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The Man from U.N.C.L.E. #11
The Invisibility Affair
An invisible dirigible?
A moment before, the house had been solid, completely normal in appearence. Then, suddenly, it wasn't there. Instead, there was a huge circular pit in the ground, almost as if a bomb had destroyed everything. But there had been no explosion, no sound...nothing.
The U.N.C.L.E. agent who stumbled upon this discovery could hardly believe the evidence of his own eyes - but he knew he had to report it to Mr. Waverly. And when he did, Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin were plunged into the strangest adventure of their careers, fighting a deadly THRUSH weapon they couldn't even see!
A moment before, the house had been solid, completely normal in appearence. Then, suddenly, it wasn't there. Instead, there was a huge circular pit in the ground, almost as if a bomb had destroyed everything. But there had been no explosion, no sound...nothing.
The U.N.C.L.E. agent who stumbled upon this discovery could hardly believe the evidence of his own eyes - but he knew he had to report it to Mr. Waverly. And when he did, Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin were plunged into the strangest adventure of their careers, fighting a deadly THRUSH weapon they couldn't even see!
158 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1967
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
October 30, 2025
Starting out, I wasn't sure I'd continue, then it got good, then it seemed anticlimactic at the end; stretching it out for a page count?
June 25, 2024
Our favorite agents are back in the American Midwest in this, the first of two back-to-back U.N.C.L.E. novels by Thomas Stratton. When an eccentric scientist named Willard Morthley goes missing, some months after Wisconsin deputy/part-time U.N.C.L.E. agent Charlie Reed had seen the doctor's house wink out of existence, Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin are sent to investigate. Ultimately, it's revealed that Thrush has kidnapped the scientist and stolen his novel invisibility device; with the latter, they hope to refit a 40-year-old German zeppelin and transform it into the ultimate weapon...an invisible dirigible! (Kinda rolls right off the tongue, doesn't it?)
Stratton, a pen name for the authors Buck Coulson and Gene DeWeese, sets his book squarely in the state of Wisconsin, as the action zips back and forth from Milwaukee to Cudahy to Richland Center to Fond du Lac to Manitowoc, all before an exciting denouement in (and over) the fictitious Central American country of San Sebastian, where a revolution is in progress. Napoleon and Illya's allies in this outing include Reed; Kerry Griffin, the scientist's niece; and Don Brattner, the head of U.N.C.L.E.'s Milwaukee HQ. Their foes include such Thrushes as the lean and suave Ivan Forbes; the shotgun-toting octogenarian Ezra Sanders; bald-headed and earring-sporting Hunter; and Arpad McNulty, the junior executive type who had come up with the zeppelin idea. Action highlights in this particular affair include Solo and Kuryakin's escape from a locked car trunk and a subsequent fight utilizing 50 pounds of stick margarine (yes, you read that right); a raid on Thrush HQ in Milwaukee (actually, a modest suite in a residential apartment building); the infiltration of Thrush's underground dirigible hangar in the Wisconsin wilderness; Illya's impersonation of a German zeppelin captain; and the absolutely thrilling sequence in which Napoleon and Kuryakin sneak into that dirigible and commandeer it with 50+ Thrushes aboard. The authors' book gives us an interesting look at the U.N.C.L.E. headquarters in Milwaukee (entered not through a dry-cleaning establishment, as the NYC HQ is, but rather through a record shop), and curiously makes repeated references to how budget strapped both U.N.C.L.E. and Thrush happen to be. (And all this time I thought Mr. Waverly's budget was practically limitless!)
