Tintin was one of the comic book heroes of my childhood. I'm going to read my way through the series again as I listen to a radio program about him, and his creator, Hergé. Book fifteen in the Tintin series actually has a very long story behind it. Hergé began to write, and publish it years before, but the outbreak of the second world war put a stop to that. Then after the war had ended Hergé began working on it again.
It begins with Thomson, and Thompson driving when their car goes boom. Their car isn't the only one to do this, as there seems to be an outbreak of cars going boom for no apparent reason. War is on the horizon, and Captain Haddock is enlisted to the navy, but Tintin starts to investigate this strange car disease, an investigation that leads him to the Middle East.
Reading this book now is interesting in many ways because of certain similarities between what is happening in the book and on the news. Just think about the European energy crisis for example. But that is about it. It's interesting, but not a great book. Perhaps it suffers from coming after two good two book adventures, and perhaps it's just the long time it took to make it. Either way, it never really takes off for me.
The humour is there, Thomson and Thompson are the butt of most of the jokes, some of which are very well done, like the illness they contract at the end. There is also the long joke around Captain Haddocks mission in the later part of the book, which is unusual in the series, and has quite a funny punchline. But on the whole it's just too little. The adventure is a bit aimless, and the writing doesn't feels as tight as in some other books.
So not among the best, and not among the worst, just a passable Tintin adventure.