The Tale of the Lazy Dog

Charles Pol #1

by Alan Williams

Dust jacket art by Paul Bacon. His fifth book about a small band of conspirators who contrive to steal one billion dollars from a Southeast Asian air field.

315 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1970

About the author

Alan Emlyn Williams was a journalist and foreign correspondent, reporting from notable hotspots worldwide including Hungary in 1956, Algeria, Vietnam and Northern Ireland. In 1962 he started writing thrillers which brought him the accolade "the natural heir to Ian Fleming" but it was his well-researched spy stories such as The Beria Papers and Gentleman Traitor (which featured real life traitor Kim Philby) which brought him international success.

Reviews

[Paul Cornelius · Rating 5 out of 5]

Two novels in and Alan Williams looks to be quite a good adventure writer. I skipped ahead in the Charles Pol series, because I saw that The Tale of the Lazy Dog was set in Southeast Asia, and I was eager to see how Williams treated the region. In fact, more than half the action takes place in Laos, with a bit in Bangkok, and the rest in South Vietnam and Cambodia. And, clearly, Williams spent time, here. I see from his biography, he covered the Vietnam War as well as wars in Algeria, the Middle East, Africa, and Rhodesia. The Rhodesian/South African connection is important, because one of Williams's most vivid characters in Lazy Dog is Sammy Ryderbeit, the South African Jewish mercenary who appeared in Snake Water. That novel is not part of the Charles Pol series, but it has many similarities with Lazy Dog besides the presence of Ryderbeit. Both plots focus on a "treasure hunt" of sorts, diamonds in Snake Water and a US$1.5 billion cash heist from Saigon in Lazy Dog. Both also feature a cold-hearted, somewhat treacherous love interest who can only be counted on to see to her own self interest.

As I say, Williams obviously had been to the region. The fliers in Lazy Dog work for Air USA. I don't know why he didn't just come out and call it what it was, Air America, the CIA operated airline, which conducted much of the Secret War in Laos during the 1960s and 1970s. Williams describes Air America's operations fairly accurately (I happen to know a great deal about this particular subject). He's even aware of the White Rose in Vientiane, although his description of the building is a bit off. Good stuff about how the "kickers" worked and the aircraft. Even if he doesn't mention the Pilatus Porter or Helio Courier, he gives accurate summaries of the characteristics of the Caribou and DC6. Only somebody who went on missions carrying "soft rice" and "hard rice" could have given the descriptions Williams does in a 1970 novel.

Really enjoyable and good reading, this. There aren't many novels set in Laos during the postwar era. Only Norman Lewis's A Single Pilgrim comes immediately to mind. And that was set when Laos was still officially French Indochina. Oh, and the novel ends with a surprise. A big one. Can't wait to get to the third in the series, Gentleman Traitor. But first I need to go back and read the first one, Barbouze.

[Paul Ataua · Rating 5 out of 5]

Irish journalist Murray Wilde gets involved with the mysterious and dangerous Frenchman Charles Pol in a major heist involving billions of American dollars. Things seem to be going to plan until the people around Wilde start dying. This was my first Alan Williams and I was surprised by how good it was. It has its share of interesting characters, none more interesting than the mysterious Charles Poll, and it has pace, a pace builds as the story progresses towards its high octane conclusion. It’s good to read a book that took place in the part of the world I live in and gives a fairly good description of how things were around that time. More Alan Williams for me in the future.

[Ruth · Rating 3 out of 5]

"""With friends like these...... Murray cut him short:˜All right, I'll take your word for it. But for a moment you had me worried. I thought it was you who'd killed Finalyson. Pol sat back with his champagne and chuckled playfully. ˜Oh but it was, my dear Murray. Or rather, I had him killed. It was the only way." Murray closed his eyes. It was not easy to lose one's temper with a man while you drank his champagne. Especially when he also had a gun."