The Quiller Memorandum in Espionage Aficionados

Jun 23, 2012 Feliks rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: genre-thrillers

Adam Hall is the careful, meticulous, and patient author of the interesting character/spy, "Quiller". The series of unorthodox novels built around Quiller are extremely odd, as far as espionage fiction runs. 'The Quiller Memorandum' (first in the sequence) was published in 1966 and it was just not common at that time, for an author to make a point of flaunting his own genre's conventions. But his "Quiller" --a cynical and jaded free-lance agent--does just that. As rogue-ish as Len Deighton's 'Ha Adam Hall is the careful, meticulous, and patient author of the interesting character/spy, "Quiller". The series of unorthodox novels built around Quiller are extremely odd, as far as espionage fiction runs. 'The Quiller Memorandum' (first in the sequence) was published in 1966 and it was just not common at that time, for an author to make a point of flaunting his own genre's conventions. But his "Quiller" --a cynical and jaded free-lance agent--does just that. As rogue-ish as Len Deighton's 'Harry Palmer' (but not as sardonic), Quiller is a character type not seen repeated until something like Charles McCarry's modern 'Paul Christopher'. World-traveling and multi-lingual; quick reflexes, but definitely a loner, a "thinking man's spy".

What you really have to applaud Hall for is his setting out with a deliberately antithetical and unique notion of what a spy can be and do. Quiller--a shrewd, cerebral individual--is one of the few spies in the violent post-WWII era who refuses to carry a gun. Instead, he trusts his acumen and his resourcefulness to give him advantage. Though he's a solidly well-built agent with a high pain threshold, able to withstand rigorous abuse--more than this, Quiller is simply so thoroughly seasoned by his past wartime experience that guns are rather superfluous to the real business of spying which--as Hall suggests--relies far more on observation, perspicacity, and insight into the psychology of your opponents. Quiller can often see the next move of his enemy before his enemy makes it.

The first Quiller novel--a brooding, spooky affair--is not a snore-fest, though. There are sharp bursts of action which, refreshingly, Hall brings out slowly, as the result of a stomach-sickening and nerve-wracking build-up. Its not Alistair MacLean's style of zesty, energetic dust-ups every few pages; (all of which the hero recovers from in just a few moments). Creativity and realism both reign here: Hall accurately writes about physical brutality the way it really is: clumsy, pointless, and wearying; with throbbing painful after-effects that linger and follow one around. Its part of a general level of ugly harshness and roughness in Quiller's world which he does his best to avoid; and an important key to his character. Quiller is tired, disgusted, bruised, battered. Barely hanging on.

What drives him..? Well, he's not LeCarre's George Smiley wanting to "do his part for those who went before". He's more in the camp of a Jonathan Hemlock (Trevanian); who sees no particular merits on either side of the detente' conference table. We get the noir-ish vibe that he has no other sense of what other life he might lead, apart from spying. Its what he knows best; the only thing he's suited for. At the same time--in the first novel--we do see that Quiller harbors an especial hatred for Nazis; he considers them targets of his particular interest and worthy of his pursuit wherever they may re-appear.

And as far as that is concerned, 'The Quiller Memorandum' is actually one of the finest stand-alone tales of neo-Nazism you can ask for; I would say its even *definitive* for this sub-genre. The strength of Hall's peculiar vision lent itself to a damn fine 1967 film starring Alec Guinness, Max Von Sydow, Sente Berger, and George Segal (titular role); and a screenplay by Harold Pinter. That is certainly top talent, and the flick (though not a milestone) is one of the most evocative films featuring a re-built but uneasy, post-war Berlin.

In general, Hall writes with both poise and grit in equal doses; a touch of 'spy vs spy' surreality, as well as a very noticeable atavism. Initially, it seemed as if Hall's quirky formula might bring him a lot more renown. He's written a string of later Quillers set in the Mid-east and southeast Asia and they feature a variety of flairful enemy organizations and exotic titles like, 'The Kobra Manifesto'. In spite of this, he's always remained a dark horse doing his own thing. Quiller is so subtle that it just won't lend itself to cinema more than once (Hall had other success with 'The Flight of the Phoenix')

Still, the genre is very lucky to have Adam Hall; and all of his works deserve probing--if for nothing else other than his insistence on breaking convention. ...more

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Jan 07, 2021 Sam Reaves rated it liked it · review of another edition

