Sam Bradford joined the Army rather than wait to be drafted. It was 1944 and the draft was inevitable for able-bodied young men, but after enlisting, Sam got recruited by the newly formed intelligence agency, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). His first mission was to kidnap a Nazi collaborator code named the Viper from a sleepy seaside town in French Morocco. Arriving, curiously by blimp, Sam assumes his undercover persona and begins stalking his prey. On his first pass at identifying the Viper he encounters Mireille, a lovely and charming French Moroccan who engages him in a probing conversation. When Sam succeeds in snatching his quarry and spirits him off to London, he has good luck interrogating him and learns of a whole nest of informers in Port Lyautey. So back to Morocco he goes to nab the rest and perhaps the Gestapo colonel who runs them, all the while keeping Mireille in the back of his mind.
If your taste runs to deep, rich descriptive writing that paints a mental picture of the setting and the detailed actions of the characters, then Mission to Morocco is for you. The plot is intriguing and realistic. JR Rogers depth of knowledge of the subject and the locale is clearly profound. The characters are well developed except, in this reader’s opinion, the main character, Sam. This juvenile James Bond lacks a personality. The bulk of his conversation is, “Yes, sir. No, sir. I won’t, sir.” A bit more dash and savoir-faire would have been helpful. The ending is true to life, but for a work of fiction, it is perhaps a little loose ended and unsatisfying. But I won’t reveal it, you will have to discover it for yourself.
110,650 words
Price $4.99
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