Stinker from U.N.C.L.E.

I hate to criticize something that was quite possibly done as a last second thing but the last book I have in the Man from U.N.C.L.E. series, book #21, sure was a stinker. It could have been repurposed from the juvenile line of books and meant for a simpler audience. It may have been written in a weekend to fulfill a deadline for a book that didn't come through. It could have been heavily edited at the last second. Forty years later, who am I to say?

I just know it didn't read very well.

Awkward dialogue on a regular basis. The bulk of an early chapter is the standard U.N.C.L.E. organizational details that may have been slightly written from the series bible. No real transition from scene to scene or location to location. Loads of characters that get titles but no names.

Perhaps the author was young? If I had written that at 18 or 19, I would have been quite proud of myself. At my age, all I could do was edit it in my head. It lacked a lot of the wit of the other books, the well described locations, the clearly delineated characters.

I suppose, I paid my dollar years ago and took my chances. Only one didn't pan out. That's still not bad.