Books like The Silver Mistress

The first Modesty Blaise I ever read, having found it on a shelf in the local British Institute library, back in the eighties. I asked the librarian what it was like and she said, "James Bond with cleavage." She was right, in a way, but Modesty isn't a spy, she's a fixer, a problem-solver. Trouble just seems to find her, her friends, and her trusty sidekick Willy Garvin. At bottom, James Bond is arrogant and selfish, a user who prefers liasons with wealthy married women who aren't going to get posessive or make a fuss (as well as paying his way, most likely. There's a word for that in Italian--gigolo. There's a much uglier word for it in modern American English. I'll leave that one to you, gentle reader.) One thing Blaise and Garvin have that Bond doesn't, is a sense of humour. Aside from the lean, mean, fighting machine, 60s-millionaire aspect of their lives, they seem like people that would be interesting to know. I don't think old Bond would be very interesting at all, unless you could talk shop--and spies don't talk shop. This time it's Sir Gerald Tarrant, the man who gave Modesty and Willie something to do after they retired in their twenties, who's up the proverbial creek without means of locomotion. He's been kidnapped by a psychopathic criminal mastermind (well, aren't they all?) who wants information, but not the kind Tarrant thinks he wants. Col Straik is supposedly ex-US military, a good ol' Southern boy, and yet from time to time he just can't help talking like a Brit, as when he speaks of "making someone redundant" to mean killing them. His hired assassins deal in such charming lines as piano wire strangulation and ultimate-class martial arts. These days, the aptly-named Mr Sexton would be a ninja. As for other little blunders, at one point Tarrant tells another character that "it's impossible to cheat at blackjack." Oh really, now! So why do they always have it in casinos? If you can create a game, someone can create a cheat for it, sir. Lady Janet, Willie's steady, decides she wants to come along for the ride this time, to find out what goes on in Willie's life when he vanishes into the hinterland; and of course (?) Modesty agrees it's a good idea. Somehow or other the latest lame dog Modesty has been helping over a stile comes along as well, in spite of being already afflicted with PTSD from a hijacking event.Incredible? You bet your sweet Carnaby street go-go boots and miniskirt it is. That's the point. Pure escapist fluff, just right for a hot summer afternoon.