MARK HOOD

Full Name:	Mark Hood
Nationality:	American
Organization:	Intertrust
Occupation	Agent

Creator:	James Dark
Time Span:	1965 - 1970

ABOUT THE SERIES

       Mark Hood is an agent of Intertrust.
       He is one of a handful of field agents working for the highly secret agency that was created by the then four nuclear powers as a protection against any person or group outside the four powers who might seek to use nuclear technology against them. Their budget was as high as their profile was low. Getting the job done was the only goal. Of the men who put their lives on the line, Hood was the very best.
       Hood had the most ingenious cover to give him the ability to travel the world without being noticed. He had none. And getting noticed was not only acceptable, it was expected. Hood was a wealthy American playboy, educated at Oxford, who took as his career after university the task of being an international sportsman.
       Auto racing at Le Mans, karate competitions in Tokyo, sail fishing in the Bahamas, and, most famously of all, one of the greatest living cricket players in England, were many of the activities that Hood took part in when he wasn't on a mission, and the type of activity he used to cover his movement when he was.
       At other times, Hood exercised strenuously and compulsively to keep him body in the peak of condition. This included regular sessions at karate where he already owned a black belt and where he had made his hands and feet swift weapons of destruction.
       Hood stands just over 6’, is in perfect shape with big, wide shoulders and excellent proportions elsewhere. His age is not specified but he had served in the Navy during the Korean War. With the series opening around 1965, that would place him between 35 and 40 years old.

BOOKS

Number of Books:	14
First Appearance:	1965
Last Appearance:	1970


1			Come Die With Me Written by James Dark Copyright: 1965 Why would a man with a secret headquarters in the mountains of Brazil be attacking and taking over patrol boats off the Bahamas? Hood is sent to answer that and he had better hurry as the plot to unleash whatever it is is ready to explode.

2			The Bamboo Bomb Written by James Dark Copyright: 1965 A group is claiming to be ready to explode a small nuclear device in the Malay archipelago. Hood is assigned to find out if the claim is real and, if it is, stop it. Unfortunately for him, there are a LOT of islands in the archipelago.

3			Hong Kong Incident aka Assignment Hong Kong Written by James Dark Copyright: 1966 The plot was to sabotage and cripple the U.S. Seventh Fleet, leaving the Pacific largely undefended. The Chinese defector who knew the details has been killed, leaving precious little to go on.

4			Assignment Tokyo aka Operation MissSat Written by James Dark Copyright: 1966 Hiroshi Sato was a karate champion who defeated all challengers. He was also a genius with a plan to put the world at his command. Hood must go against him in both arenas and either one could get Hood killed.

5			Spy From The Deep Written by James Dark Copyright: 1966 A ship which departed from a port in China en route Albania has three crates of gold bullion and one atomic bomb. It is up to Mark Hood to find the ship and kidnap the nuke.

6			Operation Scuba aka Caribbean Striker Written by James Dark Copyright: 1967 A world famous physicist badly needs a vacation but wherever he might go, his well-being is at risk. Hood's colleague, Tremayne, is set to impersonate the scientist while the real one travels incognito. Hood acts as Tremayne's bodyguard and that target needs a lot of guarding.

7			Throne Of Satan aka Black Napoleon Written by James Dark Copyright: 1967 He is called Dominat and domination is assuredly his goal. Planning inside his headquarters miles deep in a volcanic crater in the West Indies, he has come up with his own weapon of destruction. Hood must stop him and save an old friend doing so.

8			The Sword Of Genghis Khan Written by James Dark Copyright: 1967 A ruler in Outer Mongolia who claims to be a descendant of Genghis Khan has his own plan for conquering the known world and his might come true as he has a particularly devastating weapon at his command.

9			Spying Blind Written by James Dark Copyright: 1968 The plan was certainly audacious. From a floating pleasure palace traveling about the Med, a group is about to hijack a Russian rocket just returning from the moon, hoping to get a payload from it that was better than priceless.

10			Operation Octopus Written by James Dark Copyright: 1968 A huclear submarine carrying Polaris missiles has gone missing. The huge search for it reveals a corpse that is half-man and half-fish. That leads Hood to the spot and then to an underwater city whose ruler wants the world.

11			Operation Ice Cap Written by James Dark Copyright: 1969 Three hundred feet beneath the surface in the Arctic Circle, two American submarines not only disappear, they seem to have melted. Whoever is behind it has an incredible weapon that Hood must destroy.

12			The Invisibles Written by James Dark Copyright: 1969 Hood travels to the Caribbean to track down a group dealing with atomic bombs on the black market. The ones doing the buying are called the Invisibles, voodoo priests who wish to use their arcane magicks to take over the world.

13			The Reluctant Assassin Written by James Dark Copyright: 1970 Mark Hood is ordered to remove an enemy agent as they are taking part in a race, all to keep her from assisting a French scientist sell nuclear secrets to the Red Chinese. Several mobsters have been hired to stop him stopping her.

14			Sea Scape Written by James Dark Copyright: 1970 The world has come that the major cities of the world are marked for destruction unless the evil genius who has control of a Polaris submarine can be stopped by Hood.

MY COMMENTS

You don't have to like Mark Hood, and I certainly wouldn't out of jealousy, but you have to love his lifestyle. It's tough to be the best at nearly everything but at least that gets you a good table at any restaurant.
In a mood to out-Bond, as the expression in the blurbs of many spy series goes, this series does it to death, and it does it gloriously so. I admit I got tired of people coming up to Hood on the street agog with admiration but other than that, Hood was fun to see in action. And with over a dozen books, that is a lot of action.

GRADE

My Grade: B

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