The Destroyer: Chinese Puzzle #3

Wow! The Destroyer is the action series for people who don't like action series. Forget the first two Destroyer books; they were the warm-up. This is the pitch! Book #3 is when the series really takes off. We get lots of hilarious dialogue, character development, and martial arts action. Even a little sinanju style sex! As other reviewers have stated, it is the hysterical banter between Remo and Chiun that makes this series such a timeless, enduring classic. If you've seen the Destroyer movie, "Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins," you know what I'm talking about. The Destroyer is more social commentary and black comedy than brain-dead bombs and bullets, unlike many other action series--that's why it's not dated or forgettable 30+ years later. That's not to say the series is lacking in action, but that it is the characters who drive the plot forward, not a bunch of interchangeable action set-pieces that all blur together. You can't go wrong with The Destroyer from #3: Chinese Puzzle forward.

Although I still enjoy #2 in The Destroyer series, this book is the one that charted the course to Remo and Chiun's long running success. The story is good, but the best thing about this book is the beginning of the relationship between Remo and Chiun. The humor in this story stands up after 30 years. Although the story is somewhat dated now, this book deserves a read.

If this is the first Destroyer novel you pick up, you've gotten it right on the first try. This is where the hysterical banter between Remo and Chiun really hits its stride, and you get character development in an action novel that readers had no right to expect back when these were written. Lest ye forget, the Destroyer novels competed with "The Executioner", "The Butcher", and "Edge" for rack space at the drugstore. While Mack Bolan is rightly the inspiration for Marvel's Punisher character (it's so blatant they should cut a check to Don Pendelton's estate each time Dolph Ludgren makes his sewer soliloquy on late-night cable), the Mack Bolan character doesn't stand the test of time, and after about a dozen or so, it's all the same novel."Chinese Puzzle" sets the stage for an enjoyable twnety years of Destroyer novels. If you have to get one classic, this is the one to get.