''A Taste for Death'' is the title of an action-adventure novel by Peter O'Donnell which was first published in 1969, featuring the character Modesty Blaise which O'Donnell had created for a

comic strip A comic strip is a sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st ...

several years earlier. It was the fourth novel to feature the character. The book was first published in the United Kingdom by

Souvenir Press Ernest Hecht (21 September 1929 – 13 February 2018)Katherine Cowdrey"'Wise and witty' Ernest Hecht dies, aged 88" ''The Bookseller'', 13 February 2018. was a British publisher, producer, and philanthropist. In 1951, he founded Souvenir Press L ...

Plot summary

Canadian Dinah Pilgrim (blind since 11) and her sister Judy are vacationing in Panama. They're attacked on a lonely beach by a pair of gunmen, and Judy is killed and Dinah is taken prisoner. Willie Garvin is nearby and he intervenes, killing the two gunmen, and incidentally determining that they work for Gabriel, the villain from the first Modesty Blaise book. Willie and Dinah go into hiding, knowing that Gabriel can mobilise the entire Panamanian underworld to search for Dinah. Modesty comes to their aid, and a deadly cat-and-mouse game ensues, with both Modesty and Willie barely surviving traps that should not possibly be survivable. Back in England, Modesty encounters Simon Delicata, a huge man with an ape-like build, and strength to match. A friend of Sir Gerald Tarrant is dead, and Simon Delicata is the killer. And Willie knows Simon Delicata from long ago, having been beaten senseless and near-fatally injured by him in a barroom fight. Then Dinah is brutally kidnapped, and it becomes obvious that Gabriel and Simon Delicata are working together. Modesty and Willie travel to Algeria and The

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to rescue Dinah. But they're up against the most formidable opponents they've ever crossed swords with. Literally in fact; Modesty has to defeat the fencing master Wenczel in a duel to the death, and he's wearing a protective steel mesh jacket. The final fight, set in an abandoned Foreign Legion fort, occurs with Modesty incapacitated from a serious sword wound and Willie having to go one-on-one unarmed against the man-ape Delicata.

Aftermath

The final Modesty Blaise comic strip story, ''The Zombie'', published in 2001, ends with Modesty and Willie planning to return to the site of Willie's fight with Delicata, recover the buried treasure they left there, and donate it to the Salvation Army. One frame of the strip #10180 depicts the fight between Willie and Delicata in flashback. As a whole, the novels and comic strips tended to follow different continuities, with the occasional exception, such as this.

Adaptations

The novel was adapted by

Stef Penney Stef Penney (born 1969 in Edinburgh) is a Scottish filmmaker and novelist. She grew up in the Scottish capital and turned to film-making after a degree in Philosophy and Theology from Bristol University. She made three short films before studyin ...

into a five-part serial directed by

Kate McAll Kate McAll is Executive Producer, Radio Drama at BBC Wales. There she is a radio director and producer for BBC Radio 3 and Radio 4. Her credits include '' How I Live Now'' (Radio 3) and ''The Worst Journey in the World ''The Worst Journey ...

on BBC Radio 4's ''15-Minute Drama'' from 17 December 2012 to 21 December 2012. The cast starred

Daphne Alexander Daphne Alexander is a Cypriot/British actress best known for playing Nadia Talianos in the BBC Drama series ''Casualty'' and Modesty Blaise in three BBC radio adaptations. Early life Alexander was born and brought up in Cyprus, living lat ...

as Modesty,

Carl Prekopp Carl James Prekopp (born 25 May 1979) is a British actor. He played Richard III at the Riverside Studios (2010) and originated the part of Lawrence in Tim Firth's stage adaptation of ''Calendar Girls''. Prekopp has appeared in BBC Radio 4 adap ...

as Willie, Alun Armstrong as Tarrant,

Sam Dale Sam, SAM or variants may refer to: Places * Sam, Benin * Sam, Boulkiemdé, Burkina Faso * Sam, Bourzanga, Burkina Faso * Sam, Kongoussi, Burkina Faso * Sam, Iran * Sam, Teton County, Idaho, United States, a populated place People and fictional ...

as Delicata, Geoffrey Streatfeild as Steve Collier,

Samantha Dakin Samantha (or the alternatively Samanta) is primarily used as a feminine given name. It was recorded in England in 1633 in Newton Regis, Warwickshire. It was also recorded in the 18th century in New England New England is a region compris ...

as Dinah,

Alex Fearns Alex is a given name. It can refer to a shortened version of Alexander, Alexandra, Alexis. People Multiple * Alex Brown (disambiguation), multiple people * Alex Gordon (disambiguation), multiple people * Alex Harris (disambiguation), multiple ...

as McWhirter,

Jeff Mash Jeff is a masculine name, often a short form (hypocorism) of the English given name Jefferson or Jeffrey, which comes from a medieval variant of Geoffrey. Music * DJ Jazzy Jeff, American DJ/turntablist record producer Jeffrey Allen Townes * ...

as Skeet Lowery and Nigel Anthony as Sir Howard Presteign. 1969 British novels Modesty Blaise books Souvenir Press books Novels by Peter O'Donnell {{1960s-spy-novel-stub