The Hell Makers is magnificent - it really shows the bond between Modesty and Willie. All the first part - the trap, the switch, getting up there and the gunbattle - is just setup for the climax where Modesty solves Willie's problem permanently. Again, echoed in a book - though not the solution, as I recall she just talks him through it. On the other hand the method and the effect were different too - it was only the fact that Willie might have killed her due to mind-meddling that was the same. Anyway - great story. Then Take-Over - it's Brookie rather than Tarrant who gets them into this one. And he makes a reference back to Bad Suki, too. This was much more an even fight than most they get into - the enemy are as smart and as careful as they are, but not up to a straight confrontation. Modesty and Willie are tops there. Which makes the last story interesting - Warlords of Phoenix, where they're recruited as combat instructors with a lever to keep them behaving. Modesty figures a nice way to get a message out, and then it's back to straight confrontation - and I have to say, expecting their students to take them down was pretty poor. They've just spent weeks establishing that they know more than all the students… Pretty good, but it's Hell Makers that makes this a great book. ( )

This may be the best book collection out there of the Modesty Blaise strip. The first two stories, "The Galley Slaves" and "The Red Gryphon" are marvelous bits of action, plot and character, wonderfully illustrated by the inimitable (but now deceased) Jim Holdaway. The final story, "The Hell-Makers", may be my favorite story, depicting the depths of Modesty's and Willie's feelings for one another, and introducing one of my favorite one-shot characters, the crusty Gus Fletcher. ( )