Wed 15 Sep 2010
Reviewed by Allen J. Hubin: TED ALLBEURY – The Judas Factor.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[4] Comments
Allen J. Hubin
TED ALLBEURY – The Judas Factor. Mysterious Press, US, hardcover, 1987; reprint paperback, 1989. British edition: New English Library, hardcover, 1984.
Each time I sample Ted Allbeury I am rewarded. The Judas Factor is no exception. Allbeury’s bag is international intrigue, and his view is not all black and white but mostly gray, of men and women doing what they do for their own reasons, with their own ignorances and insights and rationalizations.
Tad Anders fell out of official favor with his masters in Britain’s S.LS., but they didn’t want to lose him altogether. So they set him up running a disreputable if successful London club, and ask him to take on the odd unofficial job.
Like extracting a Russian assassin from East Germany. The job is poorly planned and goes awry. In the end, one of the difficulties with unofficial spies is they’re a bit hard to control .
A solid, spare tale, and Tad and his women are particularly well met.
Previously reviewed on this blog:
Shadow of Shadows (by George Kelley)
The Reaper (by Steve Lewis)
September 15th, 2010 at 9:35 pm
It has been said of Allbeury with some justification that he was the sort of writer the actual spies read to see if they were doing it right.
He never quite developed the American audience he should have, but he wrote circles around Le Carre, and most of his books were published here where he had a small devoted audience.
Allbeury was the spy novelists spy novelist, the man that everyone looked to.
Tad Anders is a recurring character in several books.
September 15th, 2010 at 10:51 pm
I’ve read only the one book by him, but looking at my review of THE REAPER again, here’s what I had to say that’s important:
Allbeury’s book has the in-between gray that better spy novels seem to thrive on. The moral dilemmas, the idea that “you always pay.â€
From page 136, former CIA agent Hank Wallace is warning Anna Simon, his protege he’s fallen in love with:
“You pay a price when you kill someone. It’s a different price for different people. It doesn’t matter if the killing is just or unjust, you still pay the price. You don’t necessarily pay immediately; it may be years later when you have almost forgotten what happened. But you pay. And you always seem to pay when you can least afford it.â€
As for Tad Anders, he was in only three novels:
ANDERS, TAD
o Snowball. Davies, 1974.
o Palomino Blonde. Davies, 1975.
o The Judas Factor. NEL, 1984.
All of Allbeury’s other novels, some 40 to 50 in all, appear to have been standalones.
May 23rd, 2015 at 6:13 pm
Apparently, The Judas Factor was the basis for the film Blue Ice (1992), starring Michael Caine.
May 24th, 2015 at 12:10 am
Johny
Thanks for this. This is a connection I hadn’t known about before. I’ve been looking for more information about it, but so far I haven’t found anything that ties the book and the movie together in anything more than a general way. Wikipedia, for example, says,
“According to the credits, the character of “Harry Anders” is based on the Ted Allbeury character “Tad Anders.” The character was featured in Allbeury’s novels Snowball, Palomino Blonde and The Judas Factor.”
If you have any reference that specifically pins the story down to JUDAS FACTOR more than this, let me know. In the meantime I’ve purchased a copy of the movie from Amazon on DVD, and I’m expecting it soon. Even with Michael Caine in it, I hadn’t heard of it before.
PS. Wikipedia also notes that the change of the character’s name from Tad to Harry was a tip of the hat to Harry Palmer.