One of the first grown-up movies I was allowed to go see by myself as an impressionable adolescent (yes, this was some years ago now) was the Quiller Memorandum, with George Segal. I recall being duly impressed by the menacing atmospherics, if much of it went over my head. The book and movie made a bit of a splash in the spy craze of the mid-sixties, when James Bond and The Man From Uncle were all the rage.
I never read the book until now, a half-century or more later. It turns out that the orig One of the first grown-up movies I was allowed to go see by myself as an impressionable adolescent (yes, this was some years ago now) was the Quiller Memorandum, with George Segal. I recall being duly impressed by the menacing atmospherics, if much of it went over my head. The book and movie made a bit of a splash in the spy craze of the mid-sixties, when James Bond and The Man From Uncle were all the rage.
I never read the book until now, a half-century or more later. It turns out that the original British title was The Berlin Memorandum, and the author's real name was Elleston Trevor. Wikipedia lists an impressive total of nine pseudonyms for him and credits him with more than a hundred books. Whatever his name was, he kept busy.
The novel takes place in Cold War Berlin; however, the enemy is not the Russians but rather a gang of unreconstructed Nazis who have not only escaped punishment but have built a power base in the postwar German military and are scheming to resuscitate the Reich. Not terribly historically accurate, maybe, but Nazis always make great villains. Quiller is a British agent assigned to ferret them out; he has a personal grudge against one of the Nazis from a wartime encounter.
The gimmick is that he insists on "going in alone", without backup, because... well, really just because it makes for more drama, though he mumbles something about not being interfered with.
All of which sets up the real point of the book, which is an impressive (and implausible) extravaganza of tradecraft, with Quiller constantly evading tails in empty Berlin streets (infallibly sensing them the instant he hits the pavement, of course) and showing off his expertise in weaponry, psychology, pharmacokinetics, cryptology, you name it. Quiller can do everything from foiling eavesdroppers by speaking in Rabinda-Tanath ("the dialect of the Lahsritsa hill-tribes of East Pakistan") to self-inducing syncope to resist interrogation, and he is careful to explain it all as he goes along. "The bullet from a small 8 mm short-trigger Pelmann and Rosenthal Mark IV spins in the region of two thousand revolutions per second... When an operator starts out to shadow another, the outcome will be found among five main possibilities..." It's all highly technical, and we are duly impressed.
A bit silly really, but it's an entertaining yarn, deftly told, a reliable page-turner. And it has Nazis. ...more

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Dec 24, 2021 Philip rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction-series, kiss-kiss-bang-bang, audiobooks, mckays, first-person, 1960s, filmed, spy-fiction-british, europe, genocide-holocaust-nazi-hunters

Have read a half dozen or so other "Quiller" books, so when I saw that Hoopla had this first story, I figured I should give it a listen to see how Quiller got started.

Well, this wasn't bad, but it was a very different Quiller. First, it is not a Cold War story, but is one of the earlier "let's round up those remaining Nazi" books like, say, Marathon Man. As such, it's not really a spy story, but almost a detective story, with Quiller working together with the German police. There were some commo Have read a half dozen or so other "Quiller" books, so when I saw that Hoopla had this first story, I figured I should give it a listen to see how Quiller got started.

Well, this wasn't bad, but it was a very different Quiller. First, it is not a Cold War story, but is one of the earlier "let's round up those remaining Nazi" books like, say, Marathon Man. As such, it's not really a spy story, but almost a detective story, with Quiller working together with the German police. There were some common Quiller elements here - in particular, a LOT of car and foot surveillance (including the obligatory car chase that ends in flames) - but otherwise, I have to say this was just very different from Hall's subsequent books, and as such not really much of an indicator of what was to come.

I also realized here that, much like James Bond, Quiller is apparently immortal. This story is set in 1965, and has Quiller remembering his experiences during WWII. So assuming we was a young 18 in 1945 (although he was probably older), he was already at least 35 in this story - which would put him in his late-60s by his final book in 1996. I haven't read any of the last few books, so not sure if Hall was writing in real time, but I do believe Quiller Bamboo (1991) takes place in a post-Tiananmen China - i.e., after 1989 - and so Quiller would have been at least late-50s by then. I therefore found it mildly amusing that this book ends with Quiller's rumination that "I must be getting old. Getting old." Because, well…apparently not.

Back to the whole Nazis thing - this takes place a full 20 years after the end of the war, and yet the West was apparently still worried that surviving Nazi elements might somehow rise back into power. I therefore couldn't help mentally comparing this to our current situation here in the U.S., where it is all-too-depressingly feasible that our own far-right, proto-Fascist fringe that continues to worship at the alter of Donald Trump might continue to be a threat to American democracy two decades hence...a most unsettling thought...

