An Old-Fashioned War

The Destroyer #68

by Warren Murphy, Richard Sapir

Remo and Chiun find themselves divided when the whole world is open for conquest as an ancient evil spawns terror all over the globe

Genres: Thriller, Adventure, Mystery, Action

221 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published April 7, 1987

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

[Gilbert Stack · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting problem for Remo and Chiun. Some Native Americans release the God of War and he “inspires” them to start a successful rebellion against the United States. Very quickly, the new “Indian Uprising” is growing into a major threat for the country and President Reagan wants it stopped without bloodshed so Remo and Chiun are sent in. Everything is going well until Chiun suddenly deserts Remo to return to Sinanju and Remo is forced to face down the bad guy (Mr. Arieson) by himself. He finds that Arieson can’t be killed, although he does force him to retreat, turning into a wisp of smoke and disappearing.

Remo realizes that Chiun must have recognized Arieson in the histories of Sinanju so he returns to the fishing village which is Chiun’s home to read the old scrolls, but Chiun won’t let him read them until he agrees to marry a Korean girl initiating a mildly funny storyline about marriage. Meanwhile, Remo can’t find what he needs in the scrolls and Chiun begins to tell him that the secret to defeating Arieson lies in the stolen treasure of Sinanju. Something Remo disbelieves, but that the reader suspects is true.

Most of the novel involves Remo leaving to get rid of Arieson and then returning to Sinanju to seek answers again and again. It frankly gets a bit old until Arieson tries to start a war in Russia and Anna Chutesov from the last novel gets involved. Anna has brains and together she and Remo begin learning Arieson’s secrets.

There’s a lot to like in this novel—especially the solution to the whereabouts of Sinaju’s stolen treasure. It’s not the best of Destroyer books, but it is certainly enjoyable.

[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. Who was Mr. Arieson, how did he manage to talk people into going to war and what was his ancient relationship to the house of Sinanju? Remo must find out and Chiun won't help. Recommended

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating 3.5

For me one of the better stories in the series.
Nearly gave this a rate 4 stars for entertainment and enjoyment.

An entertaining plot, the interaction between Remo Chiun and Smith were all good.
The characters behaved how long time readers expect them to, no sudden changes to behaviour or never before mentioned skills, what was new simply added to the back story of Sinanju.
The secondary plot of Remo having to marry someone from the village was okay and funny in places but not essential for me.
The Russian agent from the previous book reappears and helped move the story along but did feel like she was mainly there for Remo to have a foil to bounce off since Chiun was back in the village.

Overall a definite recommendation for this one

[Jeff J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

#68 in the Destroyer series. Remo & Chiun encounter an antagonist who revels in war. Much chaos ensues.