The Tango Briefing

Quiller #5

by Adam Hall

At the Tango briefing Quiller got his orders. Orders that sent him on a bizarre undercover operation, a double-suicide mission in the Sahara. His assignment: find and destroy a mysterious downed aircraft before the world learns of its existence, before its cargo is disclosed, and before enemy agents destroy the plane and possibly Quiller along with it!

"Breathless excitement mounting to a screaming crescendo...a real stemwinder...the action is fast and deadly!" (Publisher's Source)

Genres: Thriller, Espionage, Fiction, Mystery, Spy Thriller, Suspense

224 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1973

About the author

Author also wrote as Elleston Trevor.

Author Trevor Dudley-Smith was born in Kent, England on February 17, 1920. He attended Yardley Court Preparatory School and Sevenoaks School. During World War II, he served in the Royal Air Force as a flight engineer. After the war, he started writing full-time. He lived in Spain and France before moving to the United States and settling in Phoenix, Arizona. In 1946 he used the pseudonym Elleston Trevor for a non-mystery book, and later made it his legal name. He also wrote under the pseudonyms of Adam Hall, Simon Rattray, Mansell Black, Trevor Burgess, Roger Fitzalan, Howard North, Warwick Scott, Caesar Smith, and Lesley Stone. Even though he wrote thrillers, mysteries, plays, juvenile novels, and short stories, his best-known works are The Flight of the Phoenix written as Elleston Trevor and the series about British secret agent Quiller written as Adam Hall. In 1965, he received the Edgar Allan Poe Award by Mystery Writers of America and the French Grand Prix de Littérature Policière for The Quiller Memorandum. This book was made into a 1967 movie starring George Segal and Alec Guinness. He died of cancer on July 21, 1995.

Reviews

[Feliks · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve loudly announced myself in other reviews, as a devout Adam Hall/Elleston Trevor fan. I’ve stated it plainly. Ain’t no news ’bout that.

I'm never subdued in my assessment that the Quiller novels are the most exciting reads I've probably ever encountered outside of Hammett. Or else, the horror yarns from Stephen King, Shirley Jackson, etc.

Hall’s Quiller romps are so good they make me short-of-breath and goggle-eyed, as Hammett does. But Hammett’s bibliography is slender, and Adam Hall gives me twenty full-length Quiller adventures.

For my money, Elleston Trevor is the post-WWII incarnation of Dashiell Hammett; as well as an improvement on Ian Fleming’s Bond.

If there’s anyone else this good an action-writer, I’d sure like to know about him.

Pound-for-pound, Trevor matches up to Maugham-LeCarre-Follett-Deighton-Greene-Ambler-McCarry-Littell in that, he delivers the full-blooded action which all those other giant names, de-prioritize.

Adam Hall/Elleston Trevor writes espionage; he can be as slick and psychological as anyone else in that realm, but what he also delivers is the freakish violence I’ve only found elsewhere in the pages of Hammett or Paul Cain. Unsettling, disturbing violence.

Like many others, I too was introduced to Quiller from the quirky neo-Nazi flick with George Segal, deft screenplay by John Mortimer (or someone as good as John Mortimer, was it John Osborne? Harold Pinter?) and co-starring Alec Guinness.

Was Segal the very best casting one could ask for? No, but George Segal is a darn good actor and he acquitted himself ably in this, as he did so many other roles. I can’t comprehend the assertion that he was a ‘scenery-chewer’. Segal plays such a diversity of characters, under a diversity of directors. Brutes, cads, lovers, oafs, weaklings, schleps, psychos. Other stars might have done better, but many might have done less, than did Segal as ‘Quiller’.

This is not to excuse Quiller #1 (‘The Quiller Memorandum’) which is a perhaps-too-subtle-for-the-screen type of spy novel. The source material was ill-used. Even the novel itself is not quite on firm-footing. Trevor was still finding-his-form in his first book; and it showed in the movie adaptation. There’s weaknesses. But there’s also strengths.

This is where I started with the Elleston Trevor ‘Quiller’ novels. First, I investigated whether the earliest book matched up with the earliest movie.

Found them both good in their own way; not so much for the plots but for the quality writing and the cleverness. At one and the same time, Quiller is a thinking man’s hero and he’s also an adrenalin-junkie. He’s soft-spoken, and he’s brutal.

