Marco Polo, If You Can
A Blackford Oakes Mystery

Blackford Oakes goes on a mole hunt, that ends up with him being in a Soviet prison. Very literary.......more

I think I may try other Bradford Oakes mysteries by Buckley. This fourth of the series gave a taste of Cold War espionage circa 1960. I wish I was more informed because Bill Buckley is very witty. For example, Bradford Oakes is reading one of Buckley's nonfiction books and his mind keeps wandering (......more

Will Blackford Oakes receive the sentence of death, for espionage when flying a U2 plane over Soviet territory? This is the question to be solved in the beginning of the book. What leads up to this is explained to the reader as you go from one chapter to the next. Rufus decides in agreement to take......more

Interesting. I've had this book on my shelves for decades before finally cracking it open. I'd never heard of Blackford Oakes, and wasn't expecting this to be an espionage thriller. Given the title, I half-expected a nonfiction telling of Buckley's own travels. I was pleasantly surprised. It's a stur......more

At the time I read these novels (the late 1980's and early 1990's), I found them to be pretty good... sort of a cross between Matt Helm and James Bond. Not quite up to Ian Fleming's standards, but not quite as dated by then either.......more