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Quiller #17
Quiller Meridian
One agent dead plus a Russian contact out in the cold equals a mess for Quiller. His locate the contact before he (the contact) gets blown away. But no one anticipates an extremist coup. Suddenly the contact's in jeopardy and Quiller's caught in a murderous cross fire.
287 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1993
6 people are currently reading
89 people want to read
About the author
Adam Hall
159 books100 followersAuthor also wrote as Elleston Trevor.
Author Trevor Dudley-Smith was born in Kent, England on February 17, 1920. He attended Yardley Court Preparatory School and Sevenoaks School. During World War II, he served in the Royal Air Force as a flight engineer. After the war, he started writing full-time. He lived in Spain and France before moving to the United States and settling in Phoenix, Arizona. In 1946 he used the pseudonym Elleston Trevor for a non-mystery book, and later made it his legal name. He also wrote under the pseudonyms of Adam Hall, Simon Rattray, Mansell Black, Trevor Burgess, Roger Fitzalan, Howard North, Warwick Scott, Caesar Smith, and Lesley Stone. Even though he wrote thrillers, mysteries, plays, juvenile novels, and short stories, his best-known works are The Flight of the Phoenix written as Elleston Trevor and the series about British secret agent Quiller written as Adam Hall. In 1965, he received the Edgar Allan Poe Award by Mystery Writers of America and the French Grand Prix de Littérature Policière for The Quiller Memorandum. This book was made into a 1967 movie starring George Segal and Alec Guinness. He died of cancer on July 21, 1995.
Author Trevor Dudley-Smith was born in Kent, England on February 17, 1920. He attended Yardley Court Preparatory School and Sevenoaks School. During World War II, he served in the Royal Air Force as a flight engineer. After the war, he started writing full-time. He lived in Spain and France before moving to the United States and settling in Phoenix, Arizona. In 1946 he used the pseudonym Elleston Trevor for a non-mystery book, and later made it his legal name. He also wrote under the pseudonyms of Adam Hall, Simon Rattray, Mansell Black, Trevor Burgess, Roger Fitzalan, Howard North, Warwick Scott, Caesar Smith, and Lesley Stone. Even though he wrote thrillers, mysteries, plays, juvenile novels, and short stories, his best-known works are The Flight of the Phoenix written as Elleston Trevor and the series about British secret agent Quiller written as Adam Hall. In 1965, he received the Edgar Allan Poe Award by Mystery Writers of America and the French Grand Prix de Littérature Policière for The Quiller Memorandum. This book was made into a 1967 movie starring George Segal and Alec Guinness. He died of cancer on July 21, 1995.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
February 14, 2026
Wow, despite me being thoroughly sick of spy stories set in Russia, I really enjoyed this one, set in the early years of Yeltsin's rule. Lot of twists and turns, so that I never knew what was coming — basically put life on hold and read through this in two days, it was that page-turnery.
Hall wrote eighteen Quiller books in all, the first ten in a The Warsaw Document and The Striker Portfolio template; then after a four year break, returned to write the rest as "Quiller This-Or-That" — Quiller Bamboo, Quiller Solitaire, etc. I've now read all the books in the second series except for the final one, (which isn't exactly rare but sells for around $50, so not sure when that will happen), but still have half of the earlier ones — which ARE in fact harder to find — to get to. Overall, I've been reading them wildly out of order, but would love to someday have them all and be able to reread in order, (something I've never been tempted to do with, say, the Bond books).
I've said it before but will say it again — Hall is criminally underappreciated, and certainly deserves to be republished, if not actually made into a Jason Bourne-type film or TV series.
PERSONAL NOTE: And THIS is why I hit our huge used book store at least once every week or two — found this unread, "like new" first edition selling for just 49¢ last month...I do not understand their business model AT ALL, but God bless "McKay Used Books" in Manassas, (which has also been the source of all my Flashman books)!
