Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

  • Apple
  • Android
  • Windows Phone
  • Android

To get the free app, enter your email address or mobile phone number.
Download to your computer
Kindle Cloud Reader
Facebook Twitter Pinterest
Qty:1
  • List Price: $14.95
  • Save: $0.50 (3%)
FREE Shipping on orders with at least $25 of books.
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.
Modesty Blaise (Modesty B... has been added to your Cart
Want it tomorrow, April 6? Order within and choose One-Day Shipping at checkout. Details
Ship to:
Select a shipping address:
To see addresses, please
or
Please enter a valid US zip code.
or
FREE Shipping on orders over $25.
Used: Very Good | Details
Sold by monarchbooksusa
Fulfilled by Amazon
Condition: Used: Very Good
Comment: Very Good condition.

Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) is a service we offer sellers that lets them store their products in Amazon's fulfillment centers, and we directly pack, ship, and provide customer service for these products. Something we hope you'll especially enjoy: FBA items qualify for FREE Shipping and .

If you're a seller, Fulfillment by Amazon can help you increase your sales. We invite you to learn more about Fulfillment by Amazon .

Sorry, there was a problem.

There was an error retrieving your Wish Lists. Please try again.

Sorry, there was a problem.

List unavailable.
Have one to sell? Sell on Amazon
Flip to back Flip to front
Listen Playing... Paused   You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more
See all 2 images

Modesty Blaise (Modesty Blaise series) Paperback – October 28, 2005

by Peter O'Donnell (Author)
4.7 out of 5 stars 26 customer reviews
See all 4 formats and editions Hide other formats and editions
Price
New from Used from
Paperback
"Please retry"
$14.45
$7.10 $4.56
$14.45 FREE Shipping on orders with at least $25 of books. In Stock. Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.

Frequently Bought Together

  • Modesty Blaise (Modesty Blaise series)
  • +
  • A Taste for Death (Modesty Blaise series)
  • +
  • Pieces of Modesty (Modesty Blaise series)
Total price: $44.35
Buy the selected items together

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
This shopping feature will continue to load items. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading.
Back
  1. A Taste for Death (Modesty Blaise series)
    Peter O'Donnell
    4.3 out of 5 stars 172
    Paperback
    $14.95 Prime
  2. Pieces of Modesty (Modesty Blaise series)
    Peter O'Donnell
    5.0 out of 5 stars 5
    Paperback
    $14.95 Prime
  3. Dragon's Claw (Modesty Blaise series)
    Peter O'Donnell
    4.3 out of 5 stars 14
    Paperback
    $14.74 Prime
  4. Cobra Trap (Modesty Blaise series)
    Peter O'Donnell
    4.2 out of 5 stars 20
    Paperback
    $14.27 Prime
  5. The Night of Morningstar
    Peter O'Donnell
    4.1 out of 5 stars 9
    Paperback
    $14.95 Prime
  6. Last Day in Limbo (Modesty Blaise series)
    Peter O'Donnell
    4.1 out of 5 stars 10
    Paperback
    $14.95 Prime
Next
NO_CONTENT_IN_FEATURE
Image
Looking for the Audiobook Edition?
Tell us that you'd like this title to be produced as an audiobook, and we'll alert our colleagues at Audible.com. If you are the author or rights holder, let Audible help you produce the audiobook: Learn more at ACX.com.

Product Details

  • Series: Modesty Blaise series
  • Paperback: 288 pages
  • Publisher: Souvenir Press; Reprint edition (October 28, 2005)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0285637282
  • ISBN-13: 978-0285637283
  • Product Dimensions: 5 x 0.4 x 7.8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #347,755 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 starsModesty's First Novelized Adventure
By Carl Mayes on April 18, 2000
Format: Paperback
Lots of 'firsts' in this novel. The first appearance of Sir Gerald Tarrant, the father-like head of British Intelligence, and Gabriel, a ruthless and ancient adversary of Modesty Blaise. We are also privy to Modesty's past as a young girl, whom O'Donnell portrays as a brilliant neophyte, creating the criminal organization known as The Network. Additionally, we are provided the origin of her unique and deeply intimate friendship (always platonic) with Willie Garvin, an astute and proficient 'comrade-in-arms.'

