Cobra Trap
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 2006 reprint, featuring Jim Holdaway's original cover art. |
|
| Author | Peter O'Donnell |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Jim Holdaway |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Series | Modesty Blaise |
| Genre(s) | Spy fiction, Short Stories |
| Publisher | Souvenir Press |
| Released | 1996 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback and paperback) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-285-63332-5 |
| Preceded by | Dead Man's Handle |
| Followed by | Final book of series |
Cobra Trap is the title of a short story collection by Peter O'Donnell featuring his secret agent heroine Modesty Blaise. The book was published in 1996, and is the thirteenth collection of Modesty Blaise literature, ending a series of books that began in 1965. Cobra Trap was released 11 years after the previous book in the series, Dead Man's Handle. O'Donnell retired from writing a few years after this book's publication and is reportedly opposed to anyone else writing about his creation. Time will tell as to whether further books by other authors may eventually be written, but for now this is considered the final Modesty Blaise book.
The short stories featured in the collection were:
- "Bellman"
- "The Dark Angels"
- "Old Alex"
- "The Girl With the Black Balloon"
- "Cobra Trap"
"Cobra Trap", the title piece of the collection, is (among fans) the most controversial Modesty Blaise story ever published, in that it profiles the final mission of Modesty and her partner, Willie Garvin. The story takes place 10-15 years after the time frame of the comic strip/novels with Modesty and Willie going on one final mission together. Modesty, who has been recently diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor and given only a short time to live, chooses to give her life in order to save a train full of innocents, including many children, from a group of terrorists. Soon after revealing her illness to Willie, Modesty is killed in an attack and Willie is shot dead soon after. The story ends with the two friends reuniting in some form of afterlife. Many fans of the characters refuse to read this final story. When O'Donnell brought his comic strip to a close five years later, he chose to do so with a more upbeat story promising future adventures.
In 2002, a comic book adaptation of "The Dark Angels" was published in Scandinavia as a postscript to the British Modesty Blaise daily strip. To date its only English-language publication has been in the American magazine Comics Revue. Elements of several other stories (in particular "Old Alex" and "Bellman") also appeared in the comic strip prior to being featured in Cobra Trap.
Cobra Trap was at one point considered one of the rarest of the Modesty Blaise book series as it is the only one that was not initially made available in paperback and the hardcover editions went out of print and are considered collectables. However, Souvenir Press released a new paperback edition of the collection in 2006, putting the book into wide circulation again.
| The Modesty Blaise series by Peter O'Donnell |
|---|
| Characters Modesty Blaise | Willie Garvin |
| Comic strip Modesty Blaise (1963-2002) |
| Books Modesty Blaise (1965) | Sabre-Tooth (1966) | I, Lucifer (1967) | A Taste for Death (1969) | The Impossible Virgin (1971) | Pieces of Modesty (1972 - short stories) | The Silver Mistress (1973) | Last Day in Limbo (1976) | Dragon's Claw (1978) | The Xanadu Talisman (1981) | The Night of Morningstar (1982) | Dead Man's Handle (1985) | Cobra Trap (1996 - short stories) |
| Films Modesty Blaise (1966) | Modesty Blaise (1982) | My Name is Modesty (2003) |