Coulson and DeWeese obviously did their homework as regards Wisconsin (an area that they patently knew very well...so much so that a road map of the state might come in handy here!) and as regards armaments; thus, the references to the .357 magnum, Mauser, Walther P38, Smith & Wesson K-38, and the Ithaca shotgun. And in a pleasing bit of continuity from Book #8, "The Monster Wheel Affair," the Gyrojet pistol is even briefly mentioned. The novel features no shortage of offhand humor, too; how amusing it is when McNulty refers to Solo and Kuryakin as "the Dynamic Duo"! And bonus points for turning this reader on to the word "axolotl." In all, another solid entry, even if the first half feels as if we are being pulled hither and yon across the state, and despite the fact that our two agents never engage in any shoot-outs or rough-and-tumble violence from beginning to end. (I suppose we can't reasonably expect them to suffer physical abuse in every book, right?) Curiously enough, all four of those aforementioned Thrushes remain not only alive by this affair's end, but very much at large, to boot. And the issue of Russ Wolff, an U.N.C.L.E. agent from Chicago whom we suspect (or, at least, whom I suspected) of being a double agent--because the equipment he gives to Solo and Kuryakin fails to function properly--is left unresolved, as well. Perhaps these matters will be addressed in Stratton’s next installment?
(By the way, this review originally appeared on the FanLit website at https://fantasyliterature.com/ ....)
Stratton, a pen name for the authors Buck Coulson and Gene DeWeese, sets his book squarely in the state of Wisconsin, as the action zips back and forth from Milwaukee to Cudahy to Richland Center to Fond du Lac to Manitowoc, all before an exciting denouement in (and over) the fictitious Central American country of San Sebastian, where a revolution is in progress. Napoleon and Illya's allies in this outing include Reed; Kerry Griffin, the scientist's niece; and Don Brattner, the head of U.N.C.L.E.'s Milwaukee HQ. Their foes include such Thrushes as the lean and suave Ivan Forbes; the shotgun-toting octogenarian Ezra Sanders; bald-headed and earring-sporting Hunter; and Arpad McNulty, the junior executive type who had come up with the zeppelin idea. Action highlights in this particular affair include Solo and Kuryakin's escape from a locked car trunk and a subsequent fight utilizing 50 pounds of stick margarine (yes, you read that right); a raid on Thrush HQ in Milwaukee (actually, a modest suite in a residential apartment building); the infiltration of Thrush's underground dirigible hangar in the Wisconsin wilderness; Illya's impersonation of a German zeppelin captain; and the absolutely thrilling sequence in which Napoleon and Kuryakin sneak into that dirigible and commandeer it with 50+ Thrushes aboard. The authors' book gives us an interesting look at the U.N.C.L.E. headquarters in Milwaukee (entered not through a dry-cleaning establishment, as the NYC HQ is, but rather through a record shop), and curiously makes repeated references to how budget strapped both U.N.C.L.E. and Thrush happen to be. (And all this time I thought Mr. Waverly's budget was practically limitless!)
Coulson and DeWeese obviously did their homework as regards Wisconsin (an area that they patently knew very well...so much so that a road map of the state might come in handy here!) and as regards armaments; thus, the references to the .357 magnum, Mauser, Walther P38, Smith & Wesson K-38, and the Ithaca shotgun. And in a pleasing bit of continuity from Book #8, "The Monster Wheel Affair," the Gyrojet pistol is even briefly mentioned. The novel features no shortage of offhand humor, too; how amusing it is when McNulty refers to Solo and Kuryakin as "the Dynamic Duo"! And bonus points for turning this reader on to the word "axolotl." In all, another solid entry, even if the first half feels as if we are being pulled hither and yon across the state, and despite the fact that our two agents never engage in any shoot-outs or rough-and-tumble violence from beginning to end. (I suppose we can't reasonably expect them to suffer physical abuse in every book, right?) Curiously enough, all four of those aforementioned Thrushes remain not only alive by this affair's end, but very much at large, to boot. And the issue of Russ Wolff, an U.N.C.L.E. agent from Chicago whom we suspect (or, at least, whom I suspected) of being a double agent--because the equipment he gives to Solo and Kuryakin fails to function properly--is left unresolved, as well. Perhaps these matters will be addressed in Stratton’s next installment?
