The Man From U.N.C.L.E. Number 4: The Dagger Affair

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. #4

by David McDaniel

"Tell us all about Dagger!"

That was the command thrown at Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin by the unseen THRUSH agents who kidnapped and interrogated them with lie detectors. And from each U.N.C.L.E. agent came the same answer: "We know absolutely nothing of DAGGER."

"You appear to be telling the truth," said the hidden voice. "A pity..."

But it was more than merely unfortunate that the U.N.C.L.E. organization had never heard of DAGGER. For the secret behind that name was an insane plot for mass murder - the murder of the human race.

Genres: Fiction, Espionage, Action, Tv, Adventure, Mystery, Thriller

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1965

Reviews

[Benjamin Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

The fourth in the series of Man From U.N.C.L.E. novels is also the first to be written by David McDaniel who would go on to write five more plus an unpublished finale called “The Final Affair”.

Having only read the first three books in this series so far, I must say, this one is easily the best so far. Sure, it’s another story about preventing an evil genius with a new invention from destroying the world, but it’s the method of telling that story that is unique. The U.N.C.L.E. agents are forced into an alliance with arch-enemy THRUSH in order to prevent the evil plot. After all, THRUSH doesn’t want to see the world destroyed; they want to take it over and wield power over it. It’s in everybody’s best interests to call a temporary truce and work together.

The characterization of both Solo and Kuryakin this time around is much closer to what was shown in the television series. They are very effective as a team, and in tough situations they are each able to read the actions of the other like a well-oiled machine. They also display a playful banter with each other which is both endearing as well as serves to hi-light their different natures. Even Mr. Waverly gets to have some time in the field. The author includes a fair bit of humor as well, including one scene in an airplane where the movie to be shown is the newest James Bond picture. While Solo is quickly absorbed in the opening sequence, Kuryakin just shakes his head, not understanding how people could enjoy such rubbish.

But the best part of this novel is that we finally get to understand the nature of THRUSH, not only learning what that acronym stands for but also to learn of its history and what its primary goals are. That sure beats the vague “bad guy organization” we’ve known about up until this point. The higher-up THRUSH characters of Ward and Irene Baldwin are not only nicely-drawn characters but also work well as a way to put a face to the THRUSH organization and even almost become anti-heroes. It’s always nice to have educated, honorable (at least on the surface), and gentlemanly foes to work with. Working alongside THRUSH agents in life-or-death scenarios might be distasteful at first but we readers tend to get lulled into complacency right along with Solo, Kuryakin, and Weatherly, all the while knowing this won’t last and soon they would once again be enemies.

I’m glad to know there are more U.N.C.L.E. books still to come written by David McDaniel. Looking forward to them all.

[A.L. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've heard that David McDaniel is one of the better Uncle writers, and that holds true with this book. The Dagger Affair is a pretty good rip-roaring tale with the added attraction of a deranged villain causing Thrush and Uncle to temporarily join forces. We're treated to the history and background of Thrush via a charming Thrush leader and his sweetly sadistic wife. One part of the novel that stayed with me from my first reading twenty years ago was the attempt to make a man talk by chaining him to the moving cable of the San Fransisco cable car, a task the Thrush wife takes great delight in. The book strays towards Raymond Chandler, but not absurdly so, has lots of Waverly, and well drawn portrayals of Napoleon and Illya. Plenty of humour and drama, and a diabolically evil device at the centre of the plot. The only glaring issue is that if our duo had thought to take the deranged villain in at the start of the book when he was unconscious in their hands, the whole thing might have been avoided.

[Mike (the Paladin) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I remember this one (and a couple of others) better than the rest. If you check my reviews of the earlier Man From U.N.C.L.E. tie in novels, you know that when I was (say) 13-15 I was a rabid U.N.C.L.E. fan. I had all the novels (not to mention a lot of other memorabilia) and this may be the best. I still remember the villains (Ward and Irene Baldwin) and Napoleon's near demise (demises?) also the expansion of THRUSH (Technological Hierarchy for the Removal of Undesirables and the Subjugation of Humanity )

I really enjoyed these books (and the TV series...even the bad episodes) and get sucked into the nostalgia every time I run across it in almost any form, so prejudice admitted, this may be the best of the lot and for me it's a 5.

[Macjest · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the better Man From UNCLE books. In this outing, not only do we learn how THRUSH began, we get to see the two opposing sides team up together against another threat. The Energy Damper device was interesting if a bit questionable. What I enjoyed here was how well developed the “bad” guys were. Their method of getting someone to talk was highly creative. It involved chaining someone to the cable car line. Looking forward to more from this author.

[Michael P. · Rating 3 out of 5]

ADAPTATION SCHOLARS, TAKE NOTE OF THIS BOOK.

Is it possible for a TV-tie in to be better than the series? In theory, yes, but I had not seen it actually happen until I read this novelizaton of THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E.

However glowing your memories of the show may be, it really was not very good in the sixties and looks worse when viewed today, at least after the excellent pilot. This book, however, is just a good book, whether you like the series or not. It is punchilly written, the story moves, the author bothers with characterizations of both familiar and unfamiliar characters, and he makes some things that seemed implausible about the series, especially the villainous organization Thrush, seem much more plausible.

