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THE QUILLER MEMORANDUM
by Adam Hall
Forge, April 2004
224 pages
$13.95
ISBN: 0765309688


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

THE QUILLER MEMORANDUM is a period piece, but a very memorable and readable one that deserves a new 21st century audience. The reader is hurled straight into dark and drab 1960s Berlin where the war is all too clear in people's minds, those on both sides.

Quiller is a secret agent working for the British in Germany. He's just about to return to England when he's given a new assignment after another agent is found dead. From here he's catapulted into a sinister world where Nazism is still a very real threat and where those following him could be either the enemy or his own side. The book is locked tightly into Quiller's point of view, so the reader will invariably wonder what is true and what isn't.

The book is not only one of the best spy novels ever written, but it's also a prime example of how understatement often works better that buckets of gore. The torture scene is absolutely terrifying and is done without a drop of blood being shed, as Quiller attempts to withstand the drugs that have been pumped into him.

THE QUILLER MEMORANDUM is, in effect, a guide to spying, with code-cracking, complex codes and messages, agents and double agents, and that ever-present threat of torture and even death.

I'm not a film-goer, but I have seen the movie version of THE QUILLER MEMORANDUM, and it more than does justice to an exceptional book. The book itself has the feel of a spooky black and white movie, with Berlin's back streets and seedy hotels playing a pivotal role. And there's even the obligatory beautiful woman who may not be all she seems.

Adam Hall is the pen name for author Elleston Trevor, who wrote 18 books featuring Quiller. Forge Books are reissuing this classic, which won an Edgar Award, as part of a series of award-winning novels that have gone out of print. I'm slightly confused, though, by the presence of some US spellings which, infuriatingly, don't appear to have much consistency or logic and which I can't believe were in the original. This aside, though, THE QUILLER MEMORANDUM is essential reading for anyone who claims to be a thriller fan.

Reviewed by Sharon Wheeler, May 2004

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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