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O'Donnell, Peter

Personal Information

Born January 1, 1920
Died May 3, 2010 (90 years old)
Lewisham, United Kingdom
Also known as: Peter O'Donnell, Madeleine Brent
29 books
4.3 (33)
592 readers

Description

Peter O'Donnell was born on 11 April 1920 in Lewisham, London, UK. He was interested in writing as a child, and began writing professionally at the age of 16. During World War II he served in the Royal Signals Corps, and was stationed in Persia, Syria, Egypt, the Western Desert, Italy, and Greece. After the war, he worked as a comic strip writer, and scripted the Daily Express adaptation of the James Bond novel Dr. No. He was most famous for inventing the character Modesty Blaise, an undercover agent who first appeared in comic strips in 1963. In 1965, he published his first novel, Modesty Blaise, which was based on the screenplay he had written for the motion picture of the same name. He also wrote short stories, plays, television and film scripts, and nine romance novels published under the pseudonym Madeleine Brent. In 1978, his novel Merlin's Keep won the Romantic Novel of the Year Award by the Romantic Novelists' Association. In 2001, he retired from writing. He passed away on 03 May 2010.

Books

Newest First

Dragon's Claw

0.0 (0)
16

This crime adventure begins when heroine Modesty Blaise finds Luke Fletcher, one of Britain's greatest artists, lost on a raft in the middle of the ocean. This discovery leads Modesty to an island called Dragon's Claw, where the evil Sam Solon has kidnapped the world's leading art experts, keeping them prisoner to admire his collection of stolen art treasures. Along with Willie Garvin, her loyal lieutenant, Modesty begins to unravel a complex set of murder mysteries until she is suddenly held captive herself. Modesty relies on her ingenuity and resourcefulness to escape from Solon and his two hired killers, Revered Uriah Crsip and Beauregard Browne, as well as solve the crimes and lure the evil men into an inescapable trap. With Modesty's adventurous character and a thrilling plot, this novel is an exciting addition to this acclaimed series of crime fiction.

The Silver Mistress

0.0 (0)
10

This seventh novel in the Modesty Blaise series will not fail to please any of Modesty's innumerable fans. Modesty and her partner, Willie Garvin, are hot on the trail of a captured British Intelligence agent, but when they confront the agent's bizarre captors-a criminal tycoon, a genteel lady assassin, two inscrutable Chinese killers, and the invincibe Mr. Sexton, the world's premier combatant-even Modesty begins to doubt that she can succeed in this operation. Her task is further complicated when Willie's girlfriend and a young pilot also are taken hostage. Their situation seems hopeless until the Silver Mistress appears, bringing this thrilling saga to an astonishing climax.

The Impossible Virgin

0.0 (0)
12

Modesty Blaise's friend Novak died trying to preserve his discovery of the Impossible Virgin, a secret that meant enormous wealth. But right at the last moment, he babbled. When Modesty makes a forced landing in Central Africa, she meets the man who possesses Novikov's secret without knowing it—Giles Pennyfeather, the guileless and blundering young doctor with a gift for healing. In saving Giles from Brunel, a dangerous killer, she buys yet another ticket to danger, for Brunel is determined to have the secret. Modesty and her lieutenant, Willie Garvin, take on Brunel and his partners in a fierce and devious battle, where Modesty is brought to the most shattering reverse she has ever suffered. How she fights back, and at last learns the truth of the Impossible Virgin and her ferocious guardians, brings this fifth tale in the saga of Modesty Blaise to an astonishing climax.

Cobra Trap

0.0 (0)
10

Each short story in this final installment of the Modesty Blaise series details a different, thrilling tale of international intrigue starring Modesty and her loyal deputy, Willie Garvin. From Modesty’s early days running The Network to her later work with Sir Gerald Tarrant in British Intelligence, each escapade is more rousing than the next, including the title story that brings Modesty face to face with the toughest assignment of her career—the daring rescue of her friends from the clutches of rebels in the jungles of Central America.

The Night of Morningstar

0.0 (0)
10

There have been few other female action heroines like Modesty Blaise—a tough orphan who became the leader of the Network, a crime syndicate specializing in art theft and industrial espionage. This 10th book of her adventures begins with a flashback to the last days of the Network, when Modesty was about to retire, and describes the organization’s final, astonishing operation before it disbanded. This operation is echoed several years later when Modesty, with her peerless lieutenant Willie Garvin, finds herself drawn into conflict with the mysterious group known as the Watchmen, who have plans to kill Modesty in London and then destroy San Francisco’s Golden Gate bridge. Modesty and Willie find themselves prisoners on a drillship off the Ilhas Desertas and must use their resourcefulness to escape.