McDaniel does almost everything right starting with giving Thrush a human face, a likable villain who is dedicated to the organization and to himself, which amount to the same thing in this telling. He makes sense of their systems and divisions is most ways, though McDaniel makes the mistake of telling us that Thrush is a smaller organization than U.N.C.L.E., which is quite impossible. Operating with the cooperation of many nations and the law enforcement of those nations means that U.N.C.L.E. does not need the intelligence operation that Thrush would need nor the infrastructure to ensure their secrecy. McDaniel did not think this through.

There are minor problems. The explanation of the Thrush acronym is lame, even if you concede its fictional age. Waverly always calls Napoleon Solo, "Mr. Solo" in the TV series, so the familiar form of address in the book stands out as wrong and there seems to be one or more scenes missing between pages 87 and 88, thought that may have been hurried writing or bad copy editing. The addition of a mere sentence could fix this problem.

Nor did McDaniel think through the McGuffin of this story. It is an energy damper that shuts off electricity, including batteries and the electrical system in the human body. What powers it? We know it is not wind, solar, or the waves, so it has to be batteries or electricity. Since it works by proximity, that which is closest to the machine shuts off first as the dampening field expands. In other words, it should shut itself off first before it can shut off anything else. This problem did not occur to the author, and that was a very, very stupid mistake.

That aside, there are several pleasures including four Shakespeare quotations, well, three with one repeated, the origin of Thrush - it began from the ashes of the criminal organization run by Prof. Moriarty, Sherlock Holmes's adversary, and something the TV series never had: a real sense of place, here San Francisco, to ground the improbable story in the real world. Overall this book is quite an achievement and mostly holds up more than 50 years after it was written. How many TV tie-ins can you say that about?

[Trin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mystery box book #30!

...I read this one before?! Oh my god, I truly remembered nothing. And it was only five years ago! Bye bye, brain.

Anyway, I stand by everything I said in my original review, below:

Points for: This is the book that (non-canonically) gave Thrush its acronymical meaning -- Technological Hierarchy for the Removal of Undesirables and the Subjugation of Humanity. (Join today!!!) Also for implying that Thrush was founded by Professor Moriarty.

Major deductions for: Making Napoleon and Illya participants in torturing a dude. Ew.

[Ralph · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an important book in the "Man From U.N.C.L.E" series because in it Dave McDaniel (the best of the handful who wrote these novelizations) not only gives us the history of THRUSH, tracing it from 19th Century London as the brainchild of a man who could be Professor Moriarty, but finally tells us what THRUSH means and why it is always written in upper case letters...it has nothing to do with the bird.

[Lily · Rating 4 out of 5]

McDaniel captured the characters well--Illya gets knocked out three times, Napoleon is distracted by ladies, and they easily let the bad guys get away. Perfect.
(I got 3 different McDaniel MFU books for my birthday and I'm quite pleased. Don't let my snark fool you, these spies may be incompetent at times but the knuckleheads kind of own my heart.)

[Sandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

David McDaniel enjoys a reputation as being the best of the 10 authors who lent their hand at writing an U.N.C.L.E. novel for this 23-book series, and in his first of six offerings, we get a chance to see why this is so. In this very solid entry, a nihilistic "mad scientist," Kim Keldur, has come up with an Energy Damper device with which he hopes to eliminate all life on Earth. His Dagger organization is indeed so very intimidating that Thrush, startlingly enough, proposes a temporary truce with U.N.C.L.E. until after the dire emergency is over. Highlights of this fine outing include a Thrush interrogation of Napoleon and Illya to ascertain just what they know about Dagger; a tense sequence at Boulder Dam, at which a Dagger agent is attempting to plant a miniaturized version of the Energy Damper; the retrieval of that minidevice at California's Shaver Lake, after a Thrush attempt to steal it; a blackout at U.N.C.L.E. HQ in NYC, after that same device tamps out all power there; the stunning scene in which four Thrushies arrive at U.N.C.L.E. HQ to propose that truce...and a provisional alliance; Napoleon, Illya and Mr. Waverly's meeting with Ward Baldwin, the head of Thrush in San Francisco, and his wife Irene; a gunfight in an electronics warehouse; the ingenious and harrowing torture of a Dagger agent utilizing the San Francisco cable car system; another firefight, this one in a Dagger workshop, followed by a San Francisco car chase sequence that gives the one in "Bullitt" a run for its money; the final battle in an Oakland airport hangar; and, shades of a James Bond movie, a final action coda, just when you thought things were winding down. As you can see, nonstop thrills from beginning to end! McDaniel's book provides colorful backdrops of the Los Angeles, Boulder Dam, and Bay Area locales, as well as interesting factoids concerning Waverly's beginnings with U.N.C.L.E., and the history of Thrush. And, for the first time, flabbergastingly enough, we learn that "Thrush" is also an acronym, and that it stands for Technological Hierarchy for the Removal of Undesirables and the Subjugation of Humanity! Also of interest: the fact that Napoleon is 33 years old (was this ever stated before?), and that Illya's apartment is in Brooklyn Heights. The author also gets the bantering yet respectful relationship between Solo and Kuryakin just right here, and his book gives the reader some pleasing bits of humor to relieve the suspense. I love it when Napoleon, settling down to watch a 007 movie during a cross-country flight, is told by Illya "I'll never understand what you see in that escapist nonsense"! Nice to have Mr. Waverly very much a part of the action in this adventure, too, rather than just giving orders from behind a desk; his relationship with Ward Baldwin, his counterpart and a man whose life he once saved during WW1, is a fascinating one. The Baldwins are wonderful characters, by the way, Ward being ruthless and urbane, and Irene sweet and proper...as well as a wicked shot with a Derringer and a holy terror behind the wheel! In all, a wonderfully entertaining installment in the U.N.C.L.E. series....

