Thu 9 Mar 2017
ADAM HALL – The Scorpion Signal. Quiller #9. Doubleday, US, hardcover, 1980. Playboy, paperback; 1st printing, June 1981. First edition: Collins, UK, hardcover, 1979.
Quiller is asked to cut short his latest recovery leave six weeks early. He might have refused, but the man missing was a friend of his; they’d been on assignment together more than once. Shapiro had been caught by the Russians and was being processed in the brainwashing facility at Lubyanka when somehow he managed to escape. But now he’s disappeared, and if the Russians have him and break him, all kinds of secrets will suddenly not be so secret any more.
And so Quiller agrees to take the job. Not all goes as planned, though, not hardly. There are lots of twists and turns and narrow escapes on the part of Quiller, who is both very good at what he does and very lucky. It is the people that he meets that makes the story go on high cylinders most of the way, however. Some are on “our” side, some on “their” side, and some have their own agendas, which is all to the good, as far as the reader is concerned, especially this one.
The ending, though, is all action — which I daren’t tell you about, because getting there is where all the fun is — and while Adam Hall (aka Elleston Trevor) does action well, the closing climactic scenes mean almost as little to me as the CGI effects and fast camera work in whatever the latest suspense thriller is that’s being shown right now in a theater near you.
All in all, then, not a boring (or bad) book by any means, but I enjoyed a earlier read, Quiller, which came later in the series (and was reviewed here ), quite a bit more. Cerebral action means more to me, you see, than several chapters’ worth of automobiles chasing each other, even around the Kremlin, right in the heart of Moscow.
March 9th, 2017 at 9:49 pm
Hall/Trevor choreographed the best car chase I have ever read in print set on the autobahn in one Quiller novel. I’ve read and reread every Quiller novel, and from first to last Hall seldom falters.
March 9th, 2017 at 10:18 pm
In this case, I felt the transition from (A) the psychological drama of finding Shapiro and dealing with what he was doing and why to (B) the desperate car chase at the end was too jarring for me to enjoy the last couple chapters as much as I did everything that had gone before. In Part (A), nothing was certain. In Part (B), there was no doubt. Just the way I saw it, no more!
March 10th, 2017 at 3:26 am
Hall is one of the best to establish jeopardy for his main character.
It is not easy. The reader knows Quiller has to last the book. TV or film you can tell when the ending is coming by your watch and in books you can see how many more pages are left. I read Quiller’s Tango Briefing on Kindle and found the last half of the book where Quiller is in the desert increasingly dramatic because it is not easy to know how close you are to the end on Kindle. So a car chase at the end would be really hard to keep exciting as you know how it ends.
Hall can establish jeopardy for his characters through out the book. In Tango I was even worried about Quiller (not with the last twist in Tango but when he finds the plane and the bad guys could arrive at any time). I found the car chases in Tango dramatic because the reader didn’t know who was chasing (or following) him or for what reason.
But I found Ninth Directive to be ok but lacked the tension and drama of Tango. I never felt Quiller was in any danger. Which sound some what your experience Steve with Scorpion Signal.
I did review Tango Briefing here: https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=42916
March 10th, 2017 at 10:17 am
I can’t quite recall the end of Scorpion Signal, but Tango Briefing is my favorite of the entire series. I love the chapter that begins with Quiller imagining the parents of his associate still being troubled years later .by the associate’s (impending) death. It’s a great series, and in my mind really unique.
March 10th, 2017 at 2:03 pm
I read the first couple Quiller novels and enjoyed them. Now I’ll have to find time to read the rest of them! Maybe all this hoopla about the Russians will ignite another boom in spy fiction! I always admired FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE
March 11th, 2017 at 2:35 am
After reading only two of them so far, thanks to Michael’s review of TANGO some time back, Quiller has become my favorite spy thriller character. He uses his brain instead of macho posturing, and when he gets into a jam, he sweats.
March 13th, 2017 at 1:38 pm
I’ve read only The Quiller Memorandum. Enjoyed it and the movie. Didn’t realize Hall had turned Quiller into a series.
July 5th, 2021 at 1:03 am
You guys may squint cynically at me, you guys may roll-your-eyes, when I voice my enthusiasm for Adam Hall (Elleston Trevor, of ‘Flight of the Phoenix’ fame) but I will roundly affirm my loyalty for his works at any opportunity.
In the remarks posted above and in other Mfile reviews etc (‘Tango Briefing’ and the first-in-the-series, ‘Quiller’) I can see glimmerings that some of you agree with me. Back-handed praise slips out here-and-there, at the tail-end of all your reliable, sober, astute, critiques.
Well, with me, I am unstinting in this specific case. I’m exuberant. I may sound like a whelp. Surely, I haven’t read as widely as you all have in the thriller genre. But I’ve had my small portion.
I realize of course that Trevor’s series is not as perfect as Fleming, and doesn’t always hit-the-mark with every reader. Especially not veteran readers.
But speaking for myself, I can say frankly that I’ve never enjoyed as riveting a paperback read, as Trevor delivers. I’ve consumed swathes …acres .. .hectares …of Ian Fleming, Jack Higgins, Alistair MacLean, Freddie Forsythe, Clive Cussler, David Morell…Follett, LeCarre …Lord only knows what all I’ve read. Can’t even remember.
Pound-for-pound, Elleston Trevor clobbers the rest of the field with his Quiller series. Speaking only from my small experience, mind now. But yep. For my money, he whales. His action-writing is a rampage. Manic. He wreaks utter havoc.
It’s no mean feat. Espionage-thrillers are not easy to write with originality or flair; not easy to render ‘correctly’. Far too often they wind up sounding like knock-offs of Alistair MacLean or Ian Fleming.
But Trevor’s ‘Quiller’ character is neither a Bond-wannabe or a MacLean tough-guy made of concrete. He’s his own man. He’s as cerebral as something from leCarre’s Smiley saga. But this weirdo carries no gun. Dang. Shazam. Even so, I don’t think James Bond could best him. Quiller makes Bond look like he’s sleepwalking. This dude is just so zany, in what he will endure to complete a job. Scary. Psycho.
I believe I’ve read six or maybe seven of the ‘Quiller’ titles so far. I’m pacing myself. Found each one so thoroughly fascinating. The singularness of the lead character, the prose technique employed, the technical detail, the settings, the plots. It’s an astounding accomplishment.
Reminder: Elleston Trevor was an RAF flight engineer. That’s how he wrote, ‘Flight of the Phoenix’. Similarly, some of the Quiller stories involve fighter aircraft. ‘Tango Briefing’ had me on the edge of my seat. ‘Sinkiang Executive’ is just outlandish. ‘Ninth Directive’? Holy hannah. The first convincing spy story set in Bangkok I’ve ever experienced. Highest recommendation.
In sum: Dashiell Hammett for crime. Top choice of all time. Hammett all the way. But Elleston Trevor for the same kind of white-knuckle read, when it comes to espionage. None other. Trevor, I name as Hammett’s successor. Everyone else may be wonderful in their way (leCarre, Deighton, etc) but no one else revives that “continental-op” style into this specialized genre as Trevor does. He just goes ape. It’s nuts, it’s berserk.
Reminder to self: I haven’t read as many books as you all have, so if you can show me that my opinion is narrow, I’d leap out of my seat with pleasure. Would welcome any recommendations. Otherwise, I steadfastly vouch for the excitement of any Adam Hall romp. Jar o’ lightning.
p.s. came here looking for something else, found this post by accident, pardon me i’m sure