Lost Yesterday

The Destroyer #65

by Warren Murphy (Series Creator), Richard Sapir (Series Creator), Will Murray

Remo and his mentor Chuin match wits with the wealthy and evil Rubin Dolomo, director of POWERESSENCE, a cult that aims to use the ultimate brainwashing weapon to take control of the U.S. government.

Genres: Thriller, Adventure

255 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published July 1, 1986

About the author

Warren Murphy was an American author, most famous as the co-creator of The Destroyer series, the basis for the film Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins. He worked as a reporter and editor and after service during the Korean War, he drifted into politics.

Murphy also wrote the screenplay for Lethal Weapon 2. He is the author of the Trace and Digger series. With Molly Cochran, he completed two books of a planned trilogy revolving around the character The Grandmaster, The Grandmaster (1984) and High Priest (1989). Murphy also shares writing credits with Cochran on The Forever King and several novels under the name Dev Stryker. The first Grandmaster book earned Murphy and Cochran a 1985 Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original, and Murphy's Pigs Get Fat took the same honor the following year.

His solo novels include Jericho Day, The Red Moon, The Ceiling of Hell, The Sure Thing and Honor Among Thieves. Over his career, Murphy sold over 60 million books.

He started his own publishing house, Ballybunion, to have a vehicle to start The Destroyer spin-off books. Ballybunion has reprinted The Assassin's Handbook, as well as the original works Assassin's Handbook 2, The Movie That Never Was (a screenplay he and Richard Sapir wrote for a Destroyer movie that was never optioned), The Way of the Assassin (the wisdom of Chiun), and New Blood, a collection of short stories written by fans of the series.

He served on the board of the Mystery Writers of America, and was a member of the Private Eye Writers of America, the International Association of Crime Writers, the American Crime Writers League and the Screenwriters Guild.

Reviews

[Gilbert Stack · Rating 3 out of 5]

Murphy has invented a new type of problem for Remo and Chiun—a mysterious poison that causes amnesia. It’s being used by a cult to protect its paying members from witnesses against them in court. And it’s obvious from moment one that Remo is going to encounter that poison and have his Sinanju training pitted against a chemical danger. The result was very interesting.

The wrap up to the novel is also peculiar as Chiun and Remo disagree about the proper way to confront the danger. To make matters worse, the president and Smith begin to interfere with Remo’s plans to end the danger as well for reasons they don’t share with Remo. This causes a lot of tension at the end of the story.

Frankly, I liked this plot a lot, but the story needed to be much shorter. It felt padded as if it was being stretched to make an artificial word count.

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating 3.5

For me one of the better books at this point in the series.
It is more serious and less throw away than some others, it still has the satirical/cynical eye on American society that makes the series so entertaining.
In this case the rise of self help/religious style gurus that take ever more money of their devotees whilst explaining, apparently, how to be happy with your life generally people who have given up on religion but follow any pseudo religion they can find.
As with a lot of the series novels, the press be it tv or newspaper don’t escape either.
The 3 main characters Chiun, Remo and Smith all have interesting plot lines this time out and unusually more character details are shown which fleshes then out nicely .
Overall a definite recommendation for me, even if it is a slightly different tone to normal

[David Macpherson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really loved an early will Murray book I read this year so I wanted to try one of the destroyer books he ghosted. I really didn't like this book, sadly. It was about a Scientology organization that had a substance that will wipe memories. This was a book of 70 percent filler and 30 percent plot. It was too much. I found myself getting frustrated by it.

[Edward Maroncha · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book had me on the edge of my seat till I finished. Remo and Chiun made such a wonderful pair, and while the story is gripping, they made me smile many a times.

[Jeff J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

#65 in the Destroyer series. Remo & Chiun battle a cult with an amnesia drug. Much chaos ensues.

[Little Timmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the big men's adventure series from the 70's than ran an impressive 145 books. The series while an adventure/action story is also full of satire toward much of the mainstream fads and icons of the time. An interesting main character and the sarcastic mentor makes this a funny action/adventure read. POWERESSENCE is the newest craze sweeping across the country. Created by the former science fiction writer, Rubin Dolomo, this rapidly reaches a cult status. As the movement grows, however, so does the fear that the President would soon become a follower, under the control of the cult leader. Recommended