(pb; 1974)
From the back cover
“From the West End of London to the playgrounds of Paris to the desolate beaches of Wales, a dangerous and deadly intrigue as snowballing. Innocent people were being terrorized, homes were being destroyed, and dead bodies were becoming unnervingly common─all because the most powerful organization in the world was thirsting for one man’s blood. His name was Chadwell Carstairs. And he was a threat for as long as he fought The Big Needle.”
Review
Needle is a word-spare, swiftly plotted, hippie friendly, hardboiled, and hard-to-set-down short novel (175 pages) from an author more widely known for his political thrillers (e.g., Triple and The Man from St. Petersburg). Its deft, first-person-POV has brief scenes of explicit sex and its underlying humor is briefly undercut by mentions of two incidents of rape and torture, which take place between the lines, and whose victim shakes off them a little too easily (although Needle acknowledges that her experiences redirect the lives of key characters). The identity of Needle’s mysterious main villain (Mr. H) is not difficult to spot, but it makes sense and easily could’ve been, with a few altered lines, one of several other characters.
I’d recommend this for those who like their pulp unapologetic about its well-written, entertaining low-end thrills─think a stripped-to-the-bone Will Viharo novel, or Mickey Spillane, with more humor and minus his Right-Wing bigotry and nihilism.
Note: Music-loving fans of Anthony Burgess’s 1962 novel A Clockwork Orange or its resulting film versions and plays may appreciate one of Needle‘s scenes that tips its hat to Burgess’s work.
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