EXTRACTS: The Modesty Blaise Companion Expanded Edition © 2018 The Book Palace (425 PAGES in Full edition)

E X P A N D E D E D I T I O N T H E M O D E S T Y B L A I S E C O M P A N I COBRA TRAP First published 1996 by Souvenir Press Ltd., London and simultaneously in Canada. BELLMAN In the days of The Network Modesty hounded the drug baron Bellman from his monopoly at the western end of the Mediterranean. When he moved to Port Said she smashed him there. Now operating in Peru she hounds him again, framing him and getting him sentenced to five years in the mines. The years pass and Bellman is free and seeking revenge. The experience has turned him into an old man, but as Modesty points out he killed thousands and he can’t expect her to bleed for him. He has rented a small island off the coast of Scotland and hired three mercenary killers to hunt Modesty and Willie to the death. They play out a series of cat and mouse games and Bellman dies happy in the belief that Modesty and Willie are dead. THE DARK ANGELS Sir Gerald Tarrant has been given the task of dealing with an organisaton dedicated to resisting the takeover of British businesses by foreigners. It simply has such people killed. The favourite weapon is a trio called The Dark Angels, each one highly trained in combat and a superb gymnast. All three have been rejected by the armed forces as psychopaths. Deciding that he cannot ask Modesty and Willie for help directly he inveigles them into dealing with them with a devious ploy that involves an older man appearing to come to Modesty’s aid when she is attacked. It works. Modesty and Willie take on The Dark Angels and Tarrant wins again. OLD ALEX Salamander Four has put out a contract on Modesty and it is very nearly successful. She is saved by Alex Mirot who turns out to be anything but the elderly Pyrenean farmer he appears. When his true identity is revealed it provides Modesty with an ethical dilemma and leads to a fatal conflict within the boardroom of Salamander Four. THE GIRL WITH THE BLACK BALLOON When the gang led by Mountjoy torture, mutilate and then kill Johnny Nash, one of Sir Gerald Tarrant’s agents, he does not want Modesty and Willie told. When his assistant Jack Fraser disobeys him and shows them the photographs they immediately become involved. Mountjoy’s gang have kidnapped the Nobel Peace Prize winner Tor Hallenberg and are demanding a ransom. With the aid of their aborigine friend Jacko and a young lady whose father has given her a hot air balloon as an alternative to sex, they set about locating the gang, freeing the Nobel Laureate and making sure no more of Tarrant’s agents can be tortured, mutilated or murdered by this particular gang. 415