suspected of the murder of the actress. But the case goes deeper than what is on the surface. There’s another plot much bigger than a few murders, and it involves the destruction of Madrid by an H-Bomb. This was really a good story after it gets started, and Johnny is more the professional spy than I’ve seen him in previous stories where he just stands around looking mean. This time he proves how mean he can be. Very good, and highly entertaining.

Trieste

Johnny Fedora #4: “Trieste” by Desmond Cory. British Intelligence has arrested a man they believe is Gregor Panagos, a communist agitator planning something to cause a war in Jugoslavia, but all that is known is “the balloon goes up August 30.” They send Trout to investigate, and he requests the help of Johnny Fedora, who is no longer attached to the service, but works for them occasionally. Together, they go into Trieste, where they have trouble with the local police, and a highly trained assassin named Palli. I’ve read some Johnny Fedora novels where Fedora just stands around looking deadly, and does nothing till the end of the novel. This is pretty much that plot, although he doesn’t actually stand around looking deadly. In fact through the first hundred pages, he does very little of anything. It’s Trout doing all the work. Thankfully the second half of the book picks up, and Johnny is in a fight to the death in one scene, then another where he must assassinate the assassin. The story was a fun read, but Johnny isn’t really in good form in this one. The author even tries for a bit of humor between Trout and Johnny.