I assume you do. Let’s also assume you have loved ones who like them, and with the holiday season coming up, you’d like to give books as gifts this year.
No, I’m not going to push my own stuff.
But remember Q.R. Markham’s Assassin of Secrets (Jesus, even I wouldn’t have gone for that title) the almost entirely plagiarized debut novel that was recently yanked off the shelves? Did you know that copies are going for fifty bucks on eBay? I sorta wish I’d bought one now.
Anyway, you can’t read his book–and why would you want to?–but you can read all the books he ripped off. So here is a holiday shopping list of books and authors that were wronged, and who better to throw your money at:
- Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency by James Bamford
- The Tears of Autumn by Charles McCarry
- James Bond: The Union Trilogy: Three 007 Novels: High Time to Kill, Doubleshot, Never Dream of Dying (James Bond 007) by Raymond Benson (In this case, it’s High Time to Kill that was ripped off, but this is the only current edition)
- Dream Time by Geoffrey O’Brien
- The Last Supper by Charles McCarry
- Second Sight: A Paul Christopher Novel by Charles McCarry
- For Special Services by John Gardner (Although as I write this they have the wrong cover art uploaded to this page)
- James Bond: License Renewed: A Novel (James Bond 007) by John Gardner
All citations found here.
Know someone who likes spy novels? Or, even better, if you’re looking to read something a little out of your usual, these books are certified good enough to steal from.
What are these ‘books’ that you speak of? Are they some type of blogs or something?
The first two Charles McCarry books are brilliant. (The third is quite good.) I’d be tempted to pay $50 just to see how on earth you can cut and paste Charles McCarry and James Bond into a single text and have it plausibly pass for a unified whole.
Nice blog post, I have been “out of the loop” news wise on the Assassin of Secrets thing while being on medical leave/in hospital but while I was at home, I found my James Bond movies as well as the backlog of novels, including the above mentioned Benson and Gardner novels, nicely engrossing, recommended reads.
I haven’t read Body of Secrets but Bamford’s first book on the NSA, The Puzzle Palace, was fascinating.
Yes, specially formatted blogs. Some are even printed up and bound together for your convenience.
It’s good to hear recommendations.
And I don’t imagine they went well together at all, which is how some people write.