The Kiwi Contract

Joe Gall Mystery #14

by Philip Atlee

Mike Donoghue was a rich oil baron working on a top secret assignment for the United States. His task was so secret that a decoy was needed. Gall is told to trade places with the man who also happened to be a swinging jet-setter with a penchant for drink and women. Too bad someone wants him dead.

143 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published February 1, 1972

About the author

Pseudonym of James Atlee Phillips

Born in Fort Worth, Texas, Atlee's first book was an expose about local country club members. An avid flyer, he was a member of the Flying Tigers before WWII. He joined the Marines after Pearl Harbor. He ran Amphibian Airways in Burma, probably for the CIA, and it is from this experience that his first Joe Gall book, Pagoda, came.

Reviews

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

The fourteenth novel in Atlee's Joe Gall espionage novel takes our hero to a land down under, specifically Australia and New Zealand. It is the early 1970's and the narrator remarks on how the Sydney Opera House is way beyond schedule and may never be finished. It is now such an iconic part of the Sydney skyline that it is hard to imagine that there ever was a time when it was not there. This adventure has Gall playing the role of an oil executive on a tour of New Zealand while the real person Donoghue is off doing his real work. The fact that Gall is playing a part comes as a surprise to him, particularly since the only one to penetrate his disguise is a rough and tumble Australian cop who is assigned to protect the fake Donoghue.

[Christopher Rush · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's not completely just for me to comment on a book something like 14 into a series without having read the rest of them, but I will be satisfied with partial justice for this brief review. One gets the impression early on this is basically a Bond knockoff with the attempt at more "realism" and "grit," tempered by the gossamer restraint of mid-'70s dime-novel conservativism (but with some euphemism-heavy sauciness). If "realism" and "grit" meant "complacency concerning racism, sexism, and a few other hot-topic -isms." Plus, it's fairly boring, so it has that going for it. Only one thing bordering on an action and/or plot point happens within the first one hundred pages of this ... thriller? I don't want to spoil it for you, but there's also a fair amount of red herrings to give the unsuspecting reader things are actually going on that matter. Perhaps if one is experienced with this series, one would know more about the style and whether this is typical of Joe Gaul's "adventures." Here, he has been hired to impersonate a hard-drinking oil drilling magnate because Australian and New Zealand people want to kill him. And possibly other people, too. With about twenty pages left, some rather impressive twists occur, so that was interesting, but I have to say this is likely not the ideal entree into the possibly-interesting world of Joe Gaul.

[Alyssa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unlikeable protagonist and throwback gender relations, but a fun tour through 1970s New Zealand if you know it more recently.