(By the way, this review originally appeared on the FanLit website at https://fantasyliterature.com/ ....)
June 30, 2026
THRUSH has kidnapped a scientist who has invented an invisibility device--a bulky machine that can generate a field of invisibility depending on how much power it's given.
Much of the initial action takes place in the Wisconson/Minnesota area of the U.S. and the author has some fun satirizing government bureaucracy as Napoleon and Illya are helped by an underfunded and understaffed branch of U.N.C.L.E.
In terms of plot, the search for the kidnapped scientists progresses in a logical (well, logical in the U.N.C.L.E. universe) manner and there are several captures and escapes as the good guys and bad guys foil each other's plans.
There is, of course, a pretty girl involved--this time, the niece of the scientist, a technical writer who falls into a multisyllabic vocabulary when she's nervous. For instance, when she tells the two agents that a change of clothes and a bath are available to them in a guest room, she says: "The garments procured for your utilization have been given temporary storage space in the sleep module reserved for non-residents. Cleansing facilities are available in the immediately adjacent area." You can't help but like her.
Eventually, the action moves to a Central American country, where THRUSH has rigged up a war surplus German dirigible with the invisibility machine and plans to use it to stage a take-over of the country. Napoleon and Illya have to escape from captivity, hijack an airship they can't actually see, rescue the scientist and her niece and escape machine gun fire from a THRUSH helicopter.
Of the 11 "Man from U.N.C.L.E" novels I've read so far, this is one of the sillier ones, but it's also a lot of fun. Thomas Stratton wrote #12 as well, so I'll see how much I like that one before long.
Much of the initial action takes place in the Wisconson/Minnesota area of the U.S. and the author has some fun satirizing government bureaucracy as Napoleon and Illya are helped by an underfunded and understaffed branch of U.N.C.L.E.
In terms of plot, the search for the kidnapped scientists progresses in a logical (well, logical in the U.N.C.L.E. universe) manner and there are several captures and escapes as the good guys and bad guys foil each other's plans.
There is, of course, a pretty girl involved--this time, the niece of the scientist, a technical writer who falls into a multisyllabic vocabulary when she's nervous. For instance, when she tells the two agents that a change of clothes and a bath are available to them in a guest room, she says: "The garments procured for your utilization have been given temporary storage space in the sleep module reserved for non-residents. Cleansing facilities are available in the immediately adjacent area." You can't help but like her.
Eventually, the action moves to a Central American country, where THRUSH has rigged up a war surplus German dirigible with the invisibility machine and plans to use it to stage a take-over of the country. Napoleon and Illya have to escape from captivity, hijack an airship they can't actually see, rescue the scientist and her niece and escape machine gun fire from a THRUSH helicopter.
Of the 11 "Man from U.N.C.L.E" novels I've read so far, this is one of the sillier ones, but it's also a lot of fun. Thomas Stratton wrote #12 as well, so I'll see how much I like that one before long.
April 6, 2023
One of my favorites of the UNCLE books, partly because of the plot and partly because it was set in Wisconsin, where I am from. The author had a lot of details about places and roads but that could be gotten from a map
The stuff about the margarine problem requires a deeper knowledge of Wisconsin in the 1970s
The stuff about the margarine problem requires a deeper knowledge of Wisconsin in the 1970s
January 9, 2019
Another fun trip to the past. This time Thrush has a zeppelin and the ability to make it invisible. All the usual, civilians drawn into helping solve the Affair. Bad guys making bad decisions overall a great deal of fun
January 2, 2016
This was another mediocre plot which I had difficulty gathering enough interest in to follow, but honestly the very first section of the book is going down in my favorites for several reasons, not the least of which being a 24 pound shipment of illegal cross-border margarine. First of all, the very existence and subsequent struggles of the tiny Milwaukee office did my heart good, especially imagining the long and drawn out battle against urban renewal they'd been facing.
