Gerald de Villers wrote over 200 spy novels featuring Malko, a contract agent for the CIA. In Madmen of Benghazi, Malko’s mission is to keep a Libyan aspirant to the throne safe from the marauding militias and terrorists. Malko finds time to entertain a London supermodel and confuse Egyptian security forces. The descriptions of the chaos in Libya are harrowing. If you’re looking for a fast-paced, quirky spy novel, give Madmen of Benghazi a try. GRADE: B
I take pride in my liking for spy fiction and then I come here and read about one, Gerald de Villers, who wrote over 200 spy novels and who I’d never heard of before. Thanks for this, George.
Prashant, I saw plenty of Gerald de Villers books when I was visiting France. He’s very popular there. In the late 1970s and early 1980s about 40 MALKO spy novels were published in the U.S. by a paperback publisher, Pinnacle. Now, the books are being translated and published here again.
So OK, imagine that I hhave never read a novel by Gerald de Villers, where should one start given such an expansive corpus?
Sergio, I’ve read a couple dozen Gerald de Villers spy novels (in translation, of course). I think you could jump in anywhere. There are few references to former books. Each book stands on its own mission mostly.
In the mid-1970s, Pinnacle Books published a dozen of the SAS Malko Linge thrillers in English. They include The Belfast Connection (ISBN: 0-523-00844-9) in 1976.
In 2014, Vintage Books is publishing two SAS books with plots that feel ripped from the headlines: The Madmen of Benghazi (ISBN: 978-0-8041-6931-8) in July and Chaos in Kabul (ISBN 978-0-8041-6933-2) in October. The books were translated and adapted by veteran French translator William Rodarmor. Future Malko Linge adventures will include de Villiers’ last SAS book, a Russia-themed thriller called La Vengeance du Kremlin (The Revenge of the Kremlin).
De Villiers died last year.
Jeff, thanks for the info. But Pinnacle published more than a dozen Malko books.
I used to pick up British editions in the 70’s and 80’s in England too.
Jeff, I saw a couple British editions in Canada and I picked them up.
I’ll admit spy novels aren’t among my favorite genres, or perhaps sub-genres, of fiction. In my dotage, I seem to be happy with books more on a low-stress level. Still, Barbara may like one of these. She says she’s never read a spy novel.
Rick, de Villers’ used his “inside information” to make his spy novels realistic. He predicted the assassination of Sadat a year before it happened! Apparently, de Villers had sources high in intelligence circles.
Never heard of him either. Anything taking place in Africa or the Middle East is too scary for me right now.
Patti, the NY TIMES had a very intriguing article on Gerald de Villers and how he wrote his spy novels here: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/03/magazine/gerard-de-villiers-the-spy-novelist-who-knows-too-much.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0