ADAM HALL – The Quiller Memorandum. Simon & Schuster, US, hardcover, 1965. Reprinted many times.

   Originally titled The Berlin Memorandum in the British first edition, The Quiller Memorandum [Collins, 1965] introduces “shadow executive” Quiller, who works for an agency known only as “the Bureau,” an organization which handles such super-sensitive espionage tasks that officially it does not exist and takes action only when authorized by the prime minister. Quiller’s own expertise is in the area of escapes: He worked as a spy in Nazi Germany, arranging escapes from the concentration camps.

   Now it is twenty years later. Quiller has finished an assignment in Berlin and is due to return to London for a well-deserved leave. Hours before departure, however. he realizes he is being followed. A man contacts him in a theater and reveals the existence of a large Berlin-based neo-Nazi organization that plans to take over Germany. One of the names the man mentions is that of a senior SS officer whom Quiller remembers from his World War II days. Slowly, Quiller is drawn into a secret and dangerous world where politics and murder come together in a sinister conspiracy.

   In this and his other novels, Hall exhibits great expertise at creating and sustaining edge-of-the-chair suspense; even those who are not particularly fond of tales of international conspiracy will have difficulty putting his work down.

   The main problem with the Quiller books, however, is with the character of the hero himself. Quiller is a technician, expert at all the disciplines of the spy’s trade and possessing a considerable knowledge of neurophysiology and psychology; his cool. detachment and ability to perform well under stress are what make him so valuable to the Bureau.

   As a man, Quiller lacks a great deal: He has no private life, no inner torments (that we are allowed to see, at any rate), none of the faults and conflicts that make a truly interesting character. It is evidence of Hall’s abilities that he is able to sustain the reader’s attention in his hero’s exploits.

   The Quiller Memorandum was awarded the MWA Edgar for Best Novel of 1965. A film version, starring George Segal, Alec Guinness, Max Von Sydow, and Senta Berger, was made in 1966, with playwright Harold Pinter authoring the screenplay.

   Some other titles in the Quiller series are The 9th Directive (1966 ), which deals with the kidnapping of a member of the British royal family in Bangkok; The Striker Portfolio (1969), in which Quiller returns to Germany to investigate a series of sabotages on military aircraft; The Warsaw Document (1970), in which he foils a Russian plot to invade Warsaw; and The Tango Briefing (1973), which takes place in Libya.

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   Reprinted with permission from 1001 Midnights, edited by Bill Pronzini & Marcia Muller and published by The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box, 2007.   Copyright © 1986, 2007 by the Pronzini-Muller Family Trust.