Thu 30 Jun 2016
A GOLD MEDAL Review: DAN J. MARLOWE – Operation Counterpunch.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[7] Comments
DAN J. MARLOWE – Operation Counterpunch. Fawcett Gold Medal P3454, paperback original; 1st printing, February 1976.
This 12th and last of Dan Marlowe’s Earl Drake “Man without a Face” series was a disappointment, starting with the front cover, where Drake appears misshapen and starting to become, dare I say it, paunchy. I also don’t care for books which finish up the action in a previous one, and this one takes some care to tidy up some loose ends from not one but two earlier ones, neither of which have I read.
To wit: At the end of Operation Deathmaker, book #11, Hazel, Drake’s girl friend and constant companion, was hurt and in the hospital. This one starts with Drake breaking her out before she’s able to answer too many questions, using one of the most embarrassingly juvenile ways of accomplishing this that I can imagine.
Also: the story in Operation Hammerlock, book #9, had Drake and Hazel ripping off a fabulously rich Mexican gangster. Now he wants revenge, and he doesn’t much care who gets in his way to get it.
How Drake manages to find Don Luis Morales first and finish him off with all of his henchman is all that this story is about. Drake goes through the motions of changing his face and rest of his appearance every so often, but there’s really no reason to. No undercover espionage assignment this time around, no sneaky plot devices, no interesting characters, just a series that for whatever reason needed to be wound down, including in hindsight, a happy ending at least in sight for the pair.
It’s a readable book, all right, don’t get me wrong, but it’s still mostly an empty and non-satisfying one.
July 1st, 2016 at 12:51 am
Readable is a good adjective for most of the later Drake series in my opinion. I much preferred the Marlowe of the Johnny Killain and non series books to Earl Drake once he took up the spy biz.
Don’t get me wrong. I don’t think Marlowe had a really bad book in him. Of the second tier Gold Medal lot he came awfully close to the first tier. But the Drake series lent itself to formula, and here the attempt to do something like a trilogy really just shows how formulaic it all had become.
Drake put the art department at Gold Medal through the ringer since the company standard was to establish a portrait and look for series characters so they would be easily identified on kiosks, and Drake’s changeable face meant that the covers always contradicted the text.
And yes, Drake looks as if he has had one or two too many margaritas during his Mexican jaunt on this cover.
July 1st, 2016 at 1:56 pm
Yes, before Marlowe wrote his Drake character into the spy game, this series was one of the best. Similar to the Parker novels. The first one, The Name Of The Game is Death, is a must read.
July 1st, 2016 at 6:04 pm
As good as Drake’s debut is, I think I like ONE ENDLESS HOUR even better.
July 1st, 2016 at 8:36 pm
There are a lot of fans of the later Drake series, but most of the readers I know like the first ones best.
July 1st, 2016 at 8:53 pm
Count me among those readers who prefer the early Drake books. The later Drake books followed pretty much the same template.
July 1st, 2016 at 9:26 pm
The early Drake books were excellent, but after reading Marlowe’s biography, having a regular paycheck as the series progressed was probably worth it. For what I thought was an established author, he seemed to have quite a bit of trouble getting his book projects approved by publishers.
July 1st, 2016 at 10:10 pm
At one point he was close to Jim Thompson in power and sheer sweaty grit… but alas!