FINAL NOTE: This book was also the basis of the one and only Quiller movie, 1965's "The Quiller Memorandum." It is available in full on Youtube, but PLEASE don't waste your time - it is just awful. No action, Quiller is an American no less, and rather than being introspective, intense and deadly, he is just kind of smarmy and feckless. Two big thumbs down!! ...more

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Nov 15, 2008 Eric_W rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mysteries-and-thrillers

Adam Hall (one of Elleston Trevor' many pseudonyms) wrote many classic spy stories, and this one is considered one of his best. Apparently, it was made into a classic movie and there is even a website compiled by Trevor devotees. He was the author of Flight of the Phoenix which became a really great movie. His Quiller books have been compared favorably to Le Carre' novels although the first was written before Le Carre' Trevor himself has noted the similarity but claims his Quiller is much less i Adam Hall (one of Elleston Trevor' many pseudonyms) wrote many classic spy stories, and this one is considered one of his best. Apparently, it was made into a classic movie and there is even a website compiled by Trevor devotees. He was the author of Flight of the Phoenix which became a really great movie. His Quiller books have been compared favorably to Le Carre' novels although the first was written before Le Carre' Trevor himself has noted the similarity but claims his Quiller is much less intellectual. Quiller is a secret agent, a spy, and in this early work he has been assigned to track down a neo-Nazi organization (this was written in the sixties) called Phoenix that is directed by Heinrich Zossen. Quiller is familiar with Zossen whom he last saw at an execution pit. During the war, Quiller had operated under cover as a German soldier and attempted to save the lives of Jews. He considered his mission a failure. Indeed, much of what we know about Quiller comes from negatives. He doesn' smoke or drink, has no relatives, apparently owns nothing, and his relationship with his controllers could best be described as untrusting. He knows they manipulate him, but he must put up with it because they are his only entree into the shadowy moral never-never-land that he thrives in. He despises fools and dilettantes, priding himself in his professionalism. He also refuses to carry a gun, claiming that not having one gives him a substantial psychological edge over his enemies. There' a great explanation of his rationale that I can' resist quoting in its entirety because it accurately reflects my own position. Quiller has been drugged and captured by the Phoenix group and is being held for interrogation. There are about four men in the room and he explains why not having a weapon provides him with an advantage. " you have the advantage unarmed providing the enemy knows that you are....Knowing you have no gun they' not afraid of you. There is a natural spur to alertness. Unarmed you disarm them. . . .A gun is psychologically a penis substitute and a symbol of power, the age range of toy shop clientele begins at about six or seven, rises sharply just before puberty and declines rapidly soon after the discovery of the phallus and its power. From then on guns are for kids and the effete freaks and misfits who must seek psycho-orgasmic relief shooting pheasants." Great line. So Quiller must rely on his wits (refreshing change). ...more

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Jun 08, 2009 Scott E rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-spy-thrillers

aka: The Quiller Memorandum... the first in a series of 19 Quiller books.

The Quiller Memorandum is detail rich on what it means to be a (fictional) spy. While maintaining a strong narrative, Adam Hall also details such processes as how to deal w/ a tail (not just how to spot one, but how to lead one on, double back on said tail, etc.). Quiller also uses his training to determine what drugs are administered to him during an interrogation, which in turn allows him to know how long he's been under ...more

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May 29, 2011 Sandi rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: read-2011, crime-mystery-thriller-suspense

I had a really hard time getting through this book which was surprising since I usually enjoy espionage books written during the sixties. This book won the Edgar for Best Novel in 1966 and the series has been compared favorably to John Le Carré's Smiley but I found the plot hard to follow and the characters poorly drawn. Luckily it was short and had a pretty decent ending but I doubt that I will read further books in the series. ...more

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Sep 12, 2012 Yash Desai rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: spy-espionage

Great introduction to Quiller, the spy who doesn't use a gun. Compelling read with great twists and turns. This is a more grounded and realistic take on a spy thriller as compared to some of the other novels out there, but still has plenty of action. ...more

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Dec 31, 2013 Patrick Schultheis rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Compelling plot. Decent characters. Very well written, sparse prose

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Jun 30, 2013 Larry Loftis rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

I read on a spy genre blog that Adam Hall was the best. I agree. This book was amazing. Fast, tight, and spiced with a nice twist/reversal at the end. The prose is outstanding, although a bit unique and often tightly clipped. His spycraft is well done and the cliffhangers keep you turning pages. Loved it.

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