Although the book is cumbersome at times with technical descriptions involving an elaborate heist, the action and excitement outweigh it. Look for a spectacular hand-to-hand battle between Modesty and Mrs. Fothergill, one of Gabriel's eccentric bodyguards. Mrs. Fothergill is portrayed as chillingly cold-blooded and combat-competent, yet Modesty's fighting expertise is more than a match for Mrs. Fothergill's martial arts and gymnastic acumen.

Modesty Blaise is far from an ordinary 'spy' (hardly a 007 rip-off). In fact, she's an exceptional woman way ahead of her time!
Comment 18 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
5.0 out of 5 starsExtremely entertaining!
By Movie-Maven on February 11, 2012
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
I learned of Modesty Blaise when reading "The Psychology of The Girl With The Dragon Tatoo" by Robin S. Rosenberg who mentions Stieg Larson was a big fan of the Modesty books. Modesty is a tough, brilliant and beautiful woman along the lines of The Avenger's Mrs. Peale, but more deadly. She is expert in martial arts and a variety of weapons. If these books were wrtten in this decade instead of the 60's, she would probably also be computer geek extraordinaire . Don't be put off by the tacky cover illustrations, the books are about brilliant, daring and often outlandish escapades (including - spoiler alert - shooting a defector over the Berlin Wall via a circus canon) rather than sexual encounters, which are plentiful but not explicit, very much a la Ian Fleming's James Bond and with humor like Lawrence Block's Tanner series. The books are entertaining, clever, humorous, thrilling and very well wriiten. I'm sorry there are only 13 books and the author sadly is no more.

If you want to read them in order:

Modesty Blaise
Sabre Tooth
I, Lucifer
A Taste For Death
Impossible Virgin
Pieces of Modesty
The Silver Mistress
Last Day In Limbo
Dragon's Claw
The Xanadu Talisman
The Night of Morningstar
Dead Man's Handle
Cobra Trap
Comment 10 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
5.0 out of 5 stars"Well ... it's different, innit?"
By Rennie Petersen on May 16, 2005
Format: Paperback
The above quotation is uttered by Willie Garvin at the end of chapter 18 of "Modesty Blaise". Two chapters later the book is over, and readers can agree with Willie and conclude that this book is different. Enjoyably and intriguingly different.

"Modesty Blaise" was Peter O'Donnell's first book, published in 1965 when he was 45 years old. Prior to that he had had a long career as the author of scripts for comic strips and writing short stories. In fact, the Modesty Blaise character was first launched as a comic strip in a London newspaper in 1963, so Peter O'Donnell had the background and major story elements well worked out when he wrote this book.

This book became the first book in a series of 11 novels and two collections of short stories about Modesty Blaise and Willie Garvin, Modesty's loyal and trusted companion.

In this review I'll concentrate on certain aspects of the book "Modesty Blaise" itself, in the hopes that the reader already has a general knowledge of the whole Modesty Blaise series of books. If this is not the case then you may want to look at my "So You'd Like To" guide about books by Peter O'Donnell. It includes a link to my MSN group about Modesty Blaise where you can find more information about this whole series of books and why I love them.

In "Modesty Blaise" the basic story is that Modesty, a former criminal, is recruited to the side of the good guys. She and Willie then go up against a ruthless team of bad guys and find themselves captured and scheduled to be killed. In order to survive despite the incredible odds against them they have to fight for their lives, using their fighting skills and their ingenuity.

In this book Modesty Blaise and Willie Garvin are introduced to us in a very effective way.Read more ›
3 Comments 25 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
4.0 out of 5 starsRead the Book, Forget the Movie...
By M. Buzalka on June 17, 2015
Format: Paperback
I’m not sure why film makers of the mid-1960s thought they had to turn serious genre literature into juvenile camp, but one of the worst offenses was undoubtedly done to Peter O’Donnell’s Modesty Blaise series (another was the mockery made of Donald Hamilton’s excellent—and serious—Matt Helm books in a series of films starring Dean Martin as Helm). O’Donnell had originally created the Modesty character for a comic strip and when it proved popular, he was approached to write a screenplay.

