Gérard de Villiers (1929-2013) is the most popular writer of spy thrillers in French history. His 200 SAS MALKO books about the adventures of Austrian nobleman and freelance CIA operative Maiko Linge have sold over 250 million copies and have been published in over 80 countries.
The SAS MALKO books revolve around their eponymous protagonist, embarking on clandestine adventures worldwide in his quest for vengeance against those responsible for his family's demise.
In each novel, Malko works on assignment for the CIA on missions that pull him into a dangerous world of sex, violence, and geopolitical intrigue. It hearkens back to John Lfe Carré’s intricate spy novels, but with a journalistic relevance and pulp flair. It straddles three different worlds, living somewhere inside a triangle of genres: Spy Thriller, Political Drama, and Pulp Action.
Incidentally, Malko Linge, who first appeared in 1965, has often been compared to Ian Fleming's hero James Bond. The two secret agents share a taste for gunplay and eroticism, but de Villiers was a journalist at heart, and his books are based on constant travel and reporting in dozens of countries.
S.A.S. Malco has the tone of Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, the plot of le Carré’s Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, and the connection to reality of shows like Homeland. It is a world based in reality, yet it always has the freedom to be a bit tongue-in-cheek. Charismatic characters thrust into worlds of crime and corruption. The violence is exaggerated, the villains are cartoonesque but based on reality, the heroes are bigger than life, and above all its entertaining.
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