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Sam Durell #7
Assignment Madeleine
Sent to Paris to start the search for his friend and fellow agent, Durell learns quickly that a compatriot has killed the object of his search. Now he must switch gears to seek out the murderer and to do that, he needs the help of the alluring Madeleine Sardelle.
160 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1958
39 people want to read
About the author
Edward S. Aarons
262 books17 followersAKA Paul Ayres, Edward Ronns.
Edward Sidney Aarons (September 11, 1916 - June 16, 1975) was an American writer, author of more than 80 novels from 1936 until 1962. One of these was under the pseudonym "Paul Ayres" (Dead Heat), and 30 were written using the name "Edward Ronns". He also wrote numerous articles for detective magazines such as Detective Story Magazine and Scarab.
Aarons was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and earned a degree in Literature and History from Columbia University. He worked at various jobs to put himself through college, including jobs as a newspaper reporter and fisherman. In 1933, he won a short story contest as a student. In World War II he was in the United States Coast Guard, joining after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. He finished his duty in 1945, having obtained the rank of Chief Petty Officer.
Edward Sidney Aarons (September 11, 1916 - June 16, 1975) was an American writer, author of more than 80 novels from 1936 until 1962. One of these was under the pseudonym "Paul Ayres" (Dead Heat), and 30 were written using the name "Edward Ronns". He also wrote numerous articles for detective magazines such as Detective Story Magazine and Scarab.
Aarons was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and earned a degree in Literature and History from Columbia University. He worked at various jobs to put himself through college, including jobs as a newspaper reporter and fisherman. In 1933, he won a short story contest as a student. In World War II he was in the United States Coast Guard, joining after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. He finished his duty in 1945, having obtained the rank of Chief Petty Officer.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
September 27, 2022
The seventh novel in Aaron’s Sam Durell espionage series’ Assignment Madeleine (1958), is set against the backdrop of the Algerian War for Independence, a long war in which the U.S. was ostensibly neutral. Durell is caught in the middle of it, on long march through the desert with a ragtag crew of allies and prisoners, each at the other’ throats. He is trading a dangerous prisoner for promises of peace, promises that would scarcely be kept after entire towns are decimated. This one is not quite as successful as it could’ve been. You never get the sense that Durell’s mission will save Western civilization or often what the stakes are. And, there are characters here with no real purpose.
February 7, 2021
This is a lesser Durell entry because the girl Madeleine is such a cliched opportunistic bad girl she loses credibility. Sam must venture into the rebel territory in Algeria to return a murderous rogue agent. Naturally things do no go well. Recommended only to Durell fans.
January 17, 2017
A Soapy Spy Saga
The seventh Sam Durell novel, Assignment: Madeleine, marks the first stumble in the series. Aarons' mistake was introducing a major soap operatic subplot into an adventure yarn. This subplot slowed the pacing and was an annoying distraction, like having a fly buzz around your face as you attempt to read. In the end, it tanked the book for me, making this my least favorite of what was a consistently excellent and exciting series.
In the primary plot, Sam Durell is assigned by the CIA and the French Deuxieme Bureau travel to Algieria to bring back for interrogation and trial a traitorous agent--Charley L'Heureux--who murdered a fellow agent--Orrin Boston. Charley also made off with a quarter million dollars American in cash. Durell was a friend of Boston's and isn't confident he can keep from killing his friend's murderer. Further complicating matters, Durell is paired with known double agent Madeleine Sardelle, Charley's girlfriend and suspected co-conspirator. Madeleine makes it clear she's a reluctant colleague whose allegiance lies with Charley.
Underlying the intrigue is the reality of France's tenuous grip on its North African colony and of the competing rebel factions in the desert regions surrounding the cosmopolitan city of Algiers. Charley, it seems, was playing both sides against the middle, working with competing rebel forces, which ultimately put him afoul of them, especially the ragtag rebels led by Hadgi el-Abri, who happens to be another old friend of Durell's. Charley is already in a French military prison in the desert town of Marbruk; the difficulty will be getting Charley out and taken to Paris alive when so many want him dead. And Charley himself is quite resourceful--a trained agent gone rogue, a hulking brute of a man, and one for whom life is cheap.
There's sufficient plot here for a thrilling yarn, but then Aaron's introduces the soap opera subplot. In a Marbruk hotel are Chet and Jane Larkin, a young oil executive and his beautiful wife. Entire chapters are dedicated to their marital strife, often told from Jane's point of view. I would forget this was a spy story as I waded through the turgid Peyton Place-style melodrama, which encroached upon and even crowded out the main story at times. Worse, neither Chet nor Jane were sympathetic characters, so warming up to them proved impossible. This novel predates The Man from U.N.C.L.E. by six years, but I was reminded of that otherwide excellent series' irksome habit of introducing an "innocent" into the action, perhaps as a proxy for the reader, as someone to look on in awe or dismay at the derring-do and evil deeds of the espionage business. The Larkins are the "innocents" here and they dutifully react, get in the way, and prove themselves annoying at virtually every mention.
Further hurting the book is its lacking the Washington D.C. cast of characters. Dickinson McFee is mentioned a couple times, but missing entirely is Sidonie Osbourn and the fellow agents who provided Durell a larger context and some fun banter. Durell's longstanding love Deirdre Padgett does appear briefly, tying this novel into its predecessor by having her in Paris covering the fashion scene. Some have said the Assignment books can be read in any order, but I challenge that and can say after reading the first seven in publication order that there are distinct threads of continuity knitting the books together (though admittedly not so tightly a reader couldn't pick one up at random and enjoy it).
