I can tell you very little about James Eastwood. I believe he was born in 1918 and I’m reasonably certain he was English. He may or may not have been the same man as a scriptwriter named James Eastwood who wrote some interesting movies.
The Anna Zordan spy novels belong to the glamorous lady spy sub-genre.
Anna Zordan works for a very shadowy British intelligence agency which uses a film studio as a front. The agency is run by Sarratt. Anna is his top agent. Their professional relationship is complicated by a certain mutual sexual attraction.
Events in central Europe have become rather disturbing. It seems that neo-Nazis may be behind the trouble (the obsession with neo-Nazis was one of the more bizarre features of 1960s spy fiction and spy TV series). Sarratt has also received a letter from a journalist who has disappeared. The journalist seems to have become mixed up with a group known as the Family. The Family seems to be involved in all sorts of nefarious activities.
Anna needs to get herself recruited into the Family.
Sarratt meanwhile has decided to take a holiday in central Europe. Perhaps not the ideal travel destination at this point in time, and he may have had second thoughts had he known he was being trailed.
The Family really are preparing something big. The objective seems to be to create chaos. It’s not just the Family involved. And it’s possible that not everyone involved has quite the same agenda.
The two big spy fiction obsessions of the time both figure in this story - neo-Nazis and the Chinese. Strange bedfellows indeed.
Once the plot really kicks in there are enough twists to keep things pretty interesting.
There’s surprisingly little sex in this story although there is one sexual encounter that you wouldn’t get away with these days.
Anna, as in the other two novels in which she features, sees sex as something that nicely combines business and pleasure. Sex really is part of her business as a spy. She is expected to use sex as one of the tools of the trade.
She’s also rather ruthless. She kills a man early on when she only intended to stun him but she feels no remorse. She’s just annoyed at herself for making a mistake. He won’t be the last person Anna kills in this story. She’s very good at killing and she doesn’t believe in nonsense like giving the bad guys a sporting chance.
She’s a very proficient spy but she’s not infallible. And Eastwood doesn’t make the mistake of making her an unstoppable combat machine. She wins fights when the odds are not too heavily stacked against her but when the odds are really unfavourable she loses and ends up in real bother. Eastwood also avoids the error of giving his heroine excessive escapology skills. Anna has to think her way out of the jams she gets into.
The Anna Zordan books are sexy spy novels but not in the same sex-drenched sense as the Lady from L.U.S.T. books (such as Lust, Be a Lady Tonight and Lay Me Odds) or Robert Tralins’ The Chic Chick Spy. Anna is more in the Modesty Blaise mould and she does bear some resemblance to Modesty Blaise - they’re both non-British but they do jobs for British intelligence, both have pragmatic easy-going attitudes towards sex, both are efficient but not invincible.
Seduce and Destroy might not be absolutely top-tier spy fiction but it offers plenty of entertainment. Highly recommended.
I’ve also reviewed the third Anna Zordan thriller, Come Die With Me.
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