Hall wrote eighteen Quiller books in all, the first ten in a The Warsaw Document and The Striker Portfolio template; then after a four year break, returned to write the rest as "Quiller This-Or-That" — Quiller Bamboo, Quiller Solitaire, etc. I've now read all the books in the second series except for the final one, (which isn't exactly rare but sells for around $50, so not sure when that will happen), but still have half of the earlier ones — which ARE in fact harder to find — to get to. Overall, I've been reading them wildly out of order, but would love to someday have them all and be able to reread in order, (something I've never been tempted to do with, say, the Bond books).
I've said it before but will say it again — Hall is criminally underappreciated, and certainly deserves to be republished, if not actually made into a Jason Bourne-type film or TV series.
PERSONAL NOTE: And THIS is why I hit our huge used book store at least once every week or two — found this unread, "like new" first edition selling for just 49¢ last month...I do not understand their business model AT ALL, but God bless "McKay Used Books" in Manassas, (which has also been the source of all my Flashman books)!
January 10, 2013
It sometimes amazes me that there are plot twists that I find surprising. Surprising is not strong enough a word. I'm going to have to go with mindblowing.
January 1, 2025
Quiller Meridian
is the 17th installment of the brilliant Quiller series—in my opinion the best spy fiction series of all time. It's now the 1990s; although the Soviet Union has fallen and the Cold War has ended, there are still missions to accomplish, operational excellence to be achieved, and life to be lived on the edge of death. Those have always been what drives Quiller, not the ambitions of the powerful or the causes of fanatics (in fact the latter are Quiller's enemies in this story, as in most others).
I was particularly interested to read this installment, since it takes place in a setting I'm familiar with. I've actually ridden the Trans-Siberian Express in 1990s, in the dead of winter, and visited some of the cities mentioned in the story. I've experienced the sauna-like heat on the trains, the crowded quarters, the bad food, the good tea, the corrupt employees, the brutal cold and the poor, frozen Siberian villages—which in winter are surely among the bleakest inhabited places on earth.
The story opens in Budapest, where Quiller has been rushed to try to clean up a botched rendezvous with a Russian informant named Zymyanin, who has some kind of critical intelligence to transmit to the Bureau (Quiller's shadowy agency). Unfortunately the meeting was blown, one agent has been decapitated on the train tracks, and the informant has fled to parts unknown. But the thread soon picks up in Moscow, where Zymyanin is boarding the Trans-Siberian train from Moscow to Vladivostok, and Quiller follows him aboard. On board Quiller does his usual tense, hyper-aware fieldcraft, and soon discovers that three powerful Russian generals are on board, along with a beautiful young woman named Tanya who is friendly with one of them. He also discovers Zymyanin, who warns him that the generals are members of the Podpolia—the hard-line underground that wants to end Russia's experiment with democracy and bring back the Soviet Union—and tells him to keep them under close surveillance. Unfortunately, Quiller never learns anything else from the informant, because he is soon found dead in a bathroom with a gunshot to the head. Worse, Quiller has been framed for the killing by one of the general's bodyguards.
From here the story goes into overdrive, as the train car where the generals had been staying is bombed, derailing the train, and Quiller has to escape the authorities who seal off the train and get to safety in the frozen city of Novosobirsk, the most wanted man in Siberia. More classic Quiller tradecraft follows, as he evades surveillance, employs safe houses, and makes contact with his favorite director in the field, Ferris. At this point Quiller has to wing it to continue the mission, which becomes personal after Tanya is taken into custody by the authorities on suspicion of involvement in the killing of one of the generals.
There follows a rather far-fetched gambit by Quiller to free Tanya from the militsiya (police), which seemed too Hollywood and over the top by the usually realistic standards of this series. There are also car chases, killings, and two new key characters are introduced: an unhinged rogue agent who is out for revenge against the generals, and Tanya's brother, a captain in the Russian army, who becomes Quiller's key ally in his mission to discover what the generals are up to and foil their plans. The story races to a climax as Quiller reaches the site of the generals' big meeting, where he uncovers a vast conspiracy to establish a "new world order" that echoes forward to our time. However, the ending seemed a bit rushed and again, a bit unrealistic for this series.
All in all, this was a tense, entertaining, intelligent read, not in the top tier of the series but still highly recommended for all shadow-fiction fans.
Get a copy of Quiller Meridian here.
