Chaos in Kabul

November 3, 2014
The uneven second Malko Linge novel to be published in the U.S. (after The Madmen of Benghazi) finds impoverished Austrian nobleman and secret agent once again taking an extremely delicate contract job with the CIA. John Mulligan, the White House national security adviser and Clayton Luger, deputy director of the CIA, inform Malko that the U.S. is sick of Afghanistan president Hamid Karzai's demands and has decided that he must be killed. Malko reluctantly takes the job, and heads to Kabul, where his mission quickly begins to fall apart. Malko hires Nelson Barry, a South African security expert, to do the actual shooting, leaving Malko free to have hot, graphic sex with his old girlfriend in Kabul, Maureen Kieffer. Soon after discovering that there's a traitor somewhere in his organization, he's on the run, though he manages to find time to have sex with several other women. Eventually, the story runs out of steam. De Villiers (1929â2013) published more than 200 spy novels Hring Linge.

October 1, 2014
How hard could it be to assassinate an inconvenient Afghan head of state? If you haven't seen any newspapers over the past few years, de Villiers, late (1929-2013) veteran of hundreds of spy thrillers, wants to tell you.Hamid Karzai has become more trouble than he's worth. So National Security Advisor John Mulligan and CIA Deputy Director Clayton Luger decide he's got to go. Since the White House needs complete deniability, they farm the job out to Austrian Prince Malko Linge, a freelance operative who's already done yeoman service (The Madmen of Benghazi, 2014, etc.), and instruct him to use South African mercenary Nelson Berry as the triggerman. It's all very hush-hush, except that it isn't, as Malko quickly learns on his arrival. Just as the CIA has moles like Luftullah Kibzai inside Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security, Karzai has moles like former station director Mark Spider inside the CIA, and soon everyone in Kabul seems to know why Malko is there-except for Alicia Burton, the clueless American reporter who seduces Malko after his fiancee, Alexandra, and South African automotive expert Maureen Kieffer have already had their ways with him. Complications naturally arise, and soon Malko is himself on the run from his many enemies and from a few people he considered allies. The aptly titled tale, proficient but synthetic, is punctuated by bouts of sex as graphic as they are routine. As for the thrills in this ripped-from-the-headlines thriller, if you want to know whether Malko succeeds in assassinating Karzai, or whether de Villiers kills off his long-running series hero, you'll just have to read the whole story to find out.

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October 15, 2014
Malko Linge of The Madmen of Bengazi (2014), an Austrian aristocrat and CIA operative, doesn't typically do assassinations, but he's convinced that the CIA's plan to eliminate Afghanistan's President Karzai will curtail the country's rampant corruption and limit insurgency by offering the Taliban a seat at the table. In Kabul, Malko liaises with a Taliban contact and convinces a South African mercenary to attempt the risky attack. Things change quickly, however, in a hotbed of duplicitous tribal politics, and soon enough the mission becomes compromised, and Malko becomes the target of the Taliban, Karzai's forces, and his own assassin. Malko's numerous Bondian playboy encounters and the novel's almost comical exaggeration of CIA naivet' may annoy those seeking a more serious exploration of international espionage. But Malko's infectious charm, some solid storytelling, and a fascinating portrayal of Afghanistan's political shell game will win fans among those who crave thrilling espionage escapism, especially those who relish Ian Fleming and Clive Cussler. De Villier's hundreds of Malko Linge novels are considered espionage classics in France, but only 14 have been translated into English, so far.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)