The time has been when detection was one thing and sex was another….

Today the rules have changed. Our heroes go to it with a mechanical alacrity which almost suggests that they are operated by an unusually large wheel. Where their predecessors were content to wait for the final paragraph before settling euphemistically into the heroine's embrace, they possess her in the most specific manner, often as early as Chapter 2: et seq. Possession, in fact, is nine-tenths of the narrative. Only time will tell whether this is merely a new convention—superseding, as it may be, the homicidal butler—or whether, as seems increasingly likely, thrillers are becoming a branch of erotic literature.

Founder Member suggests that they are. Its author, Mr. John Gardner, hit some time ago on the sound idea that, since most James Bond imitations were bound to be trash, his should make a virtue...