I was particularly interested to read this installment, since it takes place in a setting I'm familiar with. I've actually ridden the Trans-Siberian Express in 1990s, in the dead of winter, and visited some of the cities mentioned in the story. I've experienced the sauna-like heat on the trains, the crowded quarters, the bad food, the good tea, the corrupt employees, the brutal cold and the poor, frozen Siberian villages—which in winter are surely among the bleakest inhabited places on earth.
The story opens in Budapest, where Quiller has been rushed to try to clean up a botched rendezvous with a Russian informant named Zymyanin, who has some kind of critical intelligence to transmit to the Bureau (Quiller's shadowy agency). Unfortunately the meeting was blown, one agent has been decapitated on the train tracks, and the informant has fled to parts unknown. But the thread soon picks up in Moscow, where Zymyanin is boarding the Trans-Siberian train from Moscow to Vladivostok, and Quiller follows him aboard. On board Quiller does his usual tense, hyper-aware fieldcraft, and soon discovers that three powerful Russian generals are on board, along with a beautiful young woman named Tanya who is friendly with one of them. He also discovers Zymyanin, who warns him that the generals are members of the Podpolia—the hard-line underground that wants to end Russia's experiment with democracy and bring back the Soviet Union—and tells him to keep them under close surveillance. Unfortunately, Quiller never learns anything else from the informant, because he is soon found dead in a bathroom with a gunshot to the head. Worse, Quiller has been framed for the killing by one of the general's bodyguards.
From here the story goes into overdrive, as the train car where the generals had been staying is bombed, derailing the train, and Quiller has to escape the authorities who seal off the train and get to safety in the frozen city of Novosobirsk, the most wanted man in Siberia. More classic Quiller tradecraft follows, as he evades surveillance, employs safe houses, and makes contact with his favorite director in the field, Ferris. At this point Quiller has to wing it to continue the mission, which becomes personal after Tanya is taken into custody by the authorities on suspicion of involvement in the killing of one of the generals.
There follows a rather far-fetched gambit by Quiller to free Tanya from the militsiya (police), which seemed too Hollywood and over the top by the usually realistic standards of this series. There are also car chases, killings, and two new key characters are introduced: an unhinged rogue agent who is out for revenge against the generals, and Tanya's brother, a captain in the Russian army, who becomes Quiller's key ally in his mission to discover what the generals are up to and foil their plans. The story races to a climax as Quiller reaches the site of the generals' big meeting, where he uncovers a vast conspiracy to establish a "new world order" that echoes forward to our time. However, the ending seemed a bit rushed and again, a bit unrealistic for this series.
All in all, this was a tense, entertaining, intelligent read, not in the top tier of the series but still highly recommended for all shadow-fiction fans.
Get a copy of Quiller Meridian here.
March 2, 2020
Rating between 3 & 3.5
a later novel set in the yeltsin era of russia that throws quiller into what starts as a intelligence gathering operation that turns into something quite different during the climax.
the writing was, as always, easy to read and took the reader on an interesting and suspenseful journey.
for me there was an undefinable something which meant it wasn't in the top tier of quiller stories, still very good but not the best.
a later novel set in the yeltsin era of russia that throws quiller into what starts as a intelligence gathering operation that turns into something quite different during the climax.
the writing was, as always, easy to read and took the reader on an interesting and suspenseful journey.
for me there was an undefinable something which meant it wasn't in the top tier of quiller stories, still very good but not the best.
March 17, 2022
The 17th Quiller, and one of the lesser. It’s post-Cold War, but the dangers and missions remain, and Quiller must step in for a murdered shadow executive on a murky mission. It starts slowly, but picks up speed as Quiller crosses Eastern Europe, dealing with threats in a post-Soviet Russia in the throes of civil war. Then, oddly, it slows to a crawl at the end, as Quiller negotiates his way out of a seemingly impossible situation in Siberia…and the entire thing gets a bit murky.
January 11, 2021
I' love the Quiller books, and I've traveled on the Trans-Siberian Express, so I was hooked on the concept of spies on a train. This one sped along, then completely fizzled out with an ending that seemed forced, anticlimactic, and lazy. The scenes on the train were for a chapter or two. I went from excited to disappointed in the last fifty pages.
