1 reply to this topic

[MkB]

I've recently finished reading through all the Trevanian novels and short stories, and while reading CARTE BLANCHE, I've been wondering about 2 references, that I thought might be nods to the author Shibumi, the spy novel to end all spy novels.

• The first is the name "Incident Twenty", which is oddly reminiscent of one of Trevanian's novels, Incident at Twenty Miles.
• The other is the reference to "the other place", which is present (with the same phrase) in several Trevanian novels.

Do you think I am reading too much into this? Though, it's very likely that Deaver has read at least one Trevanian novel, given his importance in the genre.
Hopefully, a journalist will ask Deaver the question directly...

Thoughts?

[Harry Fawkes]

I wouldn't be surprised one bit if Mr. Deaver did read Trevanian. Any budding thriller writer worth his salt would go through works like Shibumi, The Eiger Sanction and, more so, The Loo Sanction in order to get an idea of what works on the market.

After all, Trevanian was once described as "the only writer of airport paperbacks to be compared to Zola, Ian Fleming, Poe and Chaucer."

As for hints of his work in Deaver's CB, MKB, yes, I must admit, looking back now I do believe there were faint hints of 'influence'.

Having said that though, and on another note, I would have really preferred had Deaver 'darkened' his Bond slightly more and modeled his agent OO7 on Trevanian's Nicolai Hell. It would have done for me more.

Harry