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The Destroyer #43
Midnight Man
Elmo Wimpler, weak in body but strong in mind, has finally invented something worthwhile. It’s not dry cereal that tastes like ham and eggs, it’s far better than he could’ve dreamed. A black paint, when applied liberally to any object, completely disappears in the dark. The implications are massive: government contracts, private use, anything. Except that the idiots at the Friends of Inventors investment firm don’t have any vision. No matter, since Wimpler, who finally has the power to turn invisible under the shadow of darkness, will show everyone he’s no wimp. He’ll make them all pay. Until the Destroyer comes to collect.
Remo Williams is The Destroyer, an all-American cop recruited—through highly unorthodox methods—by a secret government law-enforcement organization. Trained in the esoteric martial art of Sinanju by his aged Korean mentor, Chiun, Remo is America's last line of defense against mad scientists, organized crime, ancient undead gods, and anything else that threatens the Constitution. An action-adventure series leavened with social and political satire, the Destroyer novels have been thrilling readers worldwide for decades.
Remo Williams is The Destroyer, an all-American cop recruited—through highly unorthodox methods—by a secret government law-enforcement organization. Trained in the esoteric martial art of Sinanju by his aged Korean mentor, Chiun, Remo is America's last line of defense against mad scientists, organized crime, ancient undead gods, and anything else that threatens the Constitution. An action-adventure series leavened with social and political satire, the Destroyer novels have been thrilling readers worldwide for decades.
153 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 1, 1981
23 people are currently reading
91 people want to read
About the author
Warren Murphy
295 books124 followersWarren 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
July 17, 2023
Definitely one of the weakest books in the series thus far and part of that is due to the terrible villains. It’s still entertaining, though more for Remo and Chiun than the story or writing.
June 8, 2021
Murphy slides back into science fiction for this tale about Elmo Wimpler, a man who invents an invisibility paint. Notice that Murphy wastes no time with subtly here. Wimpler, as the name suggests, is a total wimp. He’s the kind of guy that used to get sand kicked on him at the beach in those old Charles Atlas advertisements. He’s wimpy enough that the reader’s sympathies are strongly with him, until he’s pushed over the edge and becomes a homicidal murderer at which point we can’t wait for Chiun and Remo to catch up with him and put him out of his misery.
Interwoven around Wimpler’s tale is the story of a monarch based on the Shah of Iran in exile. He’s the target for the new homicidal maniac who is in quest of a new profession as an assassin. He’s portrayed highly sympathetically, but one suspects all is not well at his home in exile.
As Remo and Chiun try to protect the dying monarch while catching Wimpler, new assassins, apparently connected to the monarch’s household start coming after them. These combats between the Masters of Sinanju and these highly trained soldiers are the highlight of the story, for they show once again how superior Remo and Chiun are. The problem of dealing with an invisible opponent is also well dealt with. Overall, this is a good one.
If you liked this review, you can find more at www.gilbertstack.com/reviews.
Interwoven around Wimpler’s tale is the story of a monarch based on the Shah of Iran in exile. He’s the target for the new homicidal maniac who is in quest of a new profession as an assassin. He’s portrayed highly sympathetically, but one suspects all is not well at his home in exile.
As Remo and Chiun try to protect the dying monarch while catching Wimpler, new assassins, apparently connected to the monarch’s household start coming after them. These combats between the Masters of Sinanju and these highly trained soldiers are the highlight of the story, for they show once again how superior Remo and Chiun are. The problem of dealing with an invisible opponent is also well dealt with. Overall, this is a good one.
If you liked this review, you can find more at www.gilbertstack.com/reviews.
May 17, 2019
Rating between 2.5 & 3
An average story at best in a sequence of very average titles.
Apparently this , along with others around the same time, were ghost written by several different authors who usually wrote pulp/men’s action stories.
And it really shows in this title. The humour and satire that is a part of the best destroyer novels is completely missing from this one. The action scenes are mediocre at best and the sinanju skill set is yet again modified purely for a single story reason.
The verbal interplay between Reno, chiun and smith has also taken a holiday this time around.
Definitely one for completionists or someone reading the series in sequence.
Really could not recommend to new readers of the series.
I have rated this at 3 because for me that is a book that is easy to read and I have no trouble finishing. 2 stars is a book I have had to restart at least once to get to the end.
An average story at best in a sequence of very average titles.
Apparently this , along with others around the same time, were ghost written by several different authors who usually wrote pulp/men’s action stories.
And it really shows in this title. The humour and satire that is a part of the best destroyer novels is completely missing from this one. The action scenes are mediocre at best and the sinanju skill set is yet again modified purely for a single story reason.
