The Assassination Bureau, Ltd
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The Assassination Bureau, Ltd (ISBN 0-14-018677-8) is a thriller novel, begun by Jack London and finished after his death by Robert L. Fish. It was published in 1963. The plot follows Ivan Dragomiloff, who, in a twist of fate, finds himself pitted against the secret assassination agency he founded.
It is possible that this work was inspired by a J.M. Barrie short story, "And Better Dead," about a fictional English society that killed famous people who they deemed unworthy.
[edit] First sentence
"He was a handsome man, with large liquid-black eyes, an olive complexion that was laid upon a skin clear, clean, and of surpassing smoothness of texture, and with a mop of curly black hair that invited fondling-in short, the kind of a man that women like to look upon, and also, the kind of a man who is quite thoroughly aware of this insinuative quality of his looks."
[edit] Film adaptation
It was turned into a movie in 1969, starring Diana Rigg, Oliver Reed, Telly Savalas and Curt Jurgens. Directed by Basil Dearden, the movie was nominated for a Golden Globe Award in 1970 for Best English-Language Foreign Film, and Diana Rigg was nominated for a Golden Laurel Award in 1970 for Female New Face. Whereas London's novel is set in the United States, the film is set in Europe in the 1900s.
