The Man From U.N.C.L.E. Number 13 The Rainbow Affair

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. #13

by David McDaniel

Who was Johnnie Rainbow?
THRUSH's alliance with an international criminal mastermind must be prevented - but can Illya and Napoleon find Johnnie Rainbow in time?

Genres: Fiction, Mystery, Adventure, Action, Espionage, Thriller, Media Tie In

Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1967

Reviews

[Ralph · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dave NcDaniel was the best of the writers contracted for this series, and he always took pains to pay homage to other great pulp heroes (and villains) of literature. Nowhere is that more apparent, or so well executed, as in this book. Although they are never mentioned by name, there is no doubt that our intrepid UNCLE agents cross paths with Dr Fu Manchu, the Saint, Steed and Mrs Peel, Sherlock Holmes, Bulldog Drummond and other luminaries. An average reader will find this a well-written and exciting adventure story, but for the reader well versed in the "literature of the sensational" it will be so much more.

[Little Timmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Excellent book adaptation of the TV series. Great spy adventure book. This is how the CIA and FBI should operate. Recommended

[Anthony · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first Man From UNCLE novel I've read, so I can't weigh it against the others in the series. However, it is the entry in the series that comes the most highly recommended by my friends who love, as I do, the concept of fictional characters from different franchises co-existing in the same world. Fans of Philip Jose Farmer's Wold Newton Family concept or Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen comic books will equally enjoy this UNCLE adventure in which Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin meet a plethora of British spy and detective types, including (but not always identified by name) Sherlock Holmes, Miss Marple, Father Brown, John Steed & Emma Peel, and Simon Templar. There are even a few scenes with the notorious Doctor Fu Manchu. Readers who love picking out veiled (and not-so-veiled) references such as these will get extra enjoyment out of the book.

It's been a long time since I've seen any episodes of the television series (although this book prompted me to buy the Complete Series on dvd recently), but both Solo and Kuryakin and their boss Mister Waverly seem entirely in character throughout the book.

It's a breezy read, fun and fast-moving. The Affair is not an especially complicated one: locate the man responsible for planning The Great Train Robbery among other crimes, a man who does not want to be found and who does not want his autonomy compromised by organizations like UNCLE and THRUSH, and bring him to justice or at least convince him not to partner with THRUSH. There are a few cute turns of events but nothing especially surprising.

[Christian Doherty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Out of all the books in The Man From U.N.C.L.E. series, this one was probably my favorite so far! It was well-written with interesting characters and entertaining to boot! It was no. 13 in the series and
the writing had probably hit its stride. Worth reading!

[Sandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hoo, boy, is this a wild one! In this U.N.C.L.E. book, lucky No. 13, David McDaniel solidifies his reputation of being the ablest of the series' novelists, in his fourth of six offerings. Here, a master criminal with the alias Johnnie Rainbow (so no relation to Randy), once a high-ranking military man in the British Army and fresh off such daring coups as the 1963 Great Train Robbery and a Rothschild bullion heist, is being courted by Thrush to join its ranks. Thus, Waverly sends Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin across the pond to (a) determine if there really is such a criminal mastermind as Johnnie Rainbow and (b) prevent him from teaming up with the evil organization if there is.

But those plot points are hardly what most U.N.C.L.E. fans seem to remember today about this book. Rather, the guest cameos by a slew of Britain's preeminent crimefighters are what make this particular outing so very memorable. OMG, those cameos...none of them named outright, but all unmistakable by their descriptions! As Solo and Illya are told by a Scotland Yard official, "...until this business is resolved one way or another, you will continue to encounter people whose concern seems serious if peripheral. Many of them you will find useful...." Thus, our U.N.C.L.E. agents, during the course of their investigation, are introduced to John Steed and Emma Peel, of TV's "The Avengers." Illya converses with the Saint himself, Simon Templar, and the two are given invaluable assistance not only by G. K. Chesterton's Father Brown and Agatha Christie's Miss Jane Marple, but also by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes (!), now a beekeeper pushing 100 and going by the name William Escott. And oh...they are at one point kidnapped by the minions of a devil-faced Chinese fiend who can only be Sax Rohmer's insidious Dr. Fu Manchu, who is also being pestered by the emissaries of Thrush. (Superspy James Bond is mentioned but not encountered, incidentally; "Let's hope we don't run into HIM," Illya opines!) It is all a tremendous hoot, and such big fun! This old fan of all things Emma, Sherlock and Fu just ate it all up with a spoon while grinning happily.