Merlin's Keep

5.0 (2)
30

From far-off Tibet to England's rich countryside, this marvelously enchanting novel unfolds the incredible saga of a beautiful, young half-caste whose strange destiny pulls her into a world of love and terror--a worlds a mysterious power moves slowly toward her, threatening her sanity...and her life.

Dead Man's Handle

5.0 (1)
8

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.

The Xanadu Talisman

4.0 (1)
24

In this classic return we see Modesty both at her most feminine and at her toughest. Trapped in an earthquake disaster with a dying man, she makes a promise that is to lead her and her faithful friend Willie Garvin into the most perilous crisis of their careers. Their quest takes them from Tangier to Paris, from the Riviera to Corsica, and finally to a stronghold in the heart of the Atlas Mountains, their every move observed and manipulated by El Mico, the most notorious and dangerous criminal genius in the Mediterranean. Unknown to Modesty, she holds a secret that El Mico covets above all else, and she is brought to a final confrontation with death in the stronghold of Xanadu. As in all the Modesty Blaise stories, this book is peopled with a host of eccentric characters: the engaging Dr. Giles Pennyfeather, Modesty's devoted friend, and her opponents Little Krell, a prodigy in combat, the Silk brothers, juvenile adults who deal in death, and the astonishing Nanny Prendergast.

Last Day in Limbo

0.0 (0)
9

Modesty's latest adventure takes place in the jungles of South America, where she and her loyal henchman, Willie Garvin, take on the evil Mistress of Limbo. The Mistress has enslaved the people of Limbo, including Modesty's friend Danny. After a failed kidnapping, Modesty learns of her friend's enslavement and sets out to rescue him and set Limbo free. In an adventure that spans London, Switzerland, and New York City, Modesty ends up in Guatemala, where the Mistress of Limbo has commanded that Modesty be sacrificed to the gods. With Willie at her side, Modesty must fight a Mayan priestess to free herself and the slaves on what will be the last day in Limbo. Tia Benita, the crazy aunt of a man named Paxero, initiates a daring plan to kidnap Modesty Blaise, but the plan is upset by an unexpected argument between Willie Garvin and Paxero.

A Taste for Death

4.0 (4)
16

The rugged team of Modesty Blaise and her loyal lieutenant, Willie Garvin, take on impossible odds as they battle Simon Delicta, a man with a taste for death, and Swordmaster Wenczel in a duel to the death. As the adventure unfolds, and they travel from London to Panama to the depths of the Sahara desert, the pair will need all their killing skills to survive.

Sabre-Tooth

0.0 (0)
10

In another classic adventure in the Modesty Blaise pulp fiction series, Modesty and her partner, Willie Garvin, are up against the nefarious Karz, a modern Genghis Khan, and his army of ruthless mercenaries. After orchestrating an audacious theft to attract Karz's attention, Modesty and Willie find themselves on the run through London, Paris, and Lisbon, and finally to Karz's remote fortress in the Hindu Kush. Once captured by his army, only Modesty can break Karz's hold, fighting his terrifying executioners, the Twins. A battle ensues that brings the adventure to its thrilling climax.

The black pearl

3.5 (4)
38

In claiming as his own the magnificent black pearl he finds, a sixteen-year-old youth enrages the sea devil who legend says is its owner.

Modesty Blaise

5.0 (2)
106

In her first adventure for British Intelligence Modesty Blaise with her loyal lieutenant, Willie Garvin, must foil a multi-million pound diamond heist. They travel from London to the South of France, across the Mediterranean to Cairo before battling, against impossible odds, a private army of professional killers.

Tregaron's Daughter

5.0 (3)
30

These are some of the strange clues to the mystery that tormented a young English girl. In pursuit of them, her life changed dramatically and brought her from her father's fishing cottage to a agrand English manor. But the final clues to the mystery were in a distant palace in Venice and before her adventure was complete this fisherman's daughter would know to the full the terror lurking behind the ancient walls of that romantic city.

Bad Suki

5.0 (1)
3

Titian Comic classic comic strip storylines: Bad Suki (inc: the Galley Slaves parts 1 & 2, later expanded into full MD adventure novel Deadman’s Handle).

A heritage of shadows

0.0 (0)
24

Hannah McLeod is eighteen, lovely, and alone in Paris. She earns her modest wages working as a waitress in a small cafe, and hides from everyone the horrifying truth about her past. Only Toby Kent, the painter who occupies the garret next to Hannah's, knows her shameful secret. Suddenly, to avoid an encounter with the French police, Hannah is forced to flee to England, the homeland she hoped never again to see. And her worst fears are realized when she finds herself the pawn in a bitter struggle between two cruel and wealthy men. Her chances for survival depend on two things. The kindness of a handsome stranger. And her own considerable courage...