"Appropriate quote."

Edwin Voskamp's Action & Adventure Recommended Reading

Many books fall in this category, from the hard-boiled detective novels, through realistic crime-novels, to the superhuman oriental-powers writings. I'll try and group them a bit:

In the realistic crime department, I like Richard Condon, drawn by the history of The Manchurian Candidate, featuring such noted characters as John F. Kennedy and Frank Sinatra and the movie version of Prizzi's Honor, which got me to buy that, and Prizzi's Family. Highly impressed with these two, I also picked up Winter Kills, a fine book. For lovers of Chicago, mob stories and the twenties and thirties, I think there's nothing finer than William Garners trilogy Think big, think dirty, Rat's Alley and Zones of silence. And then there's of course Mario Puzo, with his mob stories The Godfather, The Sicilian and The Godfather Papers and his gambling books Fools Die and Inside Las Vegas. For a more contemporary interest, be it in Ireland, look for Gerald Seymours Harry's Game (made into a fine mini series) and In honour bound. Finally there's William Diehl, a writer I stumbled upon after picking up a second hand copy of Sharky's machine. I collect books that are made into movies. The book was so much better than the movie and so good in its own right, I went on to pick up Chameleon, Hooligans, Thai Horse and 27. Don't miss out on these. Thomas Harris became more or less immortal through a fine character that was put on the large screen by a fine actor who, after a few decades of unremarkable career, is riding high. He portrayed Hannibal Lector, a doctor with a taste for human flesh, therefore known as Hannibal the Cannibal. The book was Silence of the Lambs. Its predecessor Red Dragon is less known, although it too was a entirely satisfactorily movie. A successor to these two is already bought for its movie rights, even though it is not finished.

Reading about supermen, although they get beaten up, or worse, has its own charm and there are quite a few good writers. One of my favorites, due to its mystic, oriental, parapsychological and mystery angles, is George C. Chesbro's hero Mongo. Two other of his heroes, Veil and Chant, have their own books and are finally running into each other and are being woven into a larger tapestry. The original of course remains Ian Fleming, he of 'Bond, ... James Bond'. Reading these, the Bond movies make no sense, and the movie's Bonds don't measure up. Maybe not more realistic, but certainly more pragmatic is Matt Helm. Not Matt Helm as portrayed by Dean Martin, but the hero of the books by Donald Hamilton. He's human, a killer and very, very practical: someone tells you the gun you're holding on him, or her, is not loaded? Pull the trigger. When it comes to supermen, one of the heroes of David Morrell has become synonymous with it: Captain John J. Rambo, hero of First Blood, in which he dies! Of course, portrayed by Sylvester Stallone, such was impossible, so David Morrell wrote two more books, or rather novelized the movie versions. He also wrote some series about assassins, and killers for a cause, that seems to move to a common series and some books that stand on their own. They're good.

Assumed Identity

Blood Oath

The Brotherhood of the Rose

The Covenant of the Flame

Desparate Measures

The Fifth profession

The Fraternity of the Stone

Last reveille

The League of Night and Fog

Rambo

First Blood

2: First Blood Part II

3: Rambo III

Testament

The Totem

Sax Rohmer

The adventures of Nayland Smith

Mickey Spillane

Mike Hammer

Frederick Forsyth

The day of the Jackal

The dogs of war

The ODESSA file

Clifford Irving, Herbert Burkholz

The death freak

John Le Carre

A perfect spy

Robert Ludlum

The Bourne Cyclus

1: The Bourne identity

2: The Bourne Supremacy

3: The Bourne ultimatum

The Osterman weekend

The Parsifal Mosaic

The Rhinemann exchange

Gavin Lyall

Blame the dead

Judas country

Joh. Mario Simmel

Es muss nicht immer Kaviar sein...

Fred Mustard Stewart

The Mephisto Waltz

The Methuselah enzyme

Trevanian

The Eiger sanction

The Loo sanction

The main

Shibumi

The summer of Katya

Robert van Gullik

Eric van Lustbader

The Ninja

1: The miko

2: The ninja

3: White ninja

The Sunset Warrior

1: The Sunset Warrior

2: Shallows of night

3: Dai-San

Robert Shea

Shike

1: Time of the dragons

2: Last of the Zinja

David Weir

The water Margin