Movie+Book: Quiller not carrying a gun.
Book: Quiller knowing how to make his body ‘go limp’ and ‘faint’.
Movie+Book: Quiller is adept at surviving interrogations.
Movie: Quiller confidently brawling with six Neo-Nazis.
Book: Quiller’s hatred of Nazis; (never followed-up on).
Movie+Book: Quiller multi-lingual skills.

Results: mixed. But howsoever the franchise began, it’s the book series which gains speed and force. The books surge forward; movie/television can't convey this fictional character. Just to call out two titles:

In ‘Sinkiang Executive’ Quiller must train himself to fly a captured Mig back across Russian air defense for the sake of deliberately crash-landing near a contact he must meet near in Manchuria.

In ‘Ninth Directive’ Quiller must stop an international assassin's next kill in Bangkok. What is unusual here is the assassination taking place in the middle of the book! The middle of the book! [How some claim this is an ‘average read’, I cannot grasp.]

‘Tango Briefing’ is another exceptionally subtle and well-done installment.

The Saharan locale recalls ‘Flight of the Phoenix’ –how this British author knows North Africa so well, I’ve no idea.

The yarn exhibits surreal desolateness you wouldn't expect in a typical thriller. But it is not quiet or calm.

Now, I don’t know how –or why –anyone ever supposed it would suit a TV series. Whether in Tangier, Bangkok, or Siberia, Trevor has a keen eye for visual detail; but I would think that without a 'voice-over' any adaptation would fail.

Fun Fact: the ill-fated BBC series features Michael Jayston from BBC's "Smiley's People".

Nevertheless, it likely failed because Quiller is a 90% internal character. It’s part of his craft to go as unnoticed as possible. He rarely beds women; gambles; or drinks. He lives for missions; trusts nobody. A nihilistic figure. A sad figure.

Now, a key scene in ‘Tango Briefing’ which made me sit up in awe. Middle of the book. At first, it seems like the same ol' ordinary espionage tropes. Groups of spies tailing each other in cars.

I can’t quite convey the shock of reading this grisly-turning scene, here in my remarks. The pursuit takes place on a vastly empty stretch of Tunisian highway. Quiller has just lost the car chase with his pursuers.

If it were a Fleming novel, James Bond would simply let himself be accosted by the three thugs who ambush him. He would light a cigarette, make a jeer, and allow himself to be led off to Blofeld’s headquarters for a meeting with the arch-enemy of Britain.

But Quiller is having none of it. This is the stamp of all his action scenes; 180-degree-opposite of the flashy, gentlemanly James Bond.

Quiller soft-pedals only at first; only at first does he back-pedal and acquiesces. Outwardly, low-key. But his pulse is racing and he’s considering every possible alternative. He’s not thinking about his next Scotch, or his next Benson&Hedges. He’s thinking about the mission, always the mission, 100% the mission.

After a long car chase, three scummy Algerian thugs have forced him off the road and now he stands with his butt leant up against the bonnet of his rent-a-car; while they taunt him. They want answers and they’re going to extract them roughly.

James Bond would light a cigarette and smoke it, indifferent to his captors. Classy Bond doesn’t waste words on small-fry.

What does Quiller do? Three filthy Algerian hoods are smirking at him, mocking him, spluttering Arabic expletives on him.

Okay. They toy with him, he is allowed a cigarette. But he palms the lit match. He’s been waiting for this. He incinerate his three opponents with that little match.

The writing of Elleston Trevor which conveys this is just outlandish. Nothing like it in Fleming; nothing like it, anywhere, from any author, that I’ve ever seen.

Quiller is c-r-a-z-y. Berserk. He doesn’t carry a gun. He doesn’t need one. He watches everything and watches everyone around him all the time and he knows --all the time --exactly what’s going on. Until he doesn't. Then, sh*t goes nuts.

Best fictional secret agent ever.

[Rita Costa (Lusitania Geek) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this old book that was on sale on old bookstore and I like it, it was interesting and good mystery to read over weekend. It was a different read, still I enjoyed.

[Alice · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first Quiller novel I've read, although I loved both Badger's Moon and Squadron Airborne, written as Elleston Trevor. The first-person narration is very intense, and requires close attention if you don't want to miss vital plot points. The plot (man goes to desert to look for plane) is relatively straightforward, but there are so many tails and assassination attempts and little details about how the Secret Service operates and narrator's thoughts that it builds into a complex, thrilling tale. I'll definitely look out for more of these.

