Last Call by Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir

Destroyer 35 Last Call by Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir

Murphy and Sapir definitely did not like the CIA in the 1970s. Several of their books have plot elements that stress the incompetence of the organization and its failure to prioritize national security. In Last Call, a Carter appointee gets rid of a program he knows nothing about in order to save money—and in so doing, accidentally triggers a doomsday scenario. The program was designed to assassinate key Soviet figures if they launched a nuclear strike on the U.S. but it is set in motion not by a nuclear strike but by a failure to file a report which can’t be filed when the program is shut down.

 

This is a fun novel and let’s Harold Smith get some time in the limelight. Smith set up this program during the Eisenhower Administration when he was still in the CIA. Now Smith has to use Remo and Chiun to try and stop the leader of the Soviet Union from being assassinated.

 

Ruby Gonzalez reappears for the third time in this novel and while she certainly continues to be a sharp and capable operative, I did not think that the banter between her and Remo and Chiun was as effective this time around.