Skin Deep

The Destroyer #49

by Warren Murphy, Richard Sapir, Hector Garrido (Illustrator)

Someone has made off with a nuclear-armed jet bomber just as world leaders are meeting in New York to discuss peace, requiring Chiun and Remo to come to the rescue

Genres: Adventure, Fiction

199 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published July 1, 1982

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 2 out of 5]

This is another of the weaker Destroyer novels as Remo, Chiun, and Smith go up against a Nazi who has mastered from pretty serious brainwashing techniques. Smith has a personal grudge (alongside his basic human disgust) against the Nazi for crimes the man committed against people Smith knew during World War II. As often happens, there’s a bit of Sinanju legends also woven into the story.

The most annoying part of the novel is that Remo has opportunities to act and end threats that he simply doesn’t take advantage of. I suspect that the justification is over confidence coming from his Sinanju skills, but it was very irritating to watch him let opportunities slip past.

If you liked this review, you can find more at www.gilbertstack.com/reviews.

[hotsake (André Troesch) · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid and entertaining Destroyer novel, which disregarded most of the humor for a more grim approach.

[Tom Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Destroyer #49: “Skin Deep” by Warren Murphy (Molly Cochran). “Someone has made off with a nuclear-armed jet bomber just as world leaders are meeting in New York to discuss peace, requiring Chiun and Remo to come to the rescue.” Zoran, a Nazi doctor in the concentration camps during WWII has evading Doctor Smith for 36 years. Now, he has stolen a Stealth plane with atomic warheads, and plans on striking New York. He has a camp next a leper colony on an island near Miami, and continued his experiments on the lepers. Chiun and Remo reach the village of the damned where they learn of Doctor Zoran. Remo is captured while Chiun swims to Miami to contact Doctor Harold Smith, then Smith returns to finally capture the doctor he’s been hunting all these years. This was actually one of the better novels during this time period. A nice read.

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Improved in many ways from other Destroyer novels I've read. The book still posits that joyless acupressure can make a women fall madly in love with one, which is not my experience, certainly, though I suppose I may be telling on myself Ben Shapiro-style.

Nazis as the bad guys is always a workable idea, though I'm beginning to think one of the authors had a bad experience with a Doctor, as along with dictators, they seem to be the most frequent villains. Having Chiun be respectful and friendly with lepers feels weirdly progressive for the '70s?

A lot is made of Jewish heritage, which also feels very '70s, that idea there is a higher loyalty to religion than country. In the catalog of racist sins from this book series, that's an awfully brief entry.

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating 3

A better than average novel at this point in the series. It gave some more background to the character of Smith and his activities during WW2 (and afterwards). Also added was yet another people/tribe/whomever that had interaction with a past master of sinanju and earned a life debt from the master.
as is usual as well, a new talent/skill is introduced with no forewarning - in this case there is the ability to stay under water for hours without drowning, as well as a mental-psychic link between Chiun and Remo that allows C to contact R.
The actual 'mission' is quite straightforward and the book is easy to read.
Overall a solid recommendation for this.

[Trentrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

CURE battles a Nazi war criminal doctor who has weaponized sea gulls to be a destructive force capable of taking out US Navy vessels and who steals a stealth fighter to plow into the World Trade Center to kill the president and other foreign leaders.

This might be closer to a 2.5. Remo and Chiun behave somewhat out of character and Remo's mastery of Sinanju seems to have regressed to the level of the early books for some reason. However, it is quite entertaining and doesn't pad any of its short page count, so I'll give it a generous three.

[Ross McClintock · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oh, you know, this is your typical run of the mill story you've probably heard a dozen times. A super powered assassin for the US government and his wise cracking Korean mentor head to an island in the Florida keys where an ex-Nazi has stolen a nuclear bomber with the help of his specially trained, killer seagulls, and with that bomber, and a brainwashed pilot he will destroy New York as the US President and Soviet Premiere have a conference. While on the island they must make an alliance with the island's leper colony to take down the ex-Nazi and his evil birds. A classic tale done well!

[Marko · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit more enjoyable entry in the series where not all plot twists can be predicted as easily as usual. Remo and Chiun actually get into trouble that requires them to use more than their Sinanju skills to solve. Once again they are shown to have skills that are conveniently forgotten in future stories (they really should not be using boats at all with this superspeed diving skill that they have).

[Jeff J. · Rating 3 out of 5]

#49 in the Destroyer series. Remo & Chiun battle a former nazi scheming to fly a stealth fighter into the World Trade Center. Also giant malevolent seagulls. Much chaos ensues.

[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. The U.S.'s latest super jet has been stolen and the team is sent to recover it. Recommended