CREASY

Creasy is a mercenary.

At the start of the recorded adventures, he was one, or at least he had been up to the time he had had enough and needed a break and went six months without anything. To say he was burned out would be an understatement. Years of fighting in strange lands far from a home he no longer called his own, fighting alongside people who might well be killed the next day, all for regimes he did not believe in or causes that meant nothing to him or possibly in the name of a religion he had no faith in at all. It had taken more of a toll on him than he wanted to pay anymore.

Creasy was darn good at being a mercenary, possibly because he had nothing to go home to. A not too pleasant upbringing brought him to the U.S. Marines at age 17 and he found a home. Then a fight with an officer who was getting good men killed resulted in his being kicked out. Needing something to do and having just been trained to be a soldier, he joined the French Foreign Legion. He soon became part of their legendary paratrooper regiment and so began a period of fighting in intense areas and learning how to survive.

He also learned what it mean to fail and a brief time as a POW in Vietnam, before the French left and the American came in showed Creasy how bad life can get. It did not, though, cause him to quit. He got transfered to North Africa where a large group of the French Army disagreed with now President De Gaulle about giving up Algeria. His superiors picked the wrong side and he was again out of a job. He was not, however, out of work. Someone with his hard-earned skills could always find a job in one army or another.

And therein lay the problem. Too much death and no reason to live. He stepped away from it. Unfortunately, he had nowhere to step into.

Then the odd employment offer of being a 'premium' bodyguard and that is when things changed. He did not stay a bodyguard for long but his days of being a soldier-for-hire only were over and different things would come his way that would make up the essence of his days from then on but at the beginning and throughout what happens next, when people talked of Creasy, it was of him as a mercenary. But the talk was highly respectful.

I read the first Creasy novel back right after it came out, around 1982. I absolutely loved it. Had there been more, I would have snatched them up immediately but there was no more. Just the one incredible novel that made me so darned mad and then gave me at least some satisfaction at the end. It was one of the best books I read that year, I am sure.

In the late 80s, I saw a movie whose source, since IMDB did not exist, I really could not identify came out with Scott Glenn and I really liked it. It was different than the book but still enjoyable.

I never noticed in the 90s that more Creasy novels were coming out. Work and family and other diversions. I never knew of the books.

Denzel Washington's terrific take on the first book came out in 2004 and I and my wife loved it. Of course, if you have seen the movie, you would not expect any kind of a sequel. But the movie was terrific and Denzel was awesome, as always.

Well over a decade later, I learned that the Creasy of the book was Creasy of a series and I grabbed the other books and looked forward to reading them. Then got sidetracked for a year. Luckily I got back to them and I re-read the first book and loved it even more, despite getting even angrier than I did before at what happened. And then I jumped into the second and then third and fourth and fifth and then was so very sorry to know there would be no more.

One sad aspect to this pretty incredible series comes from the fact that since there have been really three movies about Creasy (the third being the Indian version with the character having a different name) that has been for the most part the online essence of the character. One "mission", if you will, and that one quite a bit different from the book.

Yes, there were lots of similarities. Creasy is a hard-drinking burn-out at the start and only finds his humanity again through the care of a young girl in his care. Then something terrible happens to her and Creasy must return to the harsh life he had so tired of. Okay so far.

But the book had so much more. And then there are four other books, each totally different but each showing a side of Creasy that is fascinating. And not the least bit burned-out like he is invariably described.

The author, it is said, was working on a 6th before his passing. Will it ever be finished and released? I do not know and if it is, will it have the same magic that the writer gave Creasy with his touch? I cannot say.

But I am glad I got what I got.