Operation Stranglehold

Drake - The Man With Nobody's Face #8

by Dan J. Marlowe

Drake wasn't expecting visitors... Which is why he was so wary when Hazel told him about the two strangers pulling into their drive. Drake watched as the two men got out of their car and walked toward them. They were Easterners; the cut of their business suits announced that. They didn't look like hoods. And they weren't cops. Drake had a built-in radar for fuzz. But there was something cop-like in the swaggering attitude. Whoever they were Drake didn't like them. Especially when they tried to get smart with Hazel. That's when Drake shot one in the arm. They quit fooling around then and handed Drake an envelope. It was from Washington. About his friend Karl Erikson in a Spanish prison. Drake wasn't thinking right then about his friend. He was thinking that some damn fool in Washington had blown his cover. And he had better get the hell away fast before his past caught up with him again.

Genres: Thriller

159 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published May 1, 1973

About the author

aka Albert Avellano, Jaime Sandaval, Gar Wilson (house name)

Dan J. Marlowe was a middle-aged businessman who, in the personal turmoil after the death of his wife of many years, decided to abandon his old life. He started writing, and his first novel was published when he was 45.

Marlowe's most famous book and his best-known character arrived from Fawcett Gold Medal Books in 1962 ("The Name of the Game Is Death").

Reviews

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Operation Stranglehold" is the eighth book in the 12-book Drake series by Marlowe. Although the first two books in the series ("Name of the Game is Death" and "Endless Hour") were as decidedly hardboiled crime stories as any books anywhere, the later books in the series feature Drake ( the hard-nosed tough guy), Hazel (his big, beautiful, redheaded girlfriend), and Karl Erikson (the Treasury Agent) in a variety of adventures.

This one is a terrific, fun, fast read that has Drake and Hazel heading to the mountains of Spain to rescue Erikson from a Spanish prison. Of course, Drake is on his own and the government won't acknowledge his presence there or provide backup. It's a good adventure story that features some great action scenes.

Although there are lots of spy/ men's adventure stories that were published in the seventies, few are as easy or as enjoyable to read as this one. It is smoothly written. Drake is never shy about using his gun. Hazel has a libido that never quits. And, Erikson plays a very different role in this book than in the others in the series.

[SB · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this over the course of a day on a Miami beach. Very average, maybe even sub-average. Basically just a novel-long hike (after a brief set-up) that feels like a continual sequence of "and then this happened and then this happened and then this happened." If this series hadn't started so strong, and if I wasn't so close to the end, I would have cut loose several books ago. Four more to go, fingers crossed...

[David Way · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good but seemed a little like part of a larger book. Probably better if read with the others