That raises the question: Was this an enjoyable novel? No. All the characters besides Durell are at best unlikeable and at worst loathsome. And almost 100 of the novel's 160 pages is dedicated to one long and wearisome slog across the desert with Durell, Charley, Madeleine, and the Larkins. They bicker and complain, they ruminate about their lives and they conspire and perspire. Aarons' descriptions of the sweaty and swooning stragglers are vivid. Durell and Charley reminded me of William Conrad and Anthony Quinn in the 1957 Western The Ride Back, in which a lawman must escort his wily prisoner to justice across a great expanse of inhospitable terrain. Had Aarons trimmed his cast down to just Durell and Charley, and titled it Assignment: Algeria, it would have made a much better book.
Here's trusting Aarons that the next installment in the saga, Assignment Carlotta Cortez, will be better. After six stellar stories, a stumble was inevitable and is more than forgivable.
The seventh Sam Durell novel, Assignment: Madeleine, marks the first stumble in the series. Aarons' mistake was introducing a major soap operatic subplot into an adventure yarn. This subplot slowed the pacing and was an annoying distraction, like having a fly buzz around your face as you attempt to read. In the end, it tanked the book for me, making this my least favorite of what was a consistently excellent and exciting series.
In the primary plot, Sam Durell is assigned by the CIA and the French Deuxieme Bureau travel to Algieria to bring back for interrogation and trial a traitorous agent--Charley L'Heureux--who murdered a fellow agent--Orrin Boston. Charley also made off with a quarter million dollars American in cash. Durell was a friend of Boston's and isn't confident he can keep from killing his friend's murderer. Further complicating matters, Durell is paired with known double agent Madeleine Sardelle, Charley's girlfriend and suspected co-conspirator. Madeleine makes it clear she's a reluctant colleague whose allegiance lies with Charley.
Underlying the intrigue is the reality of France's tenuous grip on its North African colony and of the competing rebel factions in the desert regions surrounding the cosmopolitan city of Algiers. Charley, it seems, was playing both sides against the middle, working with competing rebel forces, which ultimately put him afoul of them, especially the ragtag rebels led by Hadgi el-Abri, who happens to be another old friend of Durell's. Charley is already in a French military prison in the desert town of Marbruk; the difficulty will be getting Charley out and taken to Paris alive when so many want him dead. And Charley himself is quite resourceful--a trained agent gone rogue, a hulking brute of a man, and one for whom life is cheap.
There's sufficient plot here for a thrilling yarn, but then Aaron's introduces the soap opera subplot. In a Marbruk hotel are Chet and Jane Larkin, a young oil executive and his beautiful wife. Entire chapters are dedicated to their marital strife, often told from Jane's point of view. I would forget this was a spy story as I waded through the turgid Peyton Place-style melodrama, which encroached upon and even crowded out the main story at times. Worse, neither Chet nor Jane were sympathetic characters, so warming up to them proved impossible. This novel predates The Man from U.N.C.L.E. by six years, but I was reminded of that otherwide excellent series' irksome habit of introducing an "innocent" into the action, perhaps as a proxy for the reader, as someone to look on in awe or dismay at the derring-do and evil deeds of the espionage business. The Larkins are the "innocents" here and they dutifully react, get in the way, and prove themselves annoying at virtually every mention.
Further hurting the book is its lacking the Washington D.C. cast of characters. Dickinson McFee is mentioned a couple times, but missing entirely is Sidonie Osbourn and the fellow agents who provided Durell a larger context and some fun banter. Durell's longstanding love Deirdre Padgett does appear briefly, tying this novel into its predecessor by having her in Paris covering the fashion scene. Some have said the Assignment books can be read in any order, but I challenge that and can say after reading the first seven in publication order that there are distinct threads of continuity knitting the books together (though admittedly not so tightly a reader couldn't pick one up at random and enjoy it).
That raises the question: Was this an enjoyable novel? No. All the characters besides Durell are at best unlikeable and at worst loathsome. And almost 100 of the novel's 160 pages is dedicated to one long and wearisome slog across the desert with Durell, Charley, Madeleine, and the Larkins. They bicker and complain, they ruminate about their lives and they conspire and perspire. Aarons' descriptions of the sweaty and swooning stragglers are vivid. Durell and Charley reminded me of William Conrad and Anthony Quinn in the 1957 Western The Ride Back, in which a lawman must escort his wily prisoner to justice across a great expanse of inhospitable terrain. Had Aarons trimmed his cast down to just Durell and Charley, and titled it Assignment: Algeria, it would have made a much better book.
Here's trusting Aarons that the next installment in the saga, Assignment Carlotta Cortez, will be better. After six stellar stories, a stumble was inevitable and is more than forgivable.
November 7, 2021
Perhaps it is because I see this novel against the outline of history that it feels ordinary, rather than exceptional. I do like the setting in Algieria during the Algerian War of Independence. But Aarons' solutions to the war, now, seem inadequate and naive. Aarons would have Sam Durell work out a compromise with an Arab leader, so that the "extremists" on both sides could be defeated and both Arab and Frenchman see the merit in each other's beliefs. Of course, events became even more extreme after Aarons published this novel in 1958. And the French lost, ignominiously. One more thing. The Larkins, both Chet and Jane, wear thin in this story. It's too bad there wasn't a way to get rid of them early on.
April 14, 2022
Sam Durell is sent to bring the killer of his friend back to justice. But the killer is in French Algeria, and it's a hotbed of terrorism. His only help is Madeleine - the killer's girlfriend, and she admits she's on the killer's side. Things start going from bad to worse when he's forced to take along an American couple looking to leave the country and his options are getting fewer and fewer. All the usual thrills and action in a fast-paced, enjoyable adventure.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews