Saturday, January 30, 2016

The November Man (2014)

Based on the novel There Are No Spies by Bill Granger

An ex-CIA operative is brought back in on a very personal mission and finds himself pitted against his former pupil in a deadly game involving high level CIA officials and the Russian president-elect. 


 In Lausanne, Switzerland, retired CIA agent Peter Devereaux is visited by his former chief John Hanley who convinces him to extract the agent Natalia Ulanova from Russia. Natalia is the assistant of the Russian candidate for President Arkady Federov and has been collecting evidences of war crimes committed by the candidate during the Chechen War and requested Peter to help her. However, during the operation, CIA chief Perry Weinstein believes that Natalie has been captured by the Russians and orders agent David Mason to kill her. Natalie gives photos and the name Mira Filipova to Peter before dying and the agent informs Hanley. Peter kills the CIA agents, but when he sees Mason, he spares the agent that was trained by him. When Mason meets Weinstein, he learns that Peter and Natalie had a love affair in the past and the agent is assigned to kill him. Peter heads to Belgrade where he saves the social worker Alice Fournier that might know where Mira is from Federov's assassin Alexa and from Mason. Soon Peter learns dirty secrets about Arkady Federov and the CIA and has to flee with Alice to save their lives and expose the crimes to the world. 

Cast
Pierce Brosnan as Peter H. Devereaux ("The November Man")
Luke Bracey as David Mason
Olga Kurylenko as Alice Fournier/Mira Filipova
Eliza Taylor as Sarah
Caterina Scorsone as Celia
Bill Smitrovich as John Hanley
Will Patton as Perry Weinstein
 
The Novel
 
 
Devereaux, the November man, is promoted by the operations chief of R section to an investigation that frightens and activates a KGB sleeper agent within R section itself.
 
Printing History
Written by Bill Granger 
 
Warner Books
ISBN 446 38049
October 1986 

Sunday, January 10, 2016

Moonshine Momma by Carter Brown

A Genuine "Lovely" Mystery


Queen of the hooch and honky tonks, she stacked a frame that 
pinned Police Lieutenant Al Wheeler to a chair even though it was under proof

Cover by Virgil Riley

Printing History
Written by Alan G Yates (1922-1985)

Novelette Series
1953

First Collectors' Series
#14
w/Slaughter In Satin and Pagan Perilous 
1955

Second Collectors' Series
Volume 1 #9
w/Fraulein Is Feline and Slaughter In Satin
December 1957

Volume 2 #6
w/A Siren Sounds Off
February 1960