Sweet Caroline

by Peter O'Donnell

Other authorsNeville Colvin (Illustrator)

Paperback, 2010

Status

Available

Call number

741.5 Modesty

Publication

Titan Books (2010), Paperback, 114 pages

Description

The dark underworld of espionage and crime is lit up by the gorgeous Modesty Blaise -- high priestess of pulp crime. This latest volume features the classic stories Sweet Caroline, The Return of the Mammoth and Plato's Republic -- in which Modesty and Willie pursue an assassins guild; one of Willie's prize elephants is stolen by Russian agents; and Modesty becomes the target of extortionists who are after the intelligence files from her days in The Network! With introductions by creator Peter O'Donnell and exclusive features that takes the reader behind the scenes on the many aspects of Modesty's world, this latest stylish collection is absolutely essential!

User reviews

LibraryThing member jjmcgaffey

Four stories - Sweet Caroline, Return of the Mammoth, Plato's Republic and Sword of the Bruce. Sweet Caroline is interesting - another crime-as-business group, unwise enough to cross Modesty. The most enjoyable thing about it is the scene with Dave in Liverpool - it's reproduced precisely in one of

the books, but I can't remember which one. She has a different question to ask him, of course, but dealing with the bodyguards is the same. The final bit where Modesty thinks Willie is dead is good, too. And in this one and Sword of the Bruce Modesty is rather down on herself - here she thinks how 'uncouth' she is when she throws a man who gets fresh with her rather than slapping him like a 'nice girl'; in the later story, she reminds herself that her (male) companion isn't 'used to female freaks like me' when he tries to shelter her from violence. Pff. Anyway. Return of the Mammoth - funny trigger, interesting story. Coincidence plays a large part, especially in her dealings with Zimm early on. Then Colonel Greb and Captain Novikov, and the trail starts twisting. One last major coincidence, that their paths just happen to cross right there, then the rest of the story is pure Modesty and Willie. Though the heartbeat thing is weird. Willie should know better than that. Plato's Republic - Salamander Four, being a business again (though I don't remember the bit about eliminating failures before - this may be the first time they've dealt with the group at a sufficiently low level that that's possible (they tend to deal directly with the bosses, as I recall)). Nice to see Krolli again, and his daughter is interesting. The situation is rather neat, though Plato's playing out of his league - Brother Nico was very helpful, but Modesty and Willie would have managed without him, I should think. Once they get into gear, Plato's reacting all the way, and that's not the way to win against those two. Sword of the Bruce - Modesty nearly dies by pure accident, and owes her life, very probably, to Jennie just by chance. Then Jennie and her husband come up with problems, and Modesty and Willie can help...so everybody's happy. The hang-gliding thing is neat (though the thug who 'gets religion' and goes off - really doesn't make any sense) and the duplicate pairs are clever. I like Jennie and Mark, though he's a bit overprotective (of both Modesty and Jennie). This is where Modesty has the thought about her being a freak. And a nice happy ending, with the nice people saved and the bad guys getting lovely comeuppances. Nice, overall.

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