Cobra Trap (Modesty Blaise series)
by Peter O'Donnell
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Book Summary Information
Author: Peter O'DonnellEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2006-10-28
ISBN: 0285637665
Number of pages: 267
Publisher: Souvenir Press
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780285637665
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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Book Reviews of Cobra Trap (Modesty Blaise series)
Book Review: All good things must end...
Summary: 3 Stars
After an eleven-year hiatus following Dead Man's Handle, the last novel in the series, this book collects five short stories, including, as most readers by now probably know, the last Modesty & Willie caper.
O'Donnell alone can say why he decided to write - and publish - a final chapter on their saga. It may have been that he felt he had done all he could with the duo: a writer, no matter how talented and creative, will have just a certain number of stories he or she has to tell, particularly in popular adventure fiction and even more (or less, as the case may be) when writing about regular characters. Once you're done, you face the danger of starting to repeat, or worse, make a parody of, yourself.
The long interval may be an indication that O'Donnell was, in a way, through with Modesty and Willie. And so may be the fact that the stories in Cobra Trap, while skillfully written, are somewhat trite and rehashed in plot. "Bellman", for instance, is an adaptation of a "filler" early comic strip, "The Killing Ground", produced for syndication outside the UK during a newspaper strike in Britain. "The Dark Angels", by its turn, was belatedly adapted to a comic strip, ten years after its publication as prose and five years after the daily strip had run its course; it features a rather ingenious plot twist at its ending, but is still short of O'Donnell's best. The villains here and elsewhere in the stories for the most part read like so many cardboard cutouts, with none of the depth and complexity of, say, Gabriel, Mr. Sexton or Simon Delicata.
Only "Old Alex", although starting from a weak springboard - the revenge killing, much as in "Bellman" - can be said to be truly inventive in a sort of "flux" way, yet it too is a closure of sorts. Also, it features a recurring "baddie", Sir Angus McBeal of Salamander Four, popping out very much out of the blue. Also again, no less than two stories co-feature the Colliers, Steven and Dinah, who by now seem to be just waiting in the wings to show up time and again. And, to cap it off, John Dall makes an all too brief comeback in the title story.
Nonetheless, O'Donnell does manage to wrap it up nicely, providing a plausible and, in a way, moving final episode. Still, if you're a novice to the Modesty Blaise series, do not start off with this book. Read all of them, in chronological order, and try to collect as many of the daily strips as you can. Only then you'll get the flavor of "the perfect mistress of her art" and her erstwhile sidekick.
I, for one, miss them.
Summary of Cobra Trap (Modesty Blaise series)
Each short story in this final installment of the Modesty Blaise series details a different, thrilling tale of international intrigue starring Modesty and her loyal deputy, Willie Garvin. From Modesty's early days running The Network to her later work with Sir Gerald Tarrant in British Intelligence, each escapade is more rousing than the next, including the title story that brings Modesty face to face with the toughest assignment of her career-the daring rescue of her friends from the clutches of rebels in the jungles of Central America.
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