October 21, 2017
Adam Hall (Elleston Trevor) does it again. Non-stop action, unrelenting tension, and a twisting, credible plot. I will be sorry to run out of these.
January 11, 2022
Another great read - and this time I do know some of the interesting effects of working in the Soviet Union. Quiller continues to grab me!
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April 21, 2022Another good spy thriller in the Quiller series from Adam Hall
October 6, 2010
There’s something about the first person narrative that can really make a spy novel come alive. I think it’s the fact that you are stuck inside the spy’s head with all the paranoia that being alone and undercover would require. There was no writer better at this than Adam Hall in his Quiller novels.
His spy, codenamed Quiller, worked for a secret government organization that reported directly to the Prime Minister. Quiller’s refusal to carry a gun, he claimed it made you weak, and need to work without backup, he was also the ultimate loner, is what distinguishes him from other spy characters.
In Quiller Meridian, he is sent to Russia to clean up the mess another agent has made of a mission. The resulting chaos includes a trip on the Orient Express, explosions, and, of course, the Russian Military and Police forces trying to stop Quiller from achieving his objective.
Last Shot: With a seemingly endless supply of cliffhangers and a truly great first person perspective this is one of Hall’s stronger Quiller entries.
More spy news and reviews at http://www.spywrite.com
His spy, codenamed Quiller, worked for a secret government organization that reported directly to the Prime Minister. Quiller’s refusal to carry a gun, he claimed it made you weak, and need to work without backup, he was also the ultimate loner, is what distinguishes him from other spy characters.
In Quiller Meridian, he is sent to Russia to clean up the mess another agent has made of a mission. The resulting chaos includes a trip on the Orient Express, explosions, and, of course, the Russian Military and Police forces trying to stop Quiller from achieving his objective.
Last Shot: With a seemingly endless supply of cliffhangers and a truly great first person perspective this is one of Hall’s stronger Quiller entries.
More spy news and reviews at http://www.spywrite.com
July 23, 2011
"Published in 1993, this is the 17th in the Quiller series. Now set in the post Cold war era, there are still missions for Quiller to undertake. An expressive account of the power game in a Russia split by civil war, Quiller Meridian skillfully mirrors the grim realities in the aftermath of the Cold War. Quiller is a British secret agent extraordinaire - a man of action but not much character. Like any good agent, Quiller has moved with the times. Written in the first person, he is highly skilled at almost everything that a spy should be but does not carry a firearm. Adam Hall is the pen name of Elliston Trevor (1920-1995) and the series started way back in the sixties and continued during the height of the cold war. Thoughts by the author on Quiller's character ""But, on rare occasions when the pressures of a mission have forced him into a position where he must consider other people — sometimes a deadly opponent — he reveals compassion, surprising himself. His last will and testament is revealing: ""Nothing of value, no dependents, next of kin unknown.""""
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February 9, 2014
Quiller, a seasoned operative (this is his 17th adventure) takes over an operation from a murdered agent. The operation, its ends being unclear but clearly lethal, takes him on board the Moscow to Vladivostok express train, together with a missing agent, a group of former Soviet hardline generals and their thugs, and at least one possible rogue element. Quiller notes that agents (shadow executives, as his service calls them) hate trains because of their claustrophobic environments. The trip is fairly harrowing, but the dangers only increase once Quiller finds himself both the hunted and the hunter in a Siberian town (Novosibirsk). There is a sequence in a militia headquarters that is vintage Quiller, as is a running drop from a car at a secret meeting site. All in all, ADam Hall keeps the tension ratcheted up tightly, and Quiller remains as headstrong as ever.
April 16, 2011
A light, but intensely-paced spy thriller very much in the formula of the other Quiller sagas. Once you have a winning recipe, I guess.... Set in post cold war Siberia, Quiller succeeds in saving the world again.
October 19, 2016
Quiller in Bucharest, Moscow, aboard the Siberian Express, and in Novosibirsk. Yet another capable but undistinguished Quiller installment, very formulaic and with fewer plot twists than usual.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews