Peter O’Donnell’s The Impossible Virgin

The Impossible Virgin was published in 1971. It was the fifth of Peter O’Donnell’s eleven Modesty Blaise novels. The Modesty Blaise comic-strip debuted in the London Evening Standard in 1963. The comic-strip adventures are excellent and I recommend them but the novels have more depth and psychological complexity and were able to deal more openly with adult themes.

People unfamiliar with either the comic strip or the novels sometimes make the mistake of thinking of Modesty Blaise as a female James Bond. Nothing could be further from the truth. She is almost the exact opposite of Bond in every way. Bond is British to his bootstraps and fiercely patriotic. He has a naval background and is accustomed to obeying orders. He has never questioned authority. He is a professional spy working for the British Government. He is a straightforward old-fashioned kind of guy.

Modesty is British only by marriage (a marriage of convenience). She has no idea what her own nationality or ethnicity might be - she’s probably southern European or Slavic. Modesty’s background is entirely criminal - she ran an organised crime gang. She has never obeyed an order in her life. She often does jobs for the British Government but strictly as a freelancer and she feels under no moral obligation to accept such jobs. She also does jobs for the French intelligence services.

Modesty is really a female Simon Templar - a retired criminal who is now a crimefighter and part-time spy. She is a female version of the gentlemen rogues who thrived in British popular fiction in the 1930s. Like the Saint she gets involved in capers for the adventure, or because she thinks a particular villain needs to be destroyed or occasionally for motives of personal revenge.

This caper begins when a low-level Soviet intelligence analyst makes an interesting discovery. It has no military significance but it could make him rich. It doesn’t turn out that way. A few months later he staggers into a bush hospital in Tanzania and promptly dies. He gives the appearance of having been tortured. The hospital’s only doctor is Giles Pennyfeather, a disreputable shabby socially inept eccentric Englishman. To look at him you wouldn’t trust him to operate on a stray dog, but the weird thing is that his patients do surprisingly well.

As it happens Dr Pennyfeather has at this moment acquired a kind of temporary nurse and assistant, a striking young woman who literally fell from the sky when she had to make a forced landing in her aeroplane. She has no medical training but she’s a quick learner. Her name is Modesty Blaise. She is in Tanzania purely by accident.

There is no way such a beautiful young woman would be interested in such a poor specimen of manhood as Giles Pennyfeather but Modesty thinks he’s rather adorable and she is soon sharing his bed.

Then two thugs arrive and starting beating up Dr Pennyfeather. They seem to be convinced he has some information they want. Modesty takes exception to their behaviour and deals with them accordingly but without knowing it she has become involved with some very dangerous very evil people.

There is an impossible virgin in this story, of a sort. There’s also Lisa, who is no virgin but is certainly very dangerous. The gorilla might also be a problem - he’s a real gorilla and he’s bad-tempered and being locked in a cage with him isn’t very reassuring.

Modesty will have to face most of these dangers alone, when the faithful Willie Garvin makes a sudden departure. Modesty will also need a certain special ability that she has - she can shut herself down mentally so that she is unaware of what is being done to her, and some rather nasty things are done to her in this caper.

Finding out why the impossible virgin’s virginity remains inviolate will be crucial.

There’s enough action here to satisfy fans and there’s plenty of suspense as Modesty’s position becomes seemingly hopeless.

The Impossible Virgin is a fine action/adventure novel and is highly recommended.

I’ve reviewed the earlier Modesty Blaise novels, Modesty Blaise, Sabre-Tooth, A Taste for Death and I, Lucifer, which are all excellent. I’ve also reviewed several of the earlier volumes of the collected Modesty Blaise comics, The Gabriel Set-Up, The Black Pearl and The Hell-Makers which I also highly recommend.