DAVID GRANT

David Grant is an agent for NATO.

Dr. Grant is a man of many stories, each one usually sufficient for a lifetime. Born of an American mother and a British father, after graduating college, he joined the Royal Air Force to become a bomber pilot. A freak and tragic accident ended that dream and resulted him more than six months recuperation from major back surgery.

During this time, an interest in medicine, earned from personal experience, came about and he returned to college to get his medical degree. His first official job was with the Save The Children fund visiting refugee camps after WWII. The quality of his work as well as the initiative he showed in various actions brought him to the attention of the World Health Organization and work in the Middle East.

The Korean War took him to the Far East where he became more involved in extracurricular activity including tracking down rebel leaders and breaking up an opium smuggling operation, even as he continued his humanitarian duties. After Korea came assignment to the IndoChina area where his reputation as a man of action grew. After a few years with the WHO, a tour for the U.N. operating in the Congo took him to Africa.

At the time the series begins, he is working for NATO where his cover of an experienced and respected doctor lets him go where his real mission with their security service needs him.

Grant's two professions make a strange Jekyll-Hyde combination. As a doctor, he is a practiced man of healing. As an agent for NATO's covert security detachment, he is their best agent and most gifted assassin. Certainly the knowledge of the first profession, knowing how and why the body works as it does, makes it easier to perform the second, making the body stop working. But his oath to preserve life does at times conflict with his determination to see peace maintained.

In the course of his many missions, Grant has the occasion to meet and make love to many different beautiful women, as is in keeping with secret agents of that era. He also finds his own personal nemesis in the form of the Society for the Activation of Terror, Anarcy, and Nihilism, more commonly known as S.A.T.A.N.

There are numerous series that claim if you liked Bond, you'll love them. This is one of them and they tell the truth. Grant is the epitome of a man of action. Though fallible enough to be interesting, he is gifted enough to get the job done in thrilling and fun-to-read ways. I liked the David Grant stories and do recommend them.

On the other hand! Being a product of the early 60's, it is not surprising to see Grant have to face a diabolical organization intent of terrible deeds, but it is hard to keep a straight face when the protagonists finds himself going up against the agents of S.A.T.A.N.!

I especially liked the choice for the "N". Nihilism? How can that be profitable? Why would a group work so hard for it? Come to think of it, the striving to advance the cause of something that believes nothing has value is interesting. How do you know when you're done? Just a thought.