In Dr. Quake, Remo and Chiun are summoned to San Aquino County, California to track down who is responsible for blackmailing local officials with the ability to cause earthquakes, a mission that becomes complicated when local mobsters try to horn in on the action.

Five books into the Destroyer series now, and the format has now settled into a comfortable mold. Background info on Cure, Remo, and Chuin for the new reader are brief paragraphs instead of whole pages, and the relationship between Chiun and Remo is pretty much assumed to be common knowledge (to the reader, at least).

Nixon is assumed to still be president based on the time the book was written, but no contextual hints are dropped like in the previous novels. One could assume this was simply due to a lack of relevance to the story. However, the 1972 publication date of this Destroyer novel places its writing around the same time as the release of the Pentagon papers, and Vietnam is repeatedly brought up by multiple characters throughout the story, so the lack of any attention to the identity of the president in this one is, in my opinion, slightly suspect. Looking forward to seeing how Watergate is referenced in futire books.

The plot has very few twists and turns this go around. In fact, the plot is essentially a straight line considering that the main villain's name is the title of the book, and pretty much EVERYBODY calls him by this name from the word go. I'm sure this was obvious to Murphy as well, hence the inclusion of his favorite Mafia goons trying to take over the Earthquake Blackmail racket in their typically bumbling ways. This doesn't mean that Dr. Quake isn't entertaining, but it does mean you aren't going to waste much time trying to figure out what's going on.

HIS NAME WAS REMO: We're finally here! "HIS NAME WAS REMO and he had not read more than one of the geology books shipped to him at the hotel in St. Thomas." Format has been achieved.

THE BAD GUY: Dr. Quake is the first appearance in the Destroyer universe of a Bond-type villain, albeit on a smaller scale (if you consider trying to sink California "smaller"). Dr. Silas Forben runs the Richter Institute in San Aquino, and is known by everybody as Dr. Quake, yet no credible suspicion is placed on him, and Murphy still includes the big reveal at the end. I want to believe that this was all done intentionally by Murphy to subtly underline the absurdity of how Bond-like villains somehow avoid detection while perpetrating insanely grandiose schemes.

REMO & CURE: Remo's first appearance in the book involves him taking out a small-time heroin smuggling operation, during which it is explained that CURE has Remo do these "small assignments" in between "big assignments," so we can rest assured that Remo is acting as low-level vigilante in between squashing national and international threats.

REMO & CHIUN: Remo and Chiun have settled nicely into their routine. There's no explanation needed when Remo calls Chiun "Little Father," and Chiun is along for the ride to lovingly chastise and berate Remo whenever he gets the chance.

REMO’S LADIES: Female characters are restricted to the two femme fatales, Dr. Quake's busty twin daughters Jacki and Jill, who spend most of their time verbally assaulting the local corrupt sheriff and seducing men before forcing their internal organs out of their mouth with a high-powered "water laser." No positive female characters on display this time, I'm afraid. In fact, the only other female characters that get any dialogue are a secretary and a slutty gossiping waitress. The closest we get to a positive female character is the widow of one of Dr. Quake's victim, and we only get to meet her silently in the background during the funeral. And yes, Remo does have sex with Jacki and Jill, but in his defense they do so with the intention of killing him after exhausting him with sex.

BODY COUNT: Remo racks up 11 kills in Dr. Quake: 7 heroin smugglers in his opening chapter, three mobsters, and Dr. Quake's daughters. I almost didn't count Jacki and Jill in the count because their kills are indirect, but he DOES drop them in the fault line where they are crushed between two tectonic plates, so I feel like that's earned.

I've mentioned in previous reviews that I started reading Destroyer novels when I was seven or eight years old because my Uncle Mark was a horrible babysitter, but I need to bring it up again because the vivid description of Remo's tenth kill - in which he pins a monster to the top of his Cadillac with his own ice pick and runs him through a car wash - has been firmly wedged in my memory for the past forty years.

Chiun only gets 2 confirmed kills this time. It would have been 4, but he takes out a deputy sheriff off screen and says he "suddenly decided to take a nap" with no confirmation of the actual kill, and Dr. Quake's demise due to Chiun's destruction of his earthquake machine is an unintentional death. ( )

Remo you did it again!

To be continued ( )

Fifth in the Destroyer series, and it's a really good one. One of the best, I think.

It involves a plot to hold first a town in California, then the entire country, hostage by threatening to generate earthquakes. Yes, an earthquake machine has been created. Yes, Remo Williams is the only one who can stop it (well, Chiun could have too). It involves some true heroism on the part of a couple civilians -- which I really appreciated -- and some memorable villains, including some evil nympho twins and the hick sheriff they are using as a catspaw. The sheriff is an especially fun character because he's so far in over his head it's nuts. Also really enjoyed how the twins use the earthquake machine on a small scale to kill people. The book also highlights one aspect of Remo's character I enjoy: despite all his skills and training, he can be unbelievably clueless at times, and that just adds to him as a character. Oh yeah, and the mob gets involved too, but I think they were just there to provide Remo with some extra goons to kill. He does manage to finish one hitman off in a very inventive way (hint: it involves a car wash).

Highly recommended. Very good early Destroyer novel.

Review copyright 2008 J. Andrew Byers ( )