RICHARD KNIGHT

Richard Knight is a freelance agent with American Intelligence.

He is also an adventurer who craves excitement and danger and pitting his own skills and wits against other people and Mother Nature. Mostly, though, for our purposes, he is an operative who is on call for any of the various members of the U.S. intelligence community.

A good deal of information about Knight is given us in the very first recorded adventure, courtesy of a foreign agent tasked with learning who a meddling operative known only as Agent Q, or just 'Q', was. That man learned that this mysterious Q worked at times for Naval Intelligence though he was also helpful on many occasions to Army Intelligence. In addition, he will at times be asked for assistance by "the foreign service division of the State Department". Toss in as well that he "has some connection with the Department of Justice" and you likely come to the same conclusion this man did that 'Q' was "a free-lance agent given the authority to call on any Government office for information and help". To mask his activities on behalf of the American people, 'Q' was portrayed as 'simply a globe-trotter with friends in the Army and Navy whom he met while he was in the diplomatic service", though few 'friends' were "given Government planes without question, even those on the experimental list".

The dossier that is provided us on Richard Knight tells us that he was born in the nation's capitol in December of 1910, making him 26 years old when we first start following him in 1936. Knight's diplomatic connections started early in life when his father was made ambassador to France and the younger Knight was groomed to follow in the family tradition. Knight did work as a diplomat for a couple of years after graduating college but then resigned "stating he desired a more active life". This new career path would be intimately tied with his fascination of and love for aviation. After "intensive instruction piloting airplanes", Knight bought his own plane and began a lengthy tour of the States, Canada, Mexico, and then on into South America. He entered numerous air races and even won a couple of prestigious ones.

Flying may be Knight's greatest passion - and his skills in the cockpit of virtually any winged aircraft is beyond belief - but his vocation is that of government agent. He just has a much appreciated (by him) for being able to accomplish his work while also constantly indulging in his love.

Knight indeed has done considerable work for various government departments over the years but from the time we start following him, he works primarily for Major General John Brett, "his main War Department contact in the hazardous game of espionage". He will maintain that relationship for the length of his impressive numbers of adventures. This will even be the case when situations cause the official world to conclude that Knight had turned traitor and an arrest warrant placed on him with the word going out throughout all American bases and embassies around the world; this troublesome state lasts for a fair number of missions adding a tremendous difficulty factor.

Two people in Knight's life play major parts in his activities.

The first is Benita Navarre. In that first adventure mentioned before, Knight rescued the beautiful and highly intelligent Navarre from a mountain canyon in a desolate part of the United States where she and other descendants of a gold mining team had been trapped. She has since become the ward of General Brett and a very capable operative for him, not to mention a love interest for Knight for some time. (This budding relationship will continue for a while before she will suddenly stop being mentioned at all)

The second is Larry Doyle. Knight is best friends with this former Marine who, though a bit shorter than Knight in height, makes up for that with a stout, muscular frame. Doyle is frequently called 'Lothario' by Knight owing to the former grunt's keen appreciation of the fairer sex and their frequent reciprocation. That does not keep Doyle from being a very important fellow operative joining Knight on virtually every assignment that comes Knight's way - a status considerably longer in duration than Navarre.

Knight often portrays a careless manner, even more so when the situation gets dicey and the odds of survival slim. Indolent is a word used often to describe his projected nature. There is no doubt, though, that however deadly things get, Knight is having a good time even as he never loses his determination to succeed.

I am not and never have been a big fan of airplane adventures. Don't like heights and don't care for small planes as a result. No fear of flying in big planes but no joy from it, either. So, I read several of these with that predisposition fully known. I was, therefore, not surprised to find I did not really care for them all that much - except ...

The author, Donald Keyhoe, can definitely write and keep a story exciting and flowing. Thus these tales, although not my cup of tea, were nowhere as unenjoyable as I feared they would be. Still not what I would rush to buy but I would not be upset if they were all I had to read. Like I said, the man could write.