Lovely as usual, though not among my favorite books. Three stories: Guido the Jinx, The Killing Distance, The Aristo. They all tend toward the grim, except for Guido, which tends toward the grim with an idiot - O'Donnell may have been trying for funny, but Guido just annoys me. The stunt is interesting, and I like the way they manage to survive against all odds. The chance that put them in the right place to find out about the real problem...is utterly unlikely, _even_ for Modesty and Willie. And the careful effort - in all three stories, actually - to put them at a strong disadvantage - no tools, no allies (until after the fact), improvised weapons, and of course completely outnumbered - gets kind of boring with three in a row. OK, yeah, if they have all their normal equipment no one is a match for them, but try a different way now and then. The Killing Distance could have been fun, but the villain is too nasty. And the dependence, on both sides, on their psychological profiles is a bit amusing (meta, not within the story). He's extremely stupid, though, to leave such a huge hole in his defenses - random women come in literally every week or so, and it never occurs to him (or his aides) that this might be unwise? Sheesh. And The Aristo is pretty much the same kind of stupid - women are no danger, of course. I like Miguel and Jo, but again the story has to load Modesty and Willie up with handicaps because otherwise The Aristo would be no fight - he's not much of a risk even so. So - three stories; each one is not bad (not wonderful, but not bad). Unfortunately the three are a bit too similar for me to enjoy the book as a whole. Which means I'll probably only reread it every couple years. Oh - and quite a few of these strips are poor reproductions - I'm surprised that there weren't more high-quality strips retained, this late in Modesty's run. ( )

A trio of Modesty Blaise comic strip stories: "Guido the Jinx", "The Killing Ground" and "The Aristo". The first one features the inimitable and cheerfully unsavory Italian journalist Guido Biganzoli, who cajoles Modesty and Willie into being stuntmen for a caveman film. Of course, Guido's jinx comes into play and things go awry. A nice minor story with some light comic undertones. "The Killing Ground" shows the lengths that Modesty will go to to protect her friends, when a vengeful reclusive billionaire devotes his fortune to having Gerald Tarrant killed. "The Aristo" highlights Modesty and Willie's resourcefulness when an aristocratic sea pirate takes her and a very pregnant lady from the ship they were on, with the intent of holding them for ransom. I'm still not a fan of Romero's artwork, and the inks seem occasionally muddied here. That may be due to having unsatisfactory artwork for reproduction. At least O'Donnel's writing is fully up to snuff, although I have read other stories of his that have more emotional resonance. ( )