13 replies to this topic

[Trident]

Does anybody here know the books by Jan Guillou about the Swedish spy Coq Rouge? Between 1986 and 1995 Guillou wrote ten books featuring Carl Gustav Gilbert Graf Hamilton. The books have been a great success in Sweden and Germany but sadly only some of them have been translated into English. A shame, considering that two or three of his adventures are among the best thrillers I have ever read. I can recommend especially the first three books in the series and the ones that tell of his confrontation with the Mafia.
Granted, some others have not reached this high standart by far.

This Carl Hamilton has a really extravagant backround, beeing an aristocrat and a communist in his student days. He was then ordered by the Clarte', the Swedish Maoists organisation of the seventies, to join the Swedish military and prevent them from surrendering the country in case of a Russian invasion (strange, isn't it?). During his divers training he is recruited by the military branch of the IB, the Swedish secret service and is sent to the States to become a "field operator", something the IB cannot afford to do themselves anymore due to lack of experience and funds. The first book begins when Hamilton is back from the States and has to work for the police because the function he his intended to have in the IB is not vacant at that time. While he considers resigning from the police service, his chief orders him to investigate the murder of a high-ranking police officer that had happened that very day. During this investigation he is confronted with the PLO and the Mossad and can stop a cell of terrorists. The story has some interesting twists and turns and gives the reader no time to recover from the events. I won't tell any more here.

In later books Hamilton has to deal with the RAF-terrorists in Germany, a USSR-defector revealing Soviet underwater bases right at the Swedish coast, a Swedish defector he has to liquidate in the center of Moskow, a racist neo-nazi cell killing off foreigners in Sweden, the sicillian Mafia that wants to sell cruise missiles to Lybia and various others.

As I already stated before, not all the Coq-Rouge-books are recommendable. In later years Guillou seemed to have run out of ideas. And maybe he suffered from being a "mere" thriller writer while he wanted to write serious stuff. He wasn't too fond of the Bond books and probably didn't like to write something that was constantly compared to Flemings work, whereas Guillou might have prefered to be compared to leCarre and the likes. Perhaps that explaines why his later books suffered from a certain lack of action and were sometimes downright boring.

[spynovelfan]

Yes, I've seen the film with Stellan where he infiltrates the terrorist cell. I don't speak Swedish, but understood enough of it (a lot of it's in English, as well, which helped!). I have a translation of the novel Fiendens Fiende in English, but haven't gotten round to reading it yet - one day!

Vaguely interesting piece of trivia: the American thriller writer Donald Hamilton (note the surname), who created Matt Helm, is from an aristocratic Swedish family (and now lives in Sweden).

[Bond_Bishop]

I have read three books, they are really good but could be boring depending on what condition you read them. I read them in school so that is why I found them boring. The ones I've read:

In the interest of the nation (Swed. title: I nationens intresse)
My enemy's enemy (Fiendens Fiende)
The honorable killer (Den hederv

[Trident]

Vaguely interesting piece of trivia: the American thriller writer Donald Hamilton (note the surname), who created Matt Helm, is from an aristocratic Swedish family (and now lives in Sweden).

Hey, very interesting. Didn't know that. In one of Guillous books he explaines the Hamiltons as a sidearm of the Scottish Hamiltons that have made for Sweden during the 30 years war. Some other families of scottish origin have made for europe during that period such as Douglas (there is even a german chain of parfumery-stores of that name).

Some of Hamiltons adventures have made it to the screen in an attempt to create a kind of franchise. Unfortunatly the movies didn't do too well in the box office and are hardly remembered nowadays. The first two books have been filmed with Stellan Skarsgard and were quite faithfully adapted. Personally I found Skarsgard just a little bit too old at that time but he influenced my own idea of what Hammilton looked like very much. And it seemed to have kickstarted his career in Hollywood.

Somewhere I have read that "Vendetta" has been filmed with Peter Stormare as a TV-series (sorry, can't remember the title), but I never had the chance to see it myself. Maybe it was only shown in Sweden. But it seemed to have been a success as Stormare was hired to star in an adaption of "No Mans Land" and "The Only Victory". Both books underwent considerable changes to make the script of the film "Commander Hammilton". I've seen it but wasn't too enthusiastic as the figure of Coq Rouge was hardly recognizeable for me. Maybe I should have seen the Vendetta-series first to better appreciate the film. But to me the whole thing seemed out of character with the books. Suddenly the Swedish IB had an Operations-HQ that would have seemed worthy of the CIA, though all the books stated that the IB was working on a much smaller scale. Such and other discrepancies made the film not too entertaining for me.


