Colonel Hugh North of United States Army Intelligence is sent to Burma on a secret mission. His assignment is to locate and destroy a vital U.S. rocket capsule which has accidentally fallen somewhere deep in the jungle east of Mandalay. The pretext for the search is that an American plane has crashed on a flight from Karachi to Bangkok.

The trip from Rangoon to Mandalay will be made by boat up the Irrawady River. The Burmese Army General in charge of the expedition allows several passengers to accompany North and the search party. On the boat with North are a Chinese Army Colonel, an American ex-patriot pilot, two beautiful Burmese women and an American female archaeologist... The three women are on a quest for a rare ruby which is known to be in the vicinity of the crash...The book is loaded with quaint stereotypes and there may be too many amazing coincidences for some readers. However, Mason does give us another exciting spy story and the denouement is clearly explained in the final chapter.

THE VESPER SERVICE MURDERS is only the second of the author's twenty-six books featuring Hugh North. Captain North is invited to participate in the investigation of a series of murders in the city of Deptford, Massachusetts. Dr. Walter Allan, a friend of North, is used as a narrator by Mason. North is already famous because of newspaper publicity about previous cases he has solved dating back to World War I army service in Europe. Knowledge of American Morse code is employed by North as a tool of detection in this case. The novel is written in the style of a police detective story and it shows the promise realized in the later entries in this series which deal entirely with espionage and international intrigue.

Captain Hugh North of the G-2 division of military intelligence is in Washington, D.C. working on counterintelligence matters.

A recent wave of spying has resulted in the loss of American tank designs and other valuable military secrets to several foreign powers. Much of the spying has been attributed to a mastermind called simply the Guardsman because his real name is unknown to his adversaries.

North and his ally, Major Bruce Kilgour of British Army Intelligence, must put a stop to the Guardsman before more military secrets are stolen.

This story was written after Adolph Hitler rose to power and Germany, Japan and even Russia had all become likely enemies in any future war.

Hugh North is sent to either buy or steal plans for an advanced torpedo which are being sold by its inventor in Cienfuegos. The seller of the plans calls himself Alvarado but his real name is Doelger. He is a disgruntled American who was discharged from the U.S. Navy for dereliction of duty in l9l8. When North arrives in Cienfuegos, he finds plenty of competitors already there seeking the prize. Some are agents of their governments while others are merely adventurers in the game for profit. In one role or another there are representatives from England, France, Japan, Germany, Russia, Portugal and Italy. This is the first novel in the series in which North operates in a foreign country under orders from G-2 on a matter of international intrigue.

Colonel Hugh North of military intelligence and his aide, Captain Kenny Trotter, are sent to Zanzibar to rescue a C.I.A. agent who is being used by the Russian KGB in East Africa. The agent is really Master Sergeant Willie Bonhart who defected from the army to East Berlin several years ago, posing as a disgruntled soldier. As a Black and a warrior, he is a useful symbol for the Russians as they strive to gain influence in Zanzibar and nearby territories that are seeking independence.

North and Trotter go to Africa disguised as employees of a spice company. At their first stop in Nairobi they soon learn that the East African Liberation Party is also very interested in Willie Bonhart. The leader of the Party is James Mnoyah who used to be a Mau Mau operative. Both Bonhart and Mnoyah have a potential enemy in Tommy Henderson, a White settler who lost his wife and children to Mau Mau terrorists. All of these forces have to be taken into account as North and Trotter proceed to Zanzibar and attempt to free Bonhart from the KGB officers who are holding him hostage before his appearance at a mass rally for African independence.

This is very much a Cold War spy story with lots of background information provided on East African politics. Much is made of the murder in 1961 of Patrice Lumumba and Russia's involvement at that time in the former Belgian Congo.

The use of coded messages is a key ingredient in the success of North's mission.

Captain Hugh North, D.C.I. is investigating a shooting in a bar in Zamboanga. A pearldiver named George Lee is dying from a wound inflicted by an unidentified American soldier. The murderer is probably from Fort Winfield on the nearby island of Sanga Sanga. Before dying Lee tells North about some lost pearls.

As an officer of the Department of Criminal Investigation, North proceeds to Fort Winfield to find the killer. Based on a description of the murderer given by witnesses, Private Paul Laval is identified by the post's commanding officer as the leading suspect. Laval claims self defense but is locked up in the fort jail.He later escapes and shortly thereafter Lt. Patrick Keene is found murdered. The killings seem to be tied to a valuable collection of pearls lost with the recent sinking of the junk Chu Shan.

This is not a spy story. It is a story about an investigation of a series of murders. In fact, North is sometimes referred to in the novel as a detective. The author gives the strong impression that he is very familiar with the Philippines and the Sulu Sea. This review refers to the original edition of THE SULU SEA MURDERS published in 1933.

Colonel Hugh North and Lieutenant Kenny Trotter are sent first to Zamboanga and then to Fort Winfield, an American guided missile base on the island of Sanga Sanga in the Sulu Sea. Their mission is to retrieve a microfilm containing the names of enemy agents still operating in the vicinity of the Philippines.

George Lee, a key aide to the deceased World War II enemy spy Arnulf Hansen, had recently been released from a Communist Chinese prison. Lee had known much about the current operatives of the Hansen spy ring who were still in the espionage business. However, Lee was murdered by an American soldier in a seedy bar in Zamboanga before North and Trotter were able to reach him.

When North and Trotter finally arrive at remote Fort Winfield, they find five senior officers and four wives whom North identifies as possible enemy agents or suspects in the murder of George Lee. In addition to the microfilm, there is also a collection of valuable pearls at stake. From this point on the story becomes one of old-fashioned detection with Colonel North playing the role of sleuth and Trotter as his admiring assistant.

The Pocket Book edition of THE SULU SEA MURDERS was completely rewritten by the author and published in 1958. An earlier version was published in 1933 for The Crime Club, Inc., by Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc. This review was based on the 1958 edition.

Colonel Hugh North of United States military intelligence is sent to the semi-independent State of Jonkhar which acts as a buffer zone between Nepal and Tibet. His mission is to defeat attempts by Russia and China to gain influence in the tiny territory and control over its strategic location.

North's chief allies are Ad Delahanty and Subnadar Thopa. Delahanty is a former United States Army Sergeant who was dishonorably discharged for desertion. He is currently the owner of a business which outfits hunting and mountaineering expeditions. Thopa is a Ghurka mountain guide whose skills are indispensable during North's long trek overland to Jonkhar.

The opposition includes Russian and Chinese agents who are also competing against each other.

Members of the Jonkhar Royal Family have their own personal agendas based mostly on the struggle for succession to the throne of the Sri Rajah.

The one loose canon in the whole mix is Baroness Atossa Frederika Matala. Although she is an Estonian and allied with the Russians, the Baroness is also a very liberated lady who is quite capable of making her own deals.

The novel is crowded with too many unconvincing characters with competing schemes. Colonel North's mission is unnecessarily vague. He operates best when facing a specific challenge such as the search for a secret enemy chemical formula in TWO TICKETS FOR TANGIER.

The book's greatest strength lies in its authentic description of mountain travel by pony and on foot.