STEVE CARROLL WRITES

If you’ve followed this blog for any real length of time, then you know by now   that I am an espionage junkie. And nothing gets me going more than the   espionage books, movies and television shows of the Golden Age of spies, the   Cold War 50s, 60s, and 70s. Of course, this explosion in popularity at   that   time was tied directly into the superstardom of a single source—James Bond, Ian   Fleming’s indomitable British spy for Her Majesty, and his exploits   in novels   and the wildly successful film series that started in 1962 (and remains a   cash-cow today). Robert Deis and Bill Cunningham created  Men’s   Adventure Quarterly  (MAQ) as a way to preserve and celebrate the Men’s   Adventure Magazines   (MAM) of a bygone era. That MAM era was a post-war phenomenon   that ran from the late 40s through the early 70s. In their earlier heyday, there   was a   huge emphasis on so-called “true stories” of m...

Lawrence Block is a true literary legend, followed by   millions of readers and the recipient of the title  Grand   Master by the  Mystery   Writers of America . He   has published over 100 books in a career that spans over   half a century. His area of expertise is crime and he is best known for his long-running   series   of books focused on recovered alcoholic private investigator Matthew   Scuddard. The Naked and the Deadly , a new compilation courtesy of Bob Deis   and   Wyatt Doyle and their Men’s Adventure Library, collects Block’s earliest work   from his days as a young contributor to the sensationalistic men’s   adventure magazine   (MAM) market of the late 50s, 60s, and early 70s. The famous author Lawrence Block is not   exactly the same Lawrence Block that is found in this robust and informative   volume. Or as the back-cover   blurb notes: “Not that Lawrence Block. Not yet...”  ...

I have   long been a fan of all things espionage-related, but especially the various   book series that flourished in the wake of the popularity of the Bond   movies in   the 60s. I’m not talking A-listers like Matt Helm , Quiller , Modesty Blaise , or   Sam Durrel l here. I’m talking about the books that sincerely   aspired to be   also-rans, decent copies of the original that could be churned out quickly   while the iron was hot to satisfy a marketplace hungry for spy-fi   hijinks. They   had their cinematic equivalents in the realm of cinema as well, with countless   Euro-spy movies made on minuscule budgets with mostly   unknown actors doing   their best 007 impersonations. As with all fads, they ran their course and   mostly fell out of favor, although the best of them were   able to hang around   for a while into the 70s and 80s. I say all of this to highlight how unique it was to have   someone w...

This review requires a bit of context and backstory. Apologies for my long- windedness as this unexpectedly turned into an essay on my love affair with   Ian   Fleming’s gift to espionage fiction literature. If you prefer, scroll down f or the review proper without enjoying my trip down memory   lane. It's marked where to start reading... I was raised on James Bond and I don’t mean that in a loose, metaphorical   sense. My father was a bona fide 007 aficionado who went out of his way to   proselytize   me into the ranks while still a very young boy. I’m told I was taken to the theater   to see Thunderball on its first theatrical run at the age of 3; I   have zero   memory of this, of course. I have a slight memory of seeing You Only Live Twice   as a 5-year old. However, seeing a double-feature rerelease   of those two films   as a 6-year old is vividly in my memory, as is a double-feature of Dr. No and   From Russia Wit...