But McDaniel's book also offers other pleasures besides those guest cameos. It features at least a half dozen well-done action sequences, for starters: a huge nighttime melee in the London streets between the London bobbies and our U.N.C.L.E. duo on one side, and dozens of Rainbow's men on the other; Fu's kidnapping of Solo and Illya, and Rainbow's kidnappings of the two individually; the shootout near Stonehenge, after a Thrush drop-off of equipment to Rainbow's men; and Solo and Kuryakin's dangerous, nighttime transit, during a storm and in a small sailboat, to Rainbow's island headquarters in the Bristol Channel. And the book provides the reader with details about the inner workings of Thrush that we'd not been privy to before, as well as some personal details about Solo (he'd been married at age 19 and lost his wife soon after in a car wreck...who knew?) and some facts about U.N.C.L.E. (it represents every nation on Earth except for...Red China and Albania). And McDaniel happily adds continuity to his story by making passing references to people and things from his previous books: to Ward Baldwin from "The Dagger Affair"; to the bloodsucker in "The Vampire Affair"; and to Dauringa Island in "The Monster Wheel Affair." Not to mention Holmes' reference to the Thrush prototype organization, which was suggested to have been formed by Prof. Moriarty in "The Dagger Affair" as well. And joy of joys, McDaniel for once corrects the previous U.N.C.L.E. authors in their misuse of the term "satrap" rather than "satrapy"! I was so happy to finally see this. Unfortunately, he negates this vocabulary coup by mistakenly using the word "precipitously" instead of "precipitately" in one of his chapter headings. How could the copy editor/proofreader at Ace Books have missed that? Another chapter heading error occurs in Chapter 11's "How Napoleon and Illya Heard a Violin, and the Old Old Gentleman Spoke of Bees, Drugs, Death and Other Mysteries." The only problem: The old old man (Holmes) does not bring up the subject of drugs once. Another oopsie. And while I'm carping, when Napoleon is fleeing from the Stonehenge melee on bicycle, heading southeast, the author mentions that the largest town near him is Shaftesbury. Look at a map...isn't the closest large town Salisbury? But these are minor matters, and "The Rainbow Affair" happily remains one of the finest in this series. Oddly enough, this most British of affairs was one of the seven U.N.C.L.E. books not to be published in England. Their very great loss....

(By the way, this review originally appeared on the FanLit website at https://fantasyliterature.com/ ....)

[Bill Donhiser · Rating 4 out of 5]

Napoleon and Illya take on Thrush and encounter and interesting thief by the name of Johnny Rainbow

[Chriss · Rating 2 out of 5]

This novel is one step up from a fan-fic; The Saint, Sherlock Holmes, Miss Marple, Fu Manchu, 007 and other famous British detective novel characters make an appearance. This really isn't a book about U.N.C.L.E., and everyone's favorite spying duo are pretty much just the premise for McDaniel to get paid to write a fan-fic with his favorite literary characters.

[Simon Mcleish · Rating 4 out of 5]

The most fun of the Man From UNCLE tie in books, it fails to take the TV series seriously at all, introducing a large number of characters from other fiction (from Sherlock Holmes, John Steed and Father Brown to Neddie Seagoon - not all having their original names). They aid Napoleon and Ilya in their search across southern England for master criminal Johnny Rainbow.

[A.L. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brief cameos from Steed and Emma Peel, more blatant ones from an elderly Sherlock Holmes and Miss Marple, among others, and I might have spotted a kind of retrospective mention of Jeeves and Wooster. That’s not to mention Stonehenge getting a look-in, and a mysterious island off the coast that wouldn’t go amiss in a Famous Five book. This is a great, fun read from a good Uncle writer.

[Kent Archie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I rather liked this, especially the Rainbow character.
{ liked how Illya and Napoleon were annoyed that they were investigating a bank robber as this was beneath them.