The verbal interplay between Reno, chiun and smith has also taken a holiday this time around.
Definitely one for completionists or someone reading the series in sequence.
Really could not recommend to new readers of the series.
I have rated this at 3 because for me that is a book that is easy to read and I have no trouble finishing. 2 stars is a book I have had to restart at least once to get to the end.
May 20, 2017
Definitely the weakest in the weak phase in the series. The "bad guy" is not really bad at all and the story lacks imagination. Unfortunately, the series seems to suffer from the absence of Sapir and even Remo's and Chiun's skills seem to change from book to book to serve the story. Not a must read at all and the same is true for the series until book 44.
August 31, 2017
Remo and Chiun against an invisible assassin.***SPOILERS****
Only gave it 3 stars due to the lack of any feelings about the rape that happens
Only gave it 3 stars due to the lack of any feelings about the rape that happens
July 8, 2020
#43 in the Destroyer series. Remo & Chiun pursue an invisible man. Much chaos ensues.
February 23, 2017
His name was Remo and he feared nothing.
A straight-forward stand-alone entry in the Destroyer series, Chiun and Remo (aka Remo Schwartzenegger) are tasked with guarding the life of a deposed Middle Eastern sovereign on his deathbed in New Jersey. Things get complicated when a wimpy broke inventor (Elmo Wimpler) stumbles upon the recipe for invisible paint and decides to become a professional hit man. As the Midnight Man he sets Remo, Chiun, and the Emir of Bislami (whose ancestors have an unpaid debt to the house of Sinanju) in his sights, others suddenly start attempting to kill Remo and Chiun, sending the CURE assassins on a wild chase to find out who is trying to kill who and why as they attempt to keep the Emir alive until he dies. Never a dull moment.
This is one of the more entertaining and endearing Destroyer novels because of the unlikely titular villain, the Midnight Man. Coming up with potential threats to unstoppable death machines like Chiun and Remo can be a bit rough, so it's refreshing when they're thrown up against a character that embodies an element of the unknown, but is also a haphazard wildcard with no real chance for success. Enter Elmo Wimpler. Instead of pseudo Bond villains or crime lords, we get an inept failure at life who bumbles his way half-assed into the role of amateur assassin. Despite having the book named after him, he's little more than a complication to the real story involving the Emir, but an entertaining distraction that you almost end up rooting for. The Destroyer series wades into some dramatic waters of the course of its run, and these lighter adventures are always welcome.
A straight-forward stand-alone entry in the Destroyer series, Chiun and Remo (aka Remo Schwartzenegger) are tasked with guarding the life of a deposed Middle Eastern sovereign on his deathbed in New Jersey. Things get complicated when a wimpy broke inventor (Elmo Wimpler) stumbles upon the recipe for invisible paint and decides to become a professional hit man. As the Midnight Man he sets Remo, Chiun, and the Emir of Bislami (whose ancestors have an unpaid debt to the house of Sinanju) in his sights, others suddenly start attempting to kill Remo and Chiun, sending the CURE assassins on a wild chase to find out who is trying to kill who and why as they attempt to keep the Emir alive until he dies. Never a dull moment.
This is one of the more entertaining and endearing Destroyer novels because of the unlikely titular villain, the Midnight Man. Coming up with potential threats to unstoppable death machines like Chiun and Remo can be a bit rough, so it's refreshing when they're thrown up against a character that embodies an element of the unknown, but is also a haphazard wildcard with no real chance for success. Enter Elmo Wimpler. Instead of pseudo Bond villains or crime lords, we get an inept failure at life who bumbles his way half-assed into the role of amateur assassin. Despite having the book named after him, he's little more than a complication to the real story involving the Emir, but an entertaining distraction that you almost end up rooting for. The Destroyer series wades into some dramatic waters of the course of its run, and these lighter adventures are always welcome.
February 17, 2017
I love reading The Destroyer series, but this one did not have a bad guy that was really a challenge for them at all. So only 3 stars for this one.
February 12, 2016
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. A scientist has discovered the secret to invisibility and the team must protect him. Recommended
November 3, 2013
These books are mindless brain candy for me. This one was mindless as well. It was actually one of the weaker Destroyer books. Don't know if that was because the antagonists were so lame, or what, but it wasn't as good as many other in the series. Overall, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone; not even people who generally like this sort of thing. It was over mercifully quickly though.
December 21, 2007
read 05.03.84
September 17, 2016
Not among the best, but a passable time killer running under 160 pages. Ghostwritten by William Joy, who spent a short time on the series.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews