Books: The Liquidator By John Gardner (1964)

"In Paris in 1944 Tank Corps Sergeant Boysie Oakes kills two Germans attempting to assassinate an Intelligence Corps officer named Mostyn. Twenty years later Mostyn's memories have transformed Oakes (who is in reality cowardly and hedonistic) into a fearless master assassin though nothing could be further from the truth. Mostyn recruits Oakes into the Secret Service where after a training course he is given an enviable lifestyle. Oakes' function is to "liquidate" security risks for the State. Oakes hires a mild mannered professional assassin to do his dirty work for him. Going for a "dirty weekend" leads to Boysie being captured by enemy agents who involve him in an assassination plot."

Long before John Gardner was picked to by the Ian Fleming Estate to pen James Bond novels, The Liquidator was his debut novel and is a sort-of-parody of the spy genre that exploded in the early 1960s thanks to James Bond. It’s a fairly light read and -good or bad- a nostalgic trip back to the sixties era, but the novel takes way too long to get going. The early part was filled with the sexualisation of women and name dropping of expensive brands, with people living the high life, but once the thriller part gets going it was mildly exciting. As noted, the book is a reminder of era when a lot of things where black and white, where everyone smoked, where you could travel on an airplane with a gun in your pocket. It’s an effective parody, but it's no Get Smart!