The hero of this espionage series is His Serene Highness Prince Malko Ligne, Count of the Holy Roman Empire, Knight of the Black Eagle, Knight of the Order of Landgrave Seraphim of Kletgaus, Knight of the Order of Malta. He works on a semi-official basis for the C.I.A. - semi-official because the C.I.A. does love plausible deniability and the jobs they give Malko are usually even more illegal, unconstitutional and immoral than their regular activities.
Malko regards the C.I.A. with a certain amount of sophisticated European aristocratic contempt. But they pay well, and Malko owns a castle and castles are very expensive to maintain. Malko is trustworthy but totally non-ideological. He is not interested in causes. He is interested in money and women. And the women who attract Malko’s eye also tend to be very expensive to maintain.
As his book opens Malko has no active case on which to work and he’s enjoying himself in New York City. He’s also enjoying Sabrina. Sabrina is rich and gorgeous and breathtakingly uninhibited in bed. She’s Malko’s kind of girl. Unfortunately Malko has walked into a honey trap. Sabrina really was too good to be true. She is a Soviet spy, working for the GRU.
It’s an interesting variation on the basic honey trap theme. Malko will be blackmailed into working for the Soviets but in such a way that he cannot call on the F.B.I. or the C.I.A. for help, not even unofficially. He has been set up so that he appears to be a war criminal on the run. A war criminal named Rudi Guern. He has been set up so cleverly that proving that he is not Rudi Giern would be very difficult indeed.
His only way out is to find and expose the real Rudi Guern. Guern was supposed to have been killed in 1945 but it’s now obvious to Malko that Guern is still alive.
Obviously the Soviets will do everything possible to stop Malko from finding Guern. Malko will have to make contact with ODESSA, the underground organisation of former war criminals. If they find out what Malko is up to they will kill him, very unpleasantly. And Malko has an Israeli hit squad on his trail as well.
Despite the book’s title the action takes place mostly in Germany, and at sea on a luxury yacht in the Mediterranean.
Of course Malko encounters quite a few beautiful, dangerous and possibly treacherous women. He goes to bed with all three. Malko often has to sleep with gorgeous women in the line of duty. It’s a duty he accepts without complaint. The most interesting of the three is Phoebe. She’s the craziest. She likes to be whipped. Malko is not into that sort of thing but he’ll do anything to please a lady.
The three women are all different and all interesting and colourful. Malko’s feelings for these women are complex. He tries to avoid emotional entanglements but sometimes, much to his alarm, he discovers that he actually cares about them.
Malko is basically a decent guy doing a dirty job. He doesn’t enjoy torturing people. He leaves that sort of thing to his faithful manservant, a retired Turkish professional assassin. Malko hates to see innocent bystanders get hurt. He doesn’t mind if bad guys get hurt. They’re professionals and they know the risks of the job. Sometimes innocent bystanders do get hurt. When that happens it’s a tough break.
Malko is not a conscienceless killer but he has no illusions about his job. His job sometimes involves doing bad things but the pay is good. Sometimes the jobs do trouble his conscience.
The Malko novels get very dark and very cynical at times. People get hurt very badly and sometimes they’re people who don’t deserve it. The world of espionage is cruel and vicious. It’s not a civilised game for gentlemen.
These novels manage to be enjoyably pulpy and at the same time fairly intelligent spy thrillers. There’s a lot more moral complexity than you will find in most American pulp spy series of that era. Malko 2: Operation New York is an above-average spy novel that can be highly recommended.
I’ve reviewed several other Malko novels - West of Jerusalem, The Man from Kabul and Angel of Vengeance.
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