John Oram (1906–1992)

The Copenhagen Affair starts off with twenty-six pages of story about a guy who meets a young woman on the plane to Copenhagen and what happens afterwards. There is no hint of Napoleon, Illya or UNCLE. And this part was so well-written that I really didn't care. The man is finally introduced to UNCLE and then disappears completely from the story.

I wonder if John Oram had the start to a novel (unrelated to the television series) and used it to kick the story off. It worked well.

After this mini-adventure, the microfilm the woman had is safely in the hands of Mr. Waverly. From here we are into a story about flying saucers, hidden World War II era factories, former resistance fighters -- this story, like the first of the Man from UNCLE books has again delved into the post-war world to create a tale linked to the war that was only twenty years in the past when this book was written.

The characters were well written and the story interesting enough to keep my attention. The three main characters (Napoleon, Illya and Mr. Waverly) were far closer to their television versions than in the first two books of the series, which made this one far more fun to read. Since the television series had its share of World War II based stories (notably the first season Deadly Games Affair with the lovely Thrush agent, Angelique), this one fits in pretty well with the 'feel' of the shows.… (altro)