Soldier of Fortune #11: Yellow Rain by Peter McCurtin

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Soldier of Fortune #11: Yellow Rain (1984) by Peter McCurtin

After a several years hiatus Peter McCurtin resurrected the Soldier of Fortune title with #10, Yellow Rain, in 1984. A few authors are known to have taken on the McCurtin mantle to write this series, among them men’s adventure stalwart Ralph Hayes. Yellow Rain however is fully attributed to McCurtin personally, so I was excited to dive in, especially since I had never read a Soldier of Fortune book. 

Please forgive me for wading into this slim book with the expectation of wall-to-wall action with little character development or depth of political shading or geographic and cultural detail. Instead I discovered a slow burn of a rescue operation with more of an espionage vibe than a military firepower one. In fact, I was reminded of the master himself, Ian Fleming, in the way McCurtin takes the time to make the various political and social cultures of Russian-occupied Afghanistan in the early 80s a character every bit as developed as our narrator-hero, Jim Rainey. 

Our story opens with Rainey as he’s hired by a news magazine publisher to rescue Charles Goldman, a liberal journalist who is being held prisoner by rebels in the conflicted Middle Eastern country. Apparently, the journo is being left to suffer overseas by a CIA that dislikes his left-leaning stories vilifying them. Rainey agrees to the mission for a cool $100K and sets off immediately to the war-torn city of Kabul. 

The book flies by and yet I was starting to question its pedigree given that the very first action scene doesn’t occur until 136 pages into a volume that only runs 224 large print pages in total. However, from that point forward, this thing is in a constant escalation of violence and danger as Rainey and his drug-addled reluctant prize work their way through rebel forces, mountain tribesmen, the harsh Afghan environment, and Russian helicopters armed with nerve gas (the Yellow Rain of the title). This last third is a legitimately exhausting nail-biter of suspense and best of all, I didn’t know how any of it would turn out. 

This book surprised me and I will now actively look to acquire more of this series.

Review by Steve Carroll  

Here is the full list of titles and who wrote them, courtesy of Tom Simon from Paperback Warrior.

Most of the series was written by Peter McCurtin unless otherwise noted:

01. Massacre At Umtali (1976) - Rhodesia
02. The Deadliest Game (1976) - Argentina
03. Spoils Of War (1977) - Lebanon
04. The Guns Of Palembang (1977) - Indonesia (by Ralph Hayes)
05. First Blood (1977) - Panama (by Ralph Hayes)
06. Ambush At Derati Wells (1977) - Kenya (by Ralph Hayes)
07. Operation Hong Kong (1977) - Hong Kong (by Ralph Hayes)
08. Body Count (1977) - New Guinea (by Ralph Hayes)
09. Battle Pay (1978) - Caribbean (by Ralph Hayes)
10. Golden Triangle (1984) - Vietnam
11. Yellow Rain (1984) - Afghanistan
12. Green Hell (1984) - Ireland
13. Moro (1984) - Phillipines
14. Kalahari (1984) - South Africa
15. Death Squad (1985) - Nicaragua
16. Somali Smashout (1985) - Somalia (by Paul Hofrichter)
17. Bloodbath (1985) - Hawaii
18. Blood Island (1985) - Western Samoa (by Ralph Hayes)

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