Blood Ties

The Destroyer #69

by Warren Murphy, Richard Sapir

Lyle Lavellete's revolutionary new car runs on cubes of compressed garbage, but every demonstration that he arranges with the Big Three automakers turns into an assassin's trap. CURE's number one agent, Remo Williams is blamed, and CURE sends Sinanju master Chiun out to stop Remo's double - only Remo is there to do the same thing.

Genres: Fiction, Adventure, Action

252 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published July 7, 1987

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]

An assassin named Remo Williams is trying to knock off the CEOs of major automobile manufacturers in Detroit and it’s not everyone’s favorite Master of Sinanju with the same name. Harold Smith, Head of CURE, and Chiun, Remo’s trainer, are both concerned that this man might actually be Remo’s missing father (Remo is an orphan) and so they try very hard to keep Remo away from the case while Chiun struggles to protect the CEOs by himself.

Naturally, the harder they try to keep Remo out of the Detroit trouble, the more interested in it he becomes with the totally predictable result that he meets the man who appears to be his father. Remo then tries to bond with the man who is an assassin like him, and the man tries to get Remo to help him with his hits. This brings them into conflict with Chiun and (again, totally predictably) Remo is forced to choose between the two men.

The ending does show Murphy’s chops as a mystery writer, however, when Smith finally pieces together who the assassin was and how he came to be using Remo’s name. In terms of the long term storyline, the incident also reawakens Remo’s strong interest in learning about his biological family—much to Chiun’s distress.

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating 3.5

Definitely one of the most enjoyable in this part of the series.
Easy to read and if I hadn’t been reading it during work breaks would easily have finished this in a day.
Starts a new background plot line of looking for Reno’s parents/family. Some nice scenes with Smith and Chiun adding further depth to their characters.
The couple of interactions with the current president were interesting I thought as it again clearly shows that Smith would shut CURE down and commit suicide if ordered to, despite the president being not really up to the job imo.

Overall a definite recommendation

[HOWARD R BELOTE · Rating 5 out of 5]

The absolute BEST so far.

I was not drawn to this book, lt was just the next in the series. However, the more I read, the more engrossed I became. The idea of Remo finding his birth parents, and realizing he would probably have to kill his father became so intriguing I could not stop reading, while not wanting the story to end. BRAVO!!!

[Christian · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the stronger entries in this series, i was almost tempted to give 4 stars. Remo is suddenly confronted with possible links to his past causing problems between him and Chiun.
The theme of family is extremely strong in this novel, albeit the plot about assassination of the heads of three automobile industry was rather predictable.

[PulpMonkey (Chompa) · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun read. This was the start of Will Murray ghost-writing the series and I enjoyed it a fair amount.

[Jeff J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

#69 in the Destroyer series. Remo encounters an assassin who shares his name. 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. Lyle Lavellette is an automotive genius, although no one in Detroit wants much to do with him. He has created a car engine that will revolutionize the entire car business as it runs on garbage. Now the number of businesses and countries who want him dead is huge. Recommended

[Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Remo versus himself.