[Nicola · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bloody hell.

Very nearly got kicked out of a restaurant for lingering over after-dinner drinks to finish this one. Breathless at times and I cackled alongside Quiller as he worked it through in that final, godawful puzzle.

Loved this. Loved it. What a great entry in the series.

[Bill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tango Briefing is the 5th book in the Quiller spy series by Adam Hall (AKA Elleston Trevor, etc, etc). Quiller is a British spy who works generally on his own and works for a mysterious British government department. He's supposed to specialize in disinformation, is called an executive when on missions. He doesn't use a fire arm but is capable at defending himself. The stories are told in the first person.

In Tango Briefing, Quiller is flown back from another mission to England and sent almost immediately to Tunisia. A cargo plane has gone down in the Algerian desert with a mysterious cargo and Quiller needs to get to the plane before the opposition (whoever that might be) and determine the cargo. He is assigned to Loman, who is to be his Local Control and also along for comms assistance is a young woman, Diane, from the local British embassy.

It's an intricate story as Quiller and the others must avoid the opposition and coordinate with an oil exploration company, contracting out a French pilot to deliver Quiller to the crash site at a remote site in the Sahara, try to find it before the others do, photograph the cargo and get back to Tunisia to deliver the info. Along the way, there will be efforts by the opposition to get rid of previous 'executives' and also attempts to both track / follow Quiller and finally to get rid of him.

It's an interesting story especially from a couple of perspectives. I enjoyed the trade craft, the communication procedures, the timings and everything of that nature. Also the first person perspective makes it interesting. We get Quiller's thoughts on what is going on, his perspective on this mission and relations to other missions, his thoughts on possible outcomes and their impacts. While there is sufficient action to keep you satisfied from the spy / thriller aspect of the book, there is also a nice thoughtful aspect as we follow Quiller's thought processes. At times it does make things a bit confusing but the ultimate story is quite enjoyable (3.5 stars)

[Andy Lawless · Rating 5 out of 5]

Of all the spy books that I have read, this series is probably the best, for it uses real trade craft instead of relying on a lot of fancy gadgets.

The series has been compared favorably to John Le Carré's Smiley.

Under the pseudonym "Adam Hall", Trevor Dudley-Smith wrote the Quiller spy novel series, beginning with The Berlin Memorandum (US: The Quiller Memorandum, 1965), a hybrid of glamour and dirt, Fleming and Le Carré. The writing is literary and the tradecraft believable. (From Ask.com spy fiction)

[cool breeze · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quiller in the Sahara investigating a mysterious cargo on board an air freighter crashed in the desert. There are some plot points that seriously stretch credibility psychotic nerve gas and a suitcase nuke that leaves Quiller alive at 485 meters from ground zero. This Quiller novel has an unusually good exploration of the relationship between an agent and those who control him.

[Matt Gibson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Released in the same year that I was—1973—this has something of the dated feel you'd expect from a vintage spy novel. The joy of Adam Hall's Quiller books, though, lies in the vivid, taut description of their one-man-versus-the-world narrative.

Quiller is the archetypical "competent man" character, and there's an old-fashioned joy to be had in putting yourself in his shoes, albeit that they whiff a bit of adolescent wish-fulfilment and, in this case, a dash of 1970s chauvinism. What makes it all worthwhile is the self-awareness of Quiller himself, and the heady mix of gritty realism and bathos that sums up the human condition just as well as a George Smiley novel, but through dirt and smoke and back-alley violence rather than a leather-topped desk in Whitehall.

While his later novels will likely appeal more to the modern reader—Hall was writing these up until his death in 1995—this desert-based slice of Cold War derring-do is still entertaining me on my occasional nostalgic re-reads, and that's all I need to know. Tango out.

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

This 1973 espionage novel succeeds, despite the fairly thin plot and staccato style of the author, due to the gradually mounting tension engendered by the likely fate of a British spy sent on a mission to the Sahara involving a crashed plane and unknown enemy operatives. He spends much of the story injured and drifting near unconsciousness, however the location and the spycraft add credibility as the true nature of the wreck’s cargo becomes clear and he needs to undertake an apparent suicide mission.