But I don't even want people to read this book, I just want to present my friends and politely interested strangers with selected quotes from the butter-relevant first half as Napoleon and Illya's favor to a not-so-secretly spying local sherrif to transport 24lbs of margarine to his house since it's apparently illegal to get colored margarine in the state of Wisconsin at the time and he's law enforcement so it's a bit awkward devolves into an indescribably singular experience involving a kidnapping, many different applications of sticks of butter, and two grown men being bound and gagged and shoved into a car trunk but having no space to manouver because of the 24 pounds of butter they forgot to return to its rightful owner.
With gems like "He smeared Illya's wrists and hands, not to mention his shirt, the ropes, and the trunk floor" and "You have never lived," [Napoleon] announced, "until you've squashed a quarter-pound stick of margarine in your bare hands," I was laughing out loud for a solid twenty minutes as they attempted to escape. The running gags about Waverly and the expense accounts paired with the miraculous existence of a Milwaukee branch at all kept me going too. I can't put my opinion on this novel into words any better than Napoleon did. Should you read this entire book? Possibly not, though it's not the worst of the tie-ins I've read by far. But:
"No sir," Napoleon replied. "We've been dealing intimately with some smuggled margarine."
But I don't even want people to read this book, I just want to present my friends and politely interested strangers with selected quotes from the butter-relevant first half as Napoleon and Illya's favor to a not-so-secretly spying local sherrif to transport 24lbs of margarine to his house since it's apparently illegal to get colored margarine in the state of Wisconsin at the time and he's law enforcement so it's a bit awkward devolves into an indescribably singular experience involving a kidnapping, many different applications of sticks of butter, and two grown men being bound and gagged and shoved into a car trunk but having no space to manouver because of the 24 pounds of butter they forgot to return to its rightful owner.
With gems like "He smeared Illya's wrists and hands, not to mention his shirt, the ropes, and the trunk floor" and "You have never lived," [Napoleon] announced, "until you've squashed a quarter-pound stick of margarine in your bare hands," I was laughing out loud for a solid twenty minutes as they attempted to escape. The running gags about Waverly and the expense accounts paired with the miraculous existence of a Milwaukee branch at all kept me going too. I can't put my opinion on this novel into words any better than Napoleon did. Should you read this entire book? Possibly not, though it's not the worst of the tie-ins I've read by far. But:
"No sir," Napoleon replied. "We've been dealing intimately with some smuggled margarine."
July 6, 2016
So far I've learnt that ice cream vending machines are a thing, and that at one point margarine was illegal in the state of Wisconsin. I've also read one of the funniest scenes to date in one of these books, as Illya and Napoleon grease themselves up with contraband margarine to slip out of their bonds and proceed to overcome two Thrush operatives with only margarine as a weapon.
The book continues in the same vein, endlessly amusing, inventive, and typically Man From Uncle, with good portrayals of Napoleon and Illya and a good female character as well. Well worth reading.
The book continues in the same vein, endlessly amusing, inventive, and typically Man From Uncle, with good portrayals of Napoleon and Illya and a good female character as well. Well worth reading.
October 21, 2007
Like fanfiction only without all the sex...
At one point Napoleon and Illya have to escape from the truck of a car with the help of a whole lot of margarine. Um, yeah, that part was awesome.
At one point Napoleon and Illya have to escape from the truck of a car with the help of a whole lot of margarine. Um, yeah, that part was awesome.
January 19, 2010
Read and owned these as a kid! Purchased for $0.25 each 'way back when'... Illya Kuryakin in a black turtleneck...
5 stars back then, all in good fun. Hee!
5 stars back then, all in good fun. Hee!
May 21, 2010
standard television novel
November 25, 2012
The bad guys have an invisible dirigible - cool! Enjoyed it very much. 3 1/2 stars.
April 29, 2015
Excellent book adaptation of the TV series. Great spy adventure book. This is how the CIA and FBI should operate. Recommended
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews