TONY HAWKIN

       Tony Hawkin is an agent with the F.B.I.
       Well, that is what some people tell him and what maybe perhaps a precious few actually believe but Hawkin is most definitely not one of that group. To hear him describe himself, he is an "art historian by choice and a radar repairman by necessity" and even then he would waffle a bit.
       In truth, Hawkin did serve in the military for a requisite number of years working as a radar repairman but that was a few years ago and he has not had to fix any such equipment for some time. When his would-be handler in the Bureau commented about him being a "military man" and thus well versed in handling weapons, Hawkin would blanch a tad and correct that there was a whole lot of difference between having been in the military and being a military man. He was living proof of that.
       As for being an art historian, he did know a fair amount about art having a decent appreciation for it but he had no professional experience in that field. His closest brush with it was being the manager of the gift shop at the National Archives.
       That is how the first recorded adventure begins but immediately he is, for reasons that totally escape him, forcibly moved to the Bureau's headquarters and put in charge of their gift shop. Now he sort of missed the Archives but in truth a gift shop was a gift shop and except for having to sell gilt-edged portraits of J. Edgar, he was fine with his transfer.
       Then he is summoned to a top-level briefing where he is inexplicably told that as an expert in art, he was going out into the field. He was less than thrilled since he was not a real agent and had no real experience and had no desire for either one. And he would become even less happy with the change when his handler is immediately murdered and the CIA and the KGB and the Mafia and Mossad and who knows who else started coming after him. The gift shop looked better and better all the time, even with the JEH pictures.

       Hawkin is described as a Native American male "with a decidedly worried expression that kept slipping back to his face no matter how he tried to dispel it with a professional smile. He was thin, of medium height, tanned and jet haired, his nose slightly too large for his face although he was not unhandsome for all of it, his smoothly pressed suit was beige and unassuming, his neatly knotted tie of an austere tone; he stood erect yet at ease with his hands clasped behind him." For many people that might be a sign of confidence. To Hawkin it was just the way he looked and stood.
       He knew the truth about himself and his skills. Unfortunately, no one else seemed to.

       I was a gigantic Harry Harrison fan for many years having had the joy of reading his first two Stainless Steel Rat books. The first came out back in '61 and I was too young to have been interested. When he did a follow-up on it in 1970, I chanced to see it on the paperback rack the next year and it looked interesting. I read it and then found the first one and read it (out of order, I know! That drives me nuts). Then as new installments of the Jim DiGris saga came out, I grabbed them and laughed and thrilled with the con artist of the future and his antics.
       I also enjoyed for totally different reasons his Make Room! Make Room! which was the basis for Charlton Heston's movie Soylent Green and when I saw the movie and decided to read the book I found them hugely different. I liked the movie. I preferred the book.
       So when mucho years later I got so deeply interested in spy-fiction and then discovered that Mr. Harrison has penned two books about a FBI agent, I was curious but not smart enough to see if by any chance the character would be a fit for this site. It was someone else who mentioned it and prompted me to get the books and do some reading and I am very glad I did.
       Tony Hawkin is not a spy but boy do spy things happen to him and that is all that matters for membership and being able to highlight in my own small way two really enjoyable book by a terrific writer is an honor.
       Check out these books for a fun fast read.