Review by C.J. Bunce
The Avengers will Return–or actually the original Avengers have returned.
New fiction novelist David Crichton has penned the first tie-in novel for the classic 1960s TV series The Avengers in decades, and he’s hit the ground running with one of the year’s best tie-in novels. The Avengers: Death in Downing Street, available now here at Amazon, is a return to the Steed and Peel full-color era of the series, which spanned practically the entire 1960s and was popular with both UK and U.S. viewers. Sharing a lot of tropes with Ian Fleming’s James Bond, which predated the TV series, The Avengers actually had hundreds of hours more to pursue espionage and spy-fi plots. If you’re a fan of Bond and Moneypenny’s double entendres and friendly banter at the beginning of each Bond novel or movie adaptation, you’ll appreciate the chemistry between The Avengers stars agent John Steed (played on TV by Patrick Macnee) and “amateur” agent Mrs. Emma Peel (played by Diana Rigg, the former “Bond girl” later honored as Dame who passed away in 2020).
Although the novel mirrors the mod, jazz-infused tone of the show, it also pulls in spies and espionage familiar to fans of novels like The Day of the Jackal and The Manchurian Candidate, delivering a twisty tale that doesn’t lean too hard into serious drama. That’s because the series by the time of Mrs. Peel’s addition became more “trippy,” more lighthearted, and the one-upping of each other’s sexual innuendos by Steed and Peel was really the hallmark of the show. In the novel Crichton dismisses the amateur role for Peel, and instead she’s the modern British woman of the 1960s, an equal player to Steed. What better for the role that made Rigg famous, the same Rigg who would play a Bond in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service?
Crichton’s Steed is the Edwardian gentleman who could also double for Sherlock Holmes’ smarter brother Mycroft or maybe even Roger Moore’s Bond. At one point Crichton includes a very funny scene for Steed and a host of sisters in worldwide costume and dialect mirroring a classic bit from the original Bond comedy Casino Royale. But it’s the flirting and wordplay that goes nowhere between Steed and Peel that wins the day. If you missed it, Peel’s moniker follows the clever Bond naming convention–it’s a play on “M. Appeal.”
As for the spy action, espionage, and derring-do, the novel follows the then-current Prime Minister of England, who is rescued by his driver during an assassination attempt. But he emerges as someone different. He believes he is his eight-year-old self. Why did it happen? Who was behind the assassination attempt? It’s time to bring in the shadow agent named John Steed. Steed’s reputation precedes him–all are in awe of his access throughout all government and social circles, and his presence and past are unquestioned. And Steed doesn’t work alone, tapping Mrs. Emma Peel when the country asks. Fans will be familiar with the note “Mrs. Peel, we’re needed.” The two-part opening sub-title is also a throwback to the show.
The author packs in some British and world history, too. American readers and younger readers may not be familiar with the machinations behind the espionage plot, which tracks internal opposition to the UK’s onboarding into the European Economic Market, which eventually happened in 1973. It’s the right amount to create the real-world feel for the spy work, but not to excess like the yawner bits of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy or Three Days of the Condor.
Since Mrs. Peel left the TV series in October 1967, factor this story to be shuffled in during May toward the end of her run. Only about 15 novels were written between the 1960s and the turn of this century expanding upon the series, making this new novel a welcome treat for long-time fans of the show.
That wait was worth it. As for tropes, genre, and intrigue, count the spy story in The Avengers: Death in Downing Street, up there in the top half of Fleming’s spy novels. Don’t miss it. The Avengers: Death in Downing Street is available now here at Amazon.
