Why I read the book: It’s the second in the Modesty Blaise series. I enjoyed the first one.

What the book was about: Karz has gathered an army of mercenaries to invade Kuwait. British agent Sir Gerald Tarrant has gotten wind of it and asks Modesty and Willie Garvin to check it out. Modesty fakes a high-profile gambling loss so Karz would know she needed money. It works. Modesty and Willie are kidnapped and brought to the remote Afghan mountain hideout and put in charge of two teams of mercenaries. To insure their cooperation, Karz has kidnapped Lucille, a 12-year-old girl that the two have adopted.

Modesty and Willie work out a plan to get word to Tarrant. Modesty sends a message by radio, but to do so, she has to get caught. She’s put up against Karz’s assassins and manages to kill them, but then she’s made a captive and put in the seraglio. After two nights of being abused, Willie rescues her. They find out where Lucille is, grab her, blow up the ammunition dump and steal a plane, but not before Willie kills the men who abused Modesty. The explosion of the dump blows up a dam and floods the valley, destroying Karz’s army. Modesty is shot but recovers and the invasion is foiled.

What I liked about the book: It was OK, but it didn’t really move me. I often give up on series once the novelty has worn off. Perhaps it wore off after just two books of this series.

What I didn’t like about the book: Rather dull. The whole bit about Modesty in the seraglio was rather disgusting, as was her attitude of “I just pretend it didn’t happen.”

Recommendation: I gave it a 6.

Further Comments: I probable won’t read the next one, for a while anyway.