MODESTY BLAISE

Modesty Blaise is a freelance spy for the British SIS.

Orphaned during her pre-teen years during the Second World War, the young girl would grow up to be Modesty had no idea who she was or where she came from. Learning to survive in the war ravaged Balkan area, her life depended on her skills at foraging, stealing, and, most of all, self-defense.

While living in a camp for refugees, she found an old man being set upon by thieves and she, though, quite young, threw herself into the fray and rescued the man, nursing him back to health. He, too, was a refugee, a former Yugoslav professor whom she called Lob who despite his advanced education found his abilities at survival less than they needed to be. Together they made an excellent team. She kept the two alive while he taught her his love of learning, as well as several different languages. Several years would be spent together until his death when she was around the age of 13.

With her survival skills learned in the unforgiving streets, crime came naturally to her and soon became her vocation. She quickly became proficient in understanding the techniques of planning a successful caper as well as how to handle men not used to discipline. At the age of 17, serving in a gang whose leader was killed in fight with a rival gang, she saw the opportunity and took it. She forced her way to the top of the gang and held on.

This was the beginning of The Network as her organization would be called. Within two years, it grew to be the most powerful criminal gang outside the Mafia. To the men and women who followed the young leader, their boss was known and addressed as Mam'selle. To be a member was a highly prized position and would-be applicants who proved to be either slow-witted or quick-to-anger were swiftly dismissed.

During the early days of her running the Network, she had occasion to come upon a promising individual facing considerable trouble in a Southeast Asia prison. She saw potential in him despite his less than impressive situation, got him free and gave him a job. It seemed no time at all that the two became an incredible team. The man was named Willie Garvin, a man half a decade or more older to her and with incredible skills at knives and hand-to-hand combat. He quickly rose to the number two position in the organization earning the spot through brains, determination, a fast fist, and a very winning smile. Those he couldn't whip, he charmed, or vice versa.

Many of the back alley skills he had developed over the years he passed on to Blaise and she showed him a sophistication that he had never known. Together they could dine with ease in the finest European restaurants or squat over an open fire on a beach awaiting a smuggling boat to arrive. Their love for each other grew to be closer than family but though situations often forced them into intimate conditions, especially treating each other's wounds, the thought of becoming lovers never occurred to them. What they shared was far deeper than that. To Willie, Modesty Blaise was 'the Princess' and their mutual love and respect was unshakable.

For over ten years she ruled the organization, with Garvin's help, amassing a sizeable fortune for each of them in the process. But suddenly, at the young age of 27, she knew it was time to retire. Cautiously, she divided her territory amongst her closest lieutenants and withdrew to the one country she had purposely never 'worked' in, Great Britain. Without hesitation when he learned she was quitting, Garvin stepped aside as well, knowing that the fun would go out of the job the moment she walked away.

The next year was spent by Blaise as a wealthy socialite, jet-setting about the world and living in luxury. Garvin bought a small pub in the country and spent his time charming the local lasses and drinking with his new friends. It was also a horrible bore for both of them. They had everything they could need except excitement.

That's when the head of the British SIS came to call. He needed her help and she needed something challenging to do. It was a great match which would last for some time.

Modesty Blaise is the greatest. You can fill in the noun in many different ways: fighter, lover, friend, adventurer, tactician, whatever.

Her adventures are absolute blasts to read. The stories are fast paced. The characters, though often caricatures, are well crafted and fairly jump off the pages. The locales vary from high-society soirées to steamy jungles to arid deserts.

Throw in supporting characters like Sir Gerald and the Colliers, add lesser used people like Fraser and Weng, and touch it off with repeating friends like John Dall and Danny Chavasse. It all brings the sense of having spent a lot of time with Modesty and Willie.

I fully realize that the stories haven't the literary excellence of a John LeCarre novel or the sinister back alley feel of a Len Deighton. The books are even lighter fare than given by Ian Fleming. Nevertheless, Modesty Blaise remains, IMHO, the greatest.

The reason is simple. Since the purpose of any spy series is, to me at least, to entertain, no one does it better than Modesty Blaise.

In every book there will be places where you purse your lips wondering how she will escape some trap, or inhale sharply when a baddy unleashes some new danger, or, best of all, nod your head with a smile on your face when she pulls off another amazing caper. And though I started as a Modesty fan by reading the books, the comic strips from where she sprang are even better.

While other series may have you believing that they did or could happen, Modesty Blaise will have you wanting them to be so.