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

[Tim Deforest · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's my understanding that this is the first of the Man from U.N.C.L.E. novels written after the series began to air--the first three (all very good) had only the series bible to work off of.

So this is the first one that has a chance to catch the full flavor of the TV series. I think it largely succeeds.

The agents of U.N.C.L.E. normally battle the evil organization THRUSH. But now a mad scientist has created a competing evil organization called DAGGER. He's invented an energy dampener--a devise that does exactly what it says. It cancels out all energy--electrical, chemical, nuclear, etc--in its range. It can also be set to cancel biological energy--killing any living thing within its range. The scientist really is mad and plans to build a device big enough to wipe out life on Earth.

The first part of the book has Napoloen and Illya investigating; getting captured by THRUSH; getting captured by DAGGER; capturing a small version of the energy dampener; having this stolen by THRUSH; then getting it back.

Eventually, U.N.C.L.E. and THRUSH realize they have to team-up to stop DAGGER. THRUSH, after all, can't rule the world if the world is dead.

It's a fun premise and its very well-executed. The THRUSH agents with whom our heroes must work are great characters. There are several truly exciting action scenes. The plot unfolds in a logical manner. And the climatic battle against DAGGER (in which Napoleon's boss Mr. Waverly joins in) is excellent.

We also learn about the history of THRUSH--information that was never used in the series, but that I think is so cool that it should be considered canon (an opinion which I understand many fans of the show agree with). THRUSH stands for "The Technological Hierarchy for the Removal of Undesirables and the Subjugation of Humanity". And the organization was formed in the late 19th Century from the remnants of Professor Moriarty's criminal organization after the Professor's death.

That's just cool.

[Neri]

I found my copy in a box smothered between even older Harlequin Presents romance novels -- teenage me lived an exciting life of romancing and spying. I cracked it open because that cover is so quintessential Man from U.N.C.L.E. and nostalgia hit me right in the solar plexus.

David McDaniel was a big fan of the show and it showed in his knowledge of the characters & ability to set the right tone. I believe this is the one I liked the most of the series. That's saying a lot since another one of them has Illya's face as the cover and I was head-over-heels for Illya, LOL. McDaniel's is an energetic writer and very readable.

[Bill Donhiser · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another guilty pleasure. Childhood memories. If I had rated this the first time I read it (in the 1960's) I would have given it a five, now it is a 3+. This time Napoleon and Illya are battling Dagger and are temporary allies with THRUSH. Fun and nostalgic.

[Katherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was quite surprised by how enjoyable this book was. Yes, the plot is stereotypical "bad guy tries to destroy the world" but the characters were well written and there was a nicely fleshed out world and some very enjoyable action and dialogue.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 UNCLE and Thrush need to team up against a common enemy who has created a device that could end all of humanity. The premise is good, but it's pretty low stakes overall. The books so far have all fallen short when it comes to the fun banter between Solo and Kuryakin.

[Peter Ackerman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extremely enjoyable classic spy series novel. In this one UNCLE joins forces with THRUSH to combat DAGGER. Really great.

[Kent Archie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The team up between UNCLE and THRUSH and the discussions of the organizations
origins and philosophies are more interesting than the actual plot.

[Alexandra · Rating 2 out of 5]

meh. its alright but not very engaging, awkward pacing and undeveloped characters.

[LadySnowAngel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Best of the three I've read.

[jojo de biblio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun book. Light read. One of those can easily fly through if you don’t get distracted by life. Meant to finish it before my trip to NY but didn’t. Meant to finish while being there but didn’t. Didn’t finish it on the plane there. Not on the trains. Not even on the automobiles. But I finally sat down and killed the last bit of pages on the flight back home. Again, pretty solid little old school spy book. Enemies to work lovers fighting against a third enemy with a much harsher mission. Good perceives all. Including the DAGGER organization. Hope to find another one of these series in my lifetime. Perhaps with a cooler foe.

[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

[Ed Wyrd · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another fun, pulp-like read. This time UNCLE and THRUSH, mortal enemies, must team up to stop a new world-wide danger. Waverly actually sees some action in the field.

[Ronald]

read during school year 1965-66, possibly in spring