[Adam Cassar · Rating 2 out of 5]

While the story was interesting, I found the sudden switches in action or goings on confusing.

I ended up having to re-read sections to see if I missed something, still not understand and finally push forward to come across the explanation.

It happened several times and by the end of the book I was still not used to it

[Thevogon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quiller is a natural successor to Bond, with less taste for the high life and more introspection. This tale in particular has survived the fifty years since publication very well as an almost perfect example of the genre. Compact and linear, with just enough references to Quiller's wider world to lend a degree of credibility to the unbelievable.

[Lawrence Levine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Highly intelligent realistic complicated thriller with an emotional tough hero who is the opposite of James Bond he doesn't use guns, doesnt chase women He gets into very perilous situations and survives by his brains as much as his brawn Very intense and no nonsense

[Will · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one was very visceral, easier to follow than past novels. I did question how Quiller has gone from Nazi war spy to full on operational sky diving, nuke detonating super spy, but I guess he’s had some training since.

[Stephen Young · Rating 5 out of 5]

First class

Cerebral, thrilling, well crafted espionage tale. I have read and reread, all the Quicker books, but this remains one of my favourites.

[Graham · Rating 3 out of 5]

Silly ending spoiled a good quiller escapade

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quiller: The Tango Briefing (1973) is one of Adam Hall’s nineteen Quiller novels; Adam Hall is the nom de plume of British novelist Elleston Trevor, itself a pseudonym for Trevor Dudley Smith. Trevor was author of the well known The Quiller Memorandum (published in Europe as The Berlin Memorandum) and the equally well-known The Flight of the Phoenix; both became movies.

The archetypal hero is the one-named Quiller, an “executive” (agent) at the super-super secret British intelligence agency called The Bureau: it’s so secret that only the enemy knows about it. Each executive is controlled by a “director” who oversees him on a specific mission. The executives and directors report to “Control.” Quiller calls executives “ferrets” because they are tasked with extracting highly secret information from the enemy, not with assassinations and other dirty dealings.

Quiller is 100 percent for Queen and Country, but he is a very odd duck. His greatest talent is dissociating himself from external events so he can focus solely on the mission: he even refers to his body as “the organism.” He’s an obvious badass who is opposed to carrying weapons and is reluctant to accept a case until his director manipulates him into it. He is among the half-dozen Bureau executives allowed to use a “9” after their code name, a designation indicating that he has undergone extreme interrogation without talking. His social life and social skills read zero on the Facebook meter, though he has occasional repeat performances with unpaid women. He is a racecar driver and (in another book) a pilot of Soviet fighter jets. He has no friends and no home—-he is the James Bond (sans martini) of the Cold War and an ancestor of today’s Jack Reacher.

Quiller has been called to London to be briefed at The Bureau on a case that has toasted two previous executives, one mortally and the other psychologically. A cargo airplane dubbed Tango Victor has been spotted in the Algerian desert, abandoned after a forced landing. Nobody knows (we think) what it carries, but there is great suspicion that it is very important. Quiller’s task is to get to that plane, photograph and inventory its contents, and immediately report back to his director on his mobile radio. He is assigned an inexperienced female agent named Diane to assist him on a mission that demands experience.

The danger of the mission is amped up when Quiller survives three attempts to assassinate him even before he starts—-one by car bomb, another by car, and a third by sniper; there seems to be a mole in the spy hole. The mission is simple: Quiller parachutes from a sailplane into the Algerian Sahara, supposedly right where Tango Victor should be but, apparently, well off the mark. By the time he finds Tango Victor buried in sand, his water is almost gone and he is near death. What he finds there is unexpected and terrifying. He reports back by radio and is picked up by a helicopter and taken to a hospital to get his s**t together. There he finds bad people still gunning for him and for the elfin Diane.

The post-desert events are fully as intense as those at Tango Victor. Quiller is abducted and gets free. London Control sends him a miniature nuclear bomb without clear instructions about when and where to use it, and the tension builds again. Of course, we know at the outset that Quiller will be successful and will survive, but the tension is greater than any created on today’s action packed movie screens because it is all inner tension: we are Quiller.

