Last Rites

The Destroyer #100

by Warren Murphy (Series Creator), Richard Sapir (Series Creator), Will Murray

Preparing for the Sinanju Rite of Attainment, Remo Williams finds his warrior skills pushed to their limits as he travels throughout the world, especially when he discovers that the only prize may be death. Original.

Genres: Action, Fiction, Mystery

352 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Warren Murphy was an American author, most famous as the co-creator of The Destroyer series, the basis for the film Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins. He worked as a reporter and editor and after service during the Korean War, he drifted into politics.

Murphy also wrote the screenplay for Lethal Weapon 2. He is the author of the Trace and Digger series. With Molly Cochran, he completed two books of a planned trilogy revolving around the character The Grandmaster, The Grandmaster (1984) and High Priest (1989). Murphy also shares writing credits with Cochran on The Forever King and several novels under the name Dev Stryker. The first Grandmaster book earned Murphy and Cochran a 1985 Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original, and Murphy's Pigs Get Fat took the same honor the following year.

His solo novels include Jericho Day, The Red Moon, The Ceiling of Hell, The Sure Thing and Honor Among Thieves. Over his career, Murphy sold over 60 million books.

He started his own publishing house, Ballybunion, to have a vehicle to start The Destroyer spin-off books. Ballybunion has reprinted The Assassin's Handbook, as well as the original works Assassin's Handbook 2, The Movie That Never Was (a screenplay he and Richard Sapir wrote for a Destroyer movie that was never optioned), The Way of the Assassin (the wisdom of Chiun), and New Blood, a collection of short stories written by fans of the series.

He served on the board of the Mystery Writers of America, and was a member of the Private Eye Writers of America, the International Association of Crime Writers, the American Crime Writers League and the Screenwriters Guild.

Reviews

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

After 100 books of training, it's finally time for Remo to become a master of Sinanju. Typically these fall more on the spy side of the spy/kung fu genre mashup, but this one is the exception that proves the rule. This is an all kung fu plotline, but it wouldn't be the Destroyer series without a few additional disparate elements. Remo is doing a sort of weird knock-off version of the labors of Hercules while looking for answers about his parentage with a background of geopolitical tensions that are responding to the power vacuum left by the absence of CURE's number one assassin squad.

It's an unrepentantly silly mess that has continuing effects through at least the next several books (continuity in a series like this? Wild, I know!). This type of series eventually becomes the most extreme version of the "fans of the genre will enjoy..." cliche. You probably shouldn't start reading with this one, but if you've read a few and liked them, then you'll probably like this one too. Should you read this series at all? I don't know, I'm sure there are things of Higher Quality to read, but these provide a refreshing element of humor and creativity that other similar series never seem to achieve.

[hotsake (André Troesch) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This Destroyer adventure was both an idiotic and ridiculous as well as an entertaining read.

[Tony Williams · Rating 2 out of 5]

This novel is absurd. That's not necessarily a bad thing. But here it's just a bit too much. I've read a few Destroyer/Remo Williams novels, but I don't remember them being this... silly. Goofy. Ridiculous. To be sure they were never, ever meant to be serious. It's just that here the tone completely robs the story of any tension or drama. The stakes are undermined by the author's inability to keep things in balance, and the result is that these various elements work at cross purposes rather than compliment one another.

If you're a long time fan, chances are this sort of thing is what you come back to this series for time and time again. All others, I'd advise that you skip this trip.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Destroyer books are, without a doubt, better written than any action series should be. The Labors of Herucles with a modern twist. Emotional moments. Hysterical satire. Couldn't recommend more. You may never look at stewardesses the same again.

[Jeff J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

#100 in the Destroyer series.

[Thom Brannan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my first foray into the novels of The Destroyer. I was in Orlando, FL, doing some portion of my Navy training to be a submariner, and came across this on the shelf. The cover is neat and everything, but what really caught my eye was the pair of names on it. Remo Williams and Chiun. Fireworks went off in my head, because I'd seen (over and over) the movie Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins, but I guess I hadn't paid enough attention to the credits of said movie to know it came from a book series.

And to start at #100, I must have been out of my damn mind, but I read it and loved it and spent the rest of my career, actually, looking for used paperbacks of the earlier books, especially when I was on leave, traveling across these United States. I have a complete set of the novels now, and while some of them have been bad, some of them good, and some of them actually transcendent, this one will always stick out to me, because it was my first.

[Little Timmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the big men's adventure series from the 70's than ran an impressive 145 books. The series while an adventure/action story is also full of satire toward much of the mainstream fads and icons of the time. An interesting main character and the sarcastic mentor makes this a funny action/adventure read. In the one-hundredth adventure of Remo Williams, he is undergoing the Sinanju Rite of Attainment. There are 13 tasks that he must perform in order to become a fully recognized Master of Sinanju and they involve jumping from one part of the world to another and talks with past Masters long dead. Recommended

[Travis · Rating 5 out of 5]

In order to fufill his destiny as Master of Sinaju, Remo Williams must go on a globe hopping quest that sort of mirrors the labors of hercules.
Lots of action, humor and adventure and I love the relationship between Remo and Chuin.

[Ralph McEwen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good action. Well read with very distinct chacter vocalizations.

[Daniel Widrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is the best sort of trash: total tongue-in-cheek nonsense with lots of absurd globe-trotting action and some ghosts and things to top it off.

[Paul Berner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Last Rites

It was a good read and enjoyable. I've read the Destroyer book off and on over the years. They never get old.