Two other films come to my mind: First, there has been an adaption of "Enemys Enemy". Again it was made for TV as a mini-series. I've seen only the first part as it was tucked away in the late-night programm of Bavarias thrid channel TV. I can't remember the name of the actor that starred as Hammilton. I only remember that I wasn't too impressed. But then I've seen only the first part and can't really judge the whole thing. I don't even know, wheather it was faithfully or diverted from the book's plot.

Secondly, there was a rather strange episode. And really it was only an episode, as it concerned only part of one book, namely the public hearing of Hammilton that Guillou described in "Enemys Enemy" (and maybe intended to become his swansong). It was filmed, again very faithfully, with Stellan Skarsgard and I've seen it some years ago here in Germany (Swedish thrillers, both books and films, "rock" in Germany and stations are glad to give the audiences what they want). Of course, it was only a small film, practically no action, only two or three sets and the whole thing not longer than, say, fifty to sixty minutes. But there are a whole lot of Hamiltons adventures mentioned and the thing really workes to spark ones interest to learn more about the guy. I'd have liked to see what the mini-series made of this episode (if it was mentioned at all). Again, I don't remember the actual title of the film.

[Bond_Bishop]

Peter Stormare starred as Hamilton first in the silver screen movie "Hamilton" that was based upon No Man's Land and The Only Victory. Then the movie team decided to do an extended version of the movie as a tv-series. Vendetta have only been filmed with Stefan Sauk as Hamilton. Trust me, I am from Sweden I know . Peter Haber starred in Enemy's Enemy. Wait a minute I give you a full list of the movies with Hamilton or adaptations:

F

[Jim]

Red Cock?

Fnarr

(Interrupts, to lower level of debate considerably)

[spynovelfan]

Yes, saw a bit of the Stormare series a couple of years ago on Swedish TV. Seemed to have lots of explosions. The Skarsg

[Trident]

[quote name='Bond_Bishop' date='16 August 2005 - 14:04']In the interest of the nation (Swed. title: I nationens intresse)
My enemy's enemy (Fiendens Fiende)
The honorable killer (Den hederv

[Bond_Bishop]

In the interest of the nation I think is the best of the ones I've read. The airplane hijacking, the attack at the soviet base. It is very well written. I have to re-read it soon. My enemy's Enemy was good too but the action sequences were over in just a couple of sentences. It was a while since I last read "The honorable killer" and I found it intriguing. I might have to re-read that too

[Trident]

[quote name='Bond_Bishop' date='16 August 2005 - 15:02']Peter Stormare starred as Hamilton first in the silver screen movie "Hamilton" that was based upon No Man's Land and The Only Victory. Then the movie team decided to do an extended version of the movie as a tv-series. Vendetta have only been filmed with Stefan Sauk as Hamilton. Trust me, I am from Sweden I know . Peter Haber starred in Enemy's Enemy. Wait a minute I give you a full list of the movies with Hamilton or adaptations:

F

Edited by Trident, 16 August 2005 - 03:55 PM.

[Bond_Bishop]

No problem

[Trident]

Red Cock?

Fnarr

(Interrupts, to lower level of debate considerably)

LOOOL! Yes, sounds ridiculous, doesn't it? I never learned, whether Guillou intended this as an in-joke. In the first novel, the code name is given as a kind of joke and Hamilton doesn't even learn about it till later books.

Anyway, in German there is an ancient phrase, probably from the times of the 30 years war, that reads: den roten Hahn aufs Dach setzen, to put the red cock on somebodys roof. Though sounding almost harmless, it meant to set fire to somebodys house. But I can't say if Guillou intended such a connection.

Bishop, do you know about a little piece I heard rumors about, called "Hamlon" and telling Hamiltons story in the states after the events in "Above Suspicion"? I heard Guillou was fed up with neo-nazis claiming Hamilton as their hero and thus killed off the series with the tenth book. Did he write a kind of epitaph? Any hope for furter novels when Guillou wants to write something interesting again?

[Bond_Bishop]

yes I have heard of it. I haven't read it but it will be about Hamilton taking the identity of Charles Hamlon as FBI starts to wonders who he really are. By the way, could you PM me or something so we could talk more about the Hamilton books

[Mr Twilight]

Was a big fan of this books a few years ago and seen all movies except Hamilton. About the books, there was ten before the short (only about 80 pages) and different "Hamlon". "Hamlon" was not published in a large scale (originally in only 1000 copys but later published in a paperback edition) and contains a short story with a sort of explaination of why there will be no more books with Hamilton/Hamlon. Or maybe why there can't be more books. I shall not say why and spoil the fun for you who haven't read them yet.

The odd thing is that in 2006, a eleventh or twelfth book (depend on how you see it) eventually was published - Madame Terror. I haven't read it yet but I have it in the bookshelf.

Don't know if it is mentioned but Vendetta wasn't only a five hour long tv-serie. It was also released as a 135 minute long movie.