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Joe Gall Mystery #16
The Spice Route Contract
When a black army officer and deserter from the Vietnam War formed a gang of assassins and eliminated a major Yemeni official, the CIA applauded because that what they had recruited and paid him to do. When he began to apply his trade against those who were pro-American, he had to be stopped.
142 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published April 1, 1973
15 people want to read
About the author
Philip Atlee
35 books8 followersPseudonym of James Atlee Phillips
Born in Fort Worth, Texas, Atlee's first book was an expose about local country club members. An avid flyer, he was a member of the Flying Tigers before WWII. He joined the Marines after Pearl Harbor. He ran Amphibian Airways in Burma, probably for the CIA, and it is from this experience that his first Joe Gall book, Pagoda, came.
Born in Fort Worth, Texas, Atlee's first book was an expose about local country club members. An avid flyer, he was a member of the Flying Tigers before WWII. He joined the Marines after Pearl Harbor. He ran Amphibian Airways in Burma, probably for the CIA, and it is from this experience that his first Joe Gall book, Pagoda, came.
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December 5, 2023
Published January 1, 1973 by Fawcett Gold Medal, # 16 in the series, features Joe Gall, espionage agent who works off the books with plausible deniability. Gall lives in Arkansas and accepts assignments on a contract basis. This one involves a rogue agent sent to Yemen to assassinate someone, but who dropped out of sight, off the books, and there is concern now that this rogue agent might be working for someone else. Gall is told to go to Yemen, find the guy, and bring him back or end him.
Gall’s identity for this caper is Mr. John Haygood Stipling, who is headed to Yemen to film a documentary. His partner for this expedition is Swedish lass Inger Hopen, who is posing as his wife. Her part in the novel consists mainly of wearing hot pants, loose tops with plunging necklines, and playing at marital bliss in bed with Gall. It is sort of an odd choice to bring her with him to Yemen, where she sticks out like a sore thumb and does little more than scream and ends up a harem slave to a stoned Yemenite Colonel. But, it does appear that Inger’s appearance in this novel is as a sort of Bond girl for Gall, who describes her as “an enthusiastic little mare,” not exactly a feminist tale.
Prior to reaching primitive Yemen, which we are told is older than Christianity, we are given a tour of the East African ports on the Red Sea and Horn of Africa. We get an appreciation for how hot and dry the land is in this area.
Gall is not exactly an unknown quantity in this part of the world, this being his sixteenth adventure. He is slipped into Yemen secretly, but anyone around him is brought into the police headquarters and tortured or raped into submission. Gall is pretty much on his own here with a few odd contacts, one of whom interestingly enough had been paid by the British for decades just in case he were needed. It becomes a cat and mouse game with his quarry, Edgar Richards, who is onto Gall’s game and has numerous contacts and allies in war-torn Yemen.
The Spice Route Contract is a very solid addition to the Joe Gall series. The story takes the reader to an unexplored part of the world and offers a very solid adventure.
Gall’s identity for this caper is Mr. John Haygood Stipling, who is headed to Yemen to film a documentary. His partner for this expedition is Swedish lass Inger Hopen, who is posing as his wife. Her part in the novel consists mainly of wearing hot pants, loose tops with plunging necklines, and playing at marital bliss in bed with Gall. It is sort of an odd choice to bring her with him to Yemen, where she sticks out like a sore thumb and does little more than scream and ends up a harem slave to a stoned Yemenite Colonel. But, it does appear that Inger’s appearance in this novel is as a sort of Bond girl for Gall, who describes her as “an enthusiastic little mare,” not exactly a feminist tale.
Prior to reaching primitive Yemen, which we are told is older than Christianity, we are given a tour of the East African ports on the Red Sea and Horn of Africa. We get an appreciation for how hot and dry the land is in this area.
Gall is not exactly an unknown quantity in this part of the world, this being his sixteenth adventure. He is slipped into Yemen secretly, but anyone around him is brought into the police headquarters and tortured or raped into submission. Gall is pretty much on his own here with a few odd contacts, one of whom interestingly enough had been paid by the British for decades just in case he were needed. It becomes a cat and mouse game with his quarry, Edgar Richards, who is onto Gall’s game and has numerous contacts and allies in war-torn Yemen.
The Spice Route Contract is a very solid addition to the Joe Gall series. The story takes the reader to an unexplored part of the world and offers a very solid adventure.
Displaying 1 of 1 review