Honor Bound / Behind the Lines / The Murderers

This collection of three Griffin novels is drawn from three separate series.

Honor Bound is the first novel in the series of the same name. It chronicles the activities of Cletus Frade, a serving USMC officer (and ace fighter pilot) seconded to the OSS. It seems Frade's long-estranged father is about to execute a coup d' etat to make himself the president of Argentina, and the OSS wants young Frade to divert his father's sympathies from Nazi Germany to the Allies. Behind the Lines is a novel, in "The Corps" series, about Ken "Killer" McCoy, a Marine mustang officer serving in the Pacific Theater and, later, in Korea. McCoy's assignments vary widely but, for the most part, involve intelligence operations conducted for a merchant marine commodore working directly for the Secretary of the Navy. In The Murderers, a Badge of Honor novel, Detective Matt Payne of the Philadelphia Police Department again solves the crimes with courage and distinction. He is lucky at sex but unlucky in love. All three series are very readable, with likable characters with admirable traits. The main characters, Frade, McCoy and Payne, have many things in common. All are independently wealthy (McCoy through his girlfriend/wife) very clever and as lucky as all get-out. The supporting characters, some literary and some historical, are skillfully blended and displayed from unique perspectives.