James Munro's Die Rich, Die Happy

Published in 1965, Die Rich, Die Happy is the second of the four thrillers featuring British spy John Craig written by James Mitchell under the pseudonym James Munro.

James Mitchell (1926-2002) is famous as the creator of the superb 1960s British spy television series Callan, the greatest TV spy series ever made. Mitchell was also a reasonably prolific novelist.

John Craig made his first appearance in the novel The Man Who Sold Death.

Craig, like David Callan, is an ex-soldier recruited by MI5. Both are capable of ruthlessness and both have consciences. Both are British Government assassins.

At the beginning of Die Rich, Die Happy John Craig is drunk. He’s been drunk for weeks. It’s because of a woman. The woman is dead. That’s why Craig is drunk.

But now his boss Loomis needs him for a job. It’s to do with a tiny middle Eastern principality called Haram. The British still regard it as part of their sphere of influence but the Red Chinese have other ideas. Haram has oil but there’s something else that makes it really important.

This novel is one of many spy novels of the 60s that reflect an interesting shift in the genre, with the Chinese displacing the Soviets as the chief bad guys. In fact in this case the Russians have quite voluntarily and quite happily provided the British with some very important intelligence.

While trying to get himself back into shape for his upcoming mission Craig gets mixed up in an odd adventure in the Greek islands. It involves a very pretty girl. She’s an Arab, a Tuareg. She claims to be a princess. Her name is Selina. She’s certainly spirited enough and feisty enough and troublesome enough to be a princess.

Craig’s mission is to keep a Greek billionaire named Naxos alive. It’s possible that it’s not Naxos who is in real danger but his wife Philippa. Philippa is a charming gorgeous blonde. She’s also an ex-junkie, an ex-stripper and an ex-whore. Another British agent, Grierson, is assigned to help Craig.

Naxos and his wife are the keys to control of Haram. It would be easier to protect Naxos if the tycoon would be more co-operative, and he might be more co-operative if he could be persuaded to trust Craig.

The women make it complicated. There are three of them. It’s not so much that Craig can’t trust them, it’s more that they’re highly unpredictable. Philippa is unstable. Selina is a princess with lots of princess attitude. Glamorous Italian movie starlet Pia Busoni is as difficult to handle as you’d expect a glamorous Italian movie starlet to be.

There’s plenty of action, and violence. There are people who are going to need killing. That’s why Craig was given the mission. Killing people is what he does. He does it extremely well.

Given that Mitchell went on to create Callan it’s fair to say that he was fascinated by the psychology of killers. Not serial killers or psycho killers but men who kill for a living, who kill for the government. They’re slightly different characters but they’re both complex and they both pay a psychological price for their profession. Both have one major weakness. They don’t just kill, they think about it, and they have a conscience about it.

Craig has another weakness. He gets emotionally involved with women he encounters on a professional basis. In this case he excels himself - he gets emotionally involved with all three women. And he hates seeing a woman get hurt.

It’s a nicely plotted exciting tale with an intriguing flawed hero and Die Rich, Die Happy is highly recommended.

I’ve also reviewed the first book in the series, The Man Who Sold Death.