The gun smashed upwards into his face and didn’t go off because the blow was directly on the wrist-nerve to paralyse the fingers before the index could contract, but there was risk attached and I had to sweat it out until the gun hit the ground with a negative thud and didn’t blow our legs […]
All posts found when searching for adam hall
The Striker Portfolio by Adam Hall (1969)
Posted by Simon on February 14, 2015
https://astrofella.wordpress.com/2015/02/14/the-striker-portfolio-adam-hall/
The 9th Directive by Adam Hall (1966)
To respond to the threat of a grenade-burst the sub-conscious has to evaluate a mass of data: the angle of the thrower’s arm, which governs the time-period from the beginning to the end of the throw; the size (and thus the weight) of the grenade – data which affects the time taken to throw it […]
Posted by Simon on January 16, 2015
https://astrofella.wordpress.com/2015/01/16/the-9th-directive-adam-hall/
The Quiller Memorandum by Adam Hall (1965)
The zip on the briefcase was the interlocking plastic flange type and opened silently. Inside was the folder with the black cover. It was the memorandum… It would contain all the information they could give me, all the names, suspects, dossiers, leads and theories they could cull from the whole of the Bureau files, a […]
Posted by Simon on January 13, 2015
https://astrofella.wordpress.com/2015/01/13/the-quiller-memorandum-adam-hall/
The Wages of Destruction by Adam Tooze (2006)
If we are to do justice to the Third Reich we must seek to understand it in its own terms. (p.147) This is a massive book – 676 pages of text, 10 pages of tables, 84 pages of notes, a 25-page index = some 800 pages in total. Tooze deploys a mind-boggling amount of research […]
Posted by Simon on February 15, 2019
https://astrofella.wordpress.com/2019/02/15/the-wages-of-destruction-adam-tooze/
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert (1857)
She still was not happy – she never had been. What caused this inadequacy in her life – why did everything she leaned on instantly decay? … Oh if somewhere there were a being strong and handsome, a valiant heart, passionate and sensitive at once, a poet’s spirit in an angel’s form, a lyre with […]
Posted by Simon on February 25, 2018
https://astrofella.wordpress.com/2018/02/25/madame-bovary-gustave-flaubert/
Think Inc. by Adam Diment (1971)
I squeezed the trigger and there was a derisive click as the firing pin fell on nothing. The fucking gun wasn’t even loaded. (p.29) And so we bid a sad farewell to the stoned and sex-mad ‘spy’, Philip McAlpine, in this, the fourth and final novel by young Adam Diment, all public school and swinging London, who […]
Posted by Simon on April 15, 2015
https://astrofella.wordpress.com/2015/04/15/think-inc-adam-diment/
The Bang Bang Birds by Adam Diment (1968)
‘McAlpine,’ he grunted, ‘ why do you wear such godawful clothes. You look like a pacifist faggot beatnik hippie.’ (p.42) The Bang Bang Birds – Great title, a really brilliant title. The setting This is Adam Diment’s third novel about his twenty-something hash-happy, dolly bird-hunting ‘spy’, Philip McAlpine, and finds our layabout spook lounging in […]
Posted by Simon on April 9, 2015
https://astrofella.wordpress.com/2015/04/09/the-bang-bang-birds-adam-diment/
The Man With The Golden Gun by Ian Fleming (1965)
Now the grey-blue eyes looked back at him from the tanned face with the brilliant glint of suppressed excitement and accurate focus of the old days. He smiled ironically back at the introspective scrutiny that so many people make of themselves before a race, a contest of wits, a trial of some sort. He had […]
Posted by Simon on May 28, 2016
https://astrofella.wordpress.com/2016/05/28/the-man-with-the-golden-gun-ian-fleming/
The Comedians by Graham Greene (1966)
She laughed and held me still and kissed me. I responded as well as I could, but the corpse in the pool seemed to turn our preoccupations into comedy. The corpse of Dr Philipot belonged to a more tragic theme; we were only a sub-plot affording a little light relief. (p.57) The Comedians is Greene’s […]
Posted by Simon on January 20, 2015
https://astrofella.wordpress.com/2015/01/20/the-comedians-graham-greene/
