X Marks the Spy

X Marks the Spy by Jack Lancer (1967) This is the first of the Christoper Cool TEEN Agent books, a six book series from the late Sixties—I saw several of them at an antique store—I'd never seen them, or heard of this series, so kind of against my better judgment, I bought the first one. As expected, it's kind of a teen version of James Bond, though without the sex, drinking, smoking, and gambling that teens are famous for. The action story is not my thing, but I wanted to get through it—though it was a bit of a struggle. Chris is kind of a frat-boy, and his co-agent is named Geronimo Johnson, who is an Apache. At least they are somewhat of equal stature—he's not just there for comic relief. There's also a young woman agent, Spice Carter, who I suspect Chris is attracted to, but they're just too busy for much fooling around. Probably the most ridiculous escapade in the book is, at one point, in order to attend a crucial event, Chris puts on an impromptu disguise as a Swahili by donning an ornate curtain and applying some spy makeup to his face and hair. Mostly, though, I found the book only mildly offensive, but also, oddly, too contemporary for me. It's funny, a lot of my favorite movies and music is from the early Seventies or so, but with kids' series books, I have to go back a few more decades before I find them interesting, for the most part. I'm not sure why that is.