John Oram Thomas (1906-1992) was a Welsh writer who wrote two Man From U.N.C.L.E. novels as John Oram. He also wrote a non-fiction history of the World War 2 Danish Resistance movement and in fact there are constant references to the war and to the Resistance in The Copenhagen Affair.
On a business trip to Copenhagen Mike Stanning meets a girl named Norah. They get quite friendly. In fact they get very friendly indeed. And then Norah has an unfortunate accident, But before the accident she gives Mike a package, to be delivered to Alexander Waverley at U.N.C.L.E. headquarters in New York. Mike also encounters Major Garbridge, and a rather unpleasant encounter it is.
The package contains film of flying saucers. But these are not flying saucers piloted by little green men. They are flying saucers piloted by T.H.R.U.S.H. agents. No-one knows why T.H.R.U.S.H. has suddenly become interested in flying saucers but what is certain is that it means trouble.
What Napoleon Solo and Illya Kurykin now have to do is to find out where these flying saucers are being manufactured (it’s pretty obviously in Denmark somewhere), what their purpose is and most importantly they have to destroy the secret factory. So it’s obviously a story of sabotage closely modelled on the exploits of the WW2 Resistance and Mr Solo and Mr Kuryakin get help from a number of ageing Resistance fighters.
The plot is serviceable enough although there are no great surprises. There’s enough action to keep things interesting.
Like the other Man from U.N.C.L.E. and Girl from U.N.C.L.E. tie-in novels that I’ve read recently The Copenhagen Affair is a pleasant surprise. It’s a perfectly competent and quite enjoyable lightweight spy thriller and it captures the tone of the series pretty well. At least it captures the tone of the first season pretty well, when the TV series was still a semi-serious spy series.
The edition I have was published in the U.K. in 1993 by Boxtree Limited. It’s interesting that there was still enough of a market for Man from U.N.C.L.E. tie-in novels to justify republishing them in the 90s.
The Copenhagen Affair is quite enjoyable. If you’re a fan of the TV series it’s definitely worth reading and it’s an enjoyable enough spy potboiler in its own right. Recommended.
It is an entertaining novel. It doesn't bear too much resemblance overall to the TV series -- Oram, like Michael Avallone and Harry Whittington with the first 2 books in the series, was working from press releases from the studio. Until the advent of David McDaniel with [i]Dagger[/i], the MfU novels were rather hardboiled and James Bond-ish. That's not bad, but it was not the true flavor of the show. The best moment in [i]Copenhagen[/i] is the pause he takes in Chapter 2 (I think), quoting in depth from Sam Rolfe's description of Thrush. "Bad men or good men, if you are not a member of Thrush, you are marked to be ruled or destroyed" still makes me shiver ca. 55 years on.
ReplyDeleteThe story I've heard is that someone challenged Oram to write a spy novel set in Denmark, and he did exactly that. He wrote another MfU set in Wales, [i]The Stone Cold Dead in the Market Affair[/i], under a similar challenge.
Oram, like Michael Avallone and Harry Whittington with the first 2 books in the series, was working from press releases from the studio.
DeleteYes. For me that's what makes some of these TV tie-in novels so interesting - they often reflect the original concept of a series which can be subtly different from what ended up on screen.