Hall’s style is very stream-of-consciousness. The narrative abruptly switches from one context to another, forcing the reader to stay on her toes. For example, Quiller is thinking about his director for this case and he abruptly shifts to thinking about a woman with whom he has a relationship; there is no segue: you have to stop, recollect what’s happened, and shift gears. It’s the nonlinear way us humans think.

Who are the bad guys? Think United Arab Republic and the 1973 Israel-Arab conflict.

Five stars—six if there is a reward for style.

[Philip · Rating 3 out of 5]

My first Quiller book, although I vaguely remember "The Quiller Memorandum" as a George Segal movie back in the mid-60's. This one, the fifth in the series, might be slim on plot (a plane crashes in the Sahara and Quiller has to find and destroy it - that's literally the entire story - although there is a pretty slick twist in the final two pages), but Hall makes up for it with apparently endless inner dialogue. Early on, it takes 50 pages for Quiller to avoid surveillance and get from Point A to Point B; couple chapters later Quiller jumps out of a plane on page 101 and doesn't hit the ground until 106, (although later on, it only takes Quiller three pages to do the exact same jump in the exact same spot!).

Hall at least sounds like he knows his tradecraft, and Quiller is a more realistic spook than Bond. Quiller's first-person narration is appropriately underplayed, and I like his overall run-on style. This is how he describes an attemped assassination attempt by blowing up his car:

So at 1915 I checked out of the Hotel Africa and went across to where the Chrysler was parked and they said later at the hospital that the glass had been the worst trouble because some very small fragments had got stuck in my face and they'd been difficult to find.

And this is the first paragraph of the whole book, which just nicely prepares you for the tone to follow:

I came in over the Pole and we were stacked up for nearly twenty minutes in a holding circuit round London before they could find us a runway and then we had to wait for a bottleneck on the ground to get itself sorted out and all we could do was stare through the windows at the downpour and that didn't help.

Hall was another recommended author from Mike Ripley's excellent reference Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang: The Boom in British Thrillers from Casino Royale to The Eagle Has Landed, and I may look for some other Quiller's if I can find them for under a buck somewhere (found this one for 65-cents at our huge used bookstore in Manassas), but no rush - still have another dozen or more to go through from my first spree.

[James Varney · Rating 5 out of 5]

The second best in the series after "Quiller." Quiller is most exciting the more narrow his chances. In "The Kobra Manifesto," for example, it doesn't really work when Quiller is in the U.S. Here, though he is not eluding state-run police and spies he is in such a far-out and exotic locale that it requires all his exceptional skills to survive. The scenes when he arrives in north Africa, the time he is in the desert - at both the farflung base The Bureau has arranged and the even more remote spot - all of that is felt acutely and the danger ever-present. As always, Quiller can turn something you'd think more exciting in a movie than on the page (essentially a game of high speed chicken) into a deep, psychological operation. The precise thinking that goes into Quiller merely throwing a match into a car's gas tank - stuff like that is what makes Quiller the best spy novels and "The Tango Briefing" has a lot of it.

[Alan Bolton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another firm favourite of mine.

I love the way the author writes. You know just a little bit more than the main character at every step! And its all fast paced action that feels very credible, (even though the story maybe stretches the boundaries a bit) - its almost exhausting trying to keep up!

I like reading these old 50's/60's/70's era coldwar spy books. People then hadn't yet forgotten the ravages of WW2, and while the world was at relative (maybe uneasy) peace, people weren't as soft and many were still used to hardship and sacrifice, which makes the story more interesting IMO.

I love this whole Quiller series, although I think the early books were much better than the later ones - the later ones become a bit too formula driven IMO (and Quiller becomes impossibly good at everything), even though they are still well worth the read!

[stormhawk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quiller is a creature of the streets, a denizen of the urban jungle, and seems wildly out of place in the middle of a desert. But he is no less resourceful under the strange circumstances. of this mission than he would be on a Berlin street. Quiller is, and is likely to remain, my favorite spy.

[Ed · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not the first for this character, but a good place to start with this series. Riveting.

[Max Silvestri · Rating 3 out of 5]

At times it's as overly technical as any in this series, but it has a few fantastic set pieces and a great ending.

[Jeffrey Westhoff · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the most exciting book I have ever read.

[Larry Loftis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Elleston Trevor's (Adam Hall) fifth Quiller installment. Like the last three, great prose, plotting, spycraft, etc, but with a very weak ending.