That became the basis for the book Modesty Blaise, the first in what would become a series of eleven novels and two short story collections. O’Donnell’s screenplay, extensively rewritten for the worse, also eventually produced a movie starring Italian actress Monica Vitti as the title character, which came out about a year after the book. That movie is atrocious not only on its own but especially as an adaptation of O’Donnell’s work (how atrocious? imagine the worst of Roger Moore’s 1970s James Bond films that you can think of and start subtracting from there…). Perhaps most offensively, a killing that takes place about halfway through the book and serves as a moral barometer for the characters—Modesty’s reaction is both touching and a validation of her fundamental decency and humanity—is in the movie treated basically as a joke (unsurprisingly, an unfunny one).

Fortunately, the movie bombed while the book sold well. Score one for the public’s good taste.

Maybe someone one day will do justice to Modesty Blaise on the big screen (paging Quentin Tarantino…). If you read the book, you will see what a good movie it could be made into, with plenty of action as well as intriguing inter character relationships and plenty of suspense.

I am very much looking forward to reading the rest of O’Donnell’s Modesty Blaise books in due course.
1 Comment 3 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse

Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsPut Modesty on Kindle!!!

I love the Modesty Blaise series. How can we get them to make them available on Kindle??

Published 26 days ago by K. Leslie
5.0 out of 5 starsFabulous kick off to the series.

I ordered this after reading everything O'Donnell read under the pen name Madeline Brent. I have to say that I absolutely LOVE Modesty Blaise. Read more

Published 14 months ago by Lucky Clucker
5.0 out of 5 starsThe outstanding and rare Modesty Blaise graphic novel.

Excellent and greatly unsung entry into the entertaining world of Modesty Blaise. Modesty was born in newspapers, the child of writer Peter O'Donnell and artist Jim Holdaway. Read more

Published 14 months ago by Grendel Khan
4.0 out of 5 starsModesty is definitely a badass

A fun read. Some of the descriptions were a little awkward and difficult to understand, but the story was pretty good. Read more

Published 15 months ago by andy
5.0 out of 5 starsGood book.

Me too! I read this because in an internet post Steve Barnes, the SF writer, recommended it if one wished to see good examples of well written, entertaining fight scenes. Read more

Published 16 months ago by Peter Huston
5.0 out of 5 starsModesty and Willie take on a gang of diamond thieves with deadly...

One can see how this first volume spawned 10 more books in this series. It is a tightly scripted adventure with good characterization and adventure that draws you in and keeps you... Read more

Published 18 months ago by F. Orion Pozo
3.0 out of 5 starsThree Stars

A lot of potential; no follow through. A shame.

Published 20 months ago by Allen Athearn
5.0 out of 5 starsBetter Than Bond!

Ten million dollars in diamonds are being given to an Arab sheik, but Gabriel, a master criminal plans on taking the diamonds somewhere in shipment. Read more

Published on March 20, 2014 by Virginia E. Johnson
3.0 out of 5 starsVitti light

Modesty Blaise (Joseph Losey, 1966, 119‘)

Modesty Blaise was a comedic spy-fi motion picture produced in the United Kingdom and released worldwide. Read more

Published on November 16, 2013 by Dr René Codoni
5.0 out of 5 starsBegin here, at the beginning

The first Blaise is where it all starts, so you have to begin here. It's a fine Modesty, perhaps not the best, but unmissable. Read more

Published on October 21, 2013 by Jack Rawlins

Set up an Amazon Giveaway

Modesty Blaise (Modesty Blaise series)
Amazon Giveaway allows you to run promotional giveaways in order to create buzz, reward your audience, and attract new followers and customers. Learn more
This item: Modesty Blaise (Modesty Blaise series)
Set up a giveaway

There's a problem loading this menu right now.

Learn more about Amazon Prime.



Pages with Related Products. See and discover other items: mystery books, miss marple mysteries