I Lucifer

A truly bizarre adventure in this case. Modesty and Willie are in Paris, and via a lunch date with Vaubois, Tarrant's French counterpart, they learn of a bizarre blackmail ring. Various officials and wealthy people are told they must pay a certain amount, or die. A very large percentage of these people have died. It looks impossible, but it appears that you need ESP to do this, as lots of these people die via accidents or natural causes. Tied up in all this is a guy who believes he is the devil, 2 insane puppeteers, and an international assassin, as well as Modesty's current flint, who is actually an ESP researcher. It all ends in a mini-siege, with dolphins!

I'm a long-time big-time fan of the Modesty Blaise books. O'Donnell does a nifty job of combining action/adventure with humor and drama. This title is my sentimental favorite probably because this is the one in which the recurring character of sharp-witted, self-professed coward Stephen Collier is introduced. Collier is the Everyman we can identify with, who allows us as readers to partake of the action and observe Modesty and sidekick Willie Garvin's antics without pretending in any way to be their peer. Like Collier the reader is a passenger on this wild caper - you may hold your breath at times and burst out laughing at others. This book has all the hallmarks of a Blaise/Garvin outing: Ingenious villains, a Garvin girl story, wit, wonderfully detailed combat sequences -- if you've never read a Modesty Blaise book, no need to begin at the beginning because this book easily stands on its own and is thrilling enough to induce you to read the others.

I loved the Modesty Blaise tales when they came out in the Sixties and seventies. All were good. I loved the interaction between Modesty and Willie. (By the way, anyone else notice the similarities with Skilly and Two-knife in Jerry Pournelle's stories of Falkenberg's Legion?) The other characters, including Modesty's and Garvin's love interests, were also interesting and well drawn, (although some of Willie's girls were a bit over the top). I Lucifer has one of the more interesting plots; a young man who can predict death with almost 90% accuracy, and thinks he is Satan, and the villains who take control of him for monetary gain. O'Donnell always had good villains for Modesty and Willie to foil, and this tale takes all their wits and skills. A good action spy-thriller with a horror/occult twist...

Peter O'Donnell writes books that grab you by the throat and don't let go. 'I Lucifer' is a classic Modesty Blaise adventure, with pulse-pounding action and hair raising danger on every page. Don't believe that this is dated stuff - Modesty could Bond out of business without breaking a sweat!