Dead Man's Handle — Peter O'Donnell

This latest installment in the Modesty Blaise pulp-fiction series opens with Willie Garvin, Modesty's loyal lieutenant, rescuing a Hong Kong businessman from a Red Chinese jail. The thrills continue when Willie is kidnapped by Sibyl Pray and held prisoner at the Hostel of Righteousness, the headquarters for delusional terrorist Dr. Thaddeus Pilgrim, on the Greek island of Kalivari. The plot thickens as Willie is brainwashed into believing that Modesty has been killed and that he must kill her murderer--a woman who looks exactly like Modesty. When Modesty finds herself kidnapped and brought to Kalivari, she is forced to fight in deadly gladiatorial combat against Willie. Peppered with ingenious twists of fortune, varied and exotic locations, and a cast of fiendishly evil villains, this is a classic Modesty Blaise adventure.