Mickey Spillane’s The Delta Factor

Mickey Spillane’s 1967 novel The Delta Factor introduced his series character Morgan the Raider. In fact it was the only Morgan the Raider book to be completed by Spillane. A second, The Consummata, was completed many years later by Max Allan Collins.

Morgan (he doesn’t admit to having a first name but he’s gained the sobriquet Morgan the Raider) is a thief. He shares a name with history’s most famous pirate, and he shares quite a few of that buccaneer’s attitudes as well. Morgan is a thief on the grand scale. His most recent heist netted him forty million dollars. At least that’s what the authorities assume. He was caught but that didn’t bother him too much. He’s pulled more prison breaks than you’ve had hot dinners. And sure enough shortly after beginning his prison term he escaped again.

Escaped, only to be recaptured due to pure bad luck.

Now as the story proper begins he’s facing the prospect of serving the remaining thirty years of his sentence. Then he’s offered a deal by the government. They need someone with his unique skills, specifically his ability to escape from maximum security prisons. Morgan expects that the government will try to double-cross him. We are talking about the government after all. And he has no patriotic feelings whatsoever. He accepts the deal because he figures that he can probably double-cross the government more effectively than they can double-cross him.

The job he has to do involves breaking a scientist out of an impregnable 17th century fortress in a small Caribbean nation.

He is assigned a partner. He’s horrified. He has always been a loner. Then he discovers that the government agent assigned to him is a beautiful young woman named Kim. He decides that having a partner might not be so bad. And their cover story is that they’re newlyweds on honeymoon. That means they’ll have to share a bedroom. The idea sounds better and better to Morgan. Kim makes it clear that there’ll be no hanky-panky but Morgan is confident that he’ll be able to change her mind.

Morgan’s first step is to try to find out how he got recaptured. Someone fingered him, and he’d like to know the identity of that person. There are some other things he’d like to know as well. This sets up a major subplot and also provides Morgan with the kind of motivation that always appealed to Spillane - personal vengeance. A hooker provides him with information and she is murdered. She might have been a whore but she was a really nice girl, and Morgan doesn’t like seeing nice girls get murdered.

The basic concept, a master thief offered a deal if he agrees to do espionage work for the government, isn’t wildly original. And a year later it would be used as the basis for one of the best American TV spy series of the 60s, It Takes a Thief. It’s more than possible that the creators of the series borrowed the idea from Spillane’s novel.

Morgan soon discovers that this tiny Caribbean nation is thoroughly corrupt. It’s run by a dictator named Ortega. He has a brutal secret police chief named Sabin to keep the populace in line.

Morgan doesn’t care about politics but he does care about people and he has a soft spot for women. Women like Lisa Gordot. Lisa has run into major problems with Sabin. She can’t leave the island because Sabin has her passport. Sabin intends to keep tightening the screws on Lisa until she agrees to sleep with him. Lisa isn’t what most people would call a virtuous woman. She’s not exactly honest and while she isn’t a whore she has been known to make profitable use of her body. But Morgan likes her. And not just because she’s sexually available. Morgan isn’t exactly a model of moral rectitude himself and he feels a certain kinship for charming grifters like Lisa. And he really hates seeing women treated badly, even women like Lisa.

The last thing Morgan needs is to get mixed up in political dramas but on this island he finds that while he isn’t interested in politics, politics is interested in him.

To make things more awkward there’s a hurricane on the way. He has to get that scientist out of the fortress and make his escape and time is against him.

It takes a while for the real action to kick in but when it does it’s more than satisfactory. There’s a good deal of bloodletting, and plenty of narrow escapes.

Morgan isn’t just a variation on Mike Hammer. For a big-time career criminal he’s quite a soft-hearted easy-going guy. He’ll kill if he has to, but he tries to avoid it as much as possible. He likes women. He’s no monk. But he likes his women willing. He’s a pretty nice guy.

The plot has some nice twists and Spillane skilfully weaves together the multiple plot strands.

Incidentally you might be amused to find out that the title refers to a portion of the female anatomy.

The Delta Factor is less hardboiled than the Mike Hammer books and it could even be described as somewhat lighthearted. It’s a fun suspense thriller. Highly recommended.