Black is an agent for a unnamed Intelligence agency.
Black is the only name he goes by. That's what Colonel Tompkins, his boss in the small spy bureau he works for, calls him. That's what his girl friend, the lovely Carol, calls him. A tall, broad-shouldered man who once boxed professionally and still looks like he played a running back in a pro football league, his face has a battered look to it with a nose that was clearly broken and poorly reset and a scar on his chin and one at his hairline. When you looked closely at him, though, one thing that stayed in the memory was the "cold, intense look in his gray eyes."
The agency that Tompkins runs is kept a secret to the world. Only a few people in the government knows of its existence or of its agents, though enemies around the world have felt its sting more than once. Its offices are a few blocks from the White House, to whom Tompkins answers, and far away from the other clandestine organizations, which is just as Tompkins wants it.
Black is in his mid-30's and is in the peak of condition. He needs to be because the kind of jobs his boss sends him on would kill most men. Black is not the only agent that Tompkins has to call upon but he is considered the dean of the operatives and it is usually Black that gets the hardest assignments.
Black is a quiet, still man who would rather not talk unless asked a question directly. He often appears aloof as he spends more attention to his surroundings than most, making it seem as though he was not listening. Even more important than his attention to detail, though, was his ability to think. Black seldom entered into a room without knowing an exit or started a mission without a plan of action and, when that plan went awry as plans always do, he was able to quickly devise another. That was why he had lived through as many assignments as he has with as few physical reminders as he does.
There were two other books written by Mr. Manson that came out at the same time and have been listed as part of this series, The Duke and A Deadly Game but I have seen the former and read about the latter and they do not belong.