After reading and enjoying two of the Kevin McGarry books in the Lady Penelope series, I figured I'd give John Theydon (who wrote the majority of the other Thunderbirds potboilers) another shot. What a letdown! One damn thing after another, but with the plot frequently grinding to a halt.

Most egregious Parker cod-Cockney line: "I made sure before we left Merry Hengland on wot was /supposed/ to be a nice quiet 'oliday a-hambling round Europe." You see, Parker adds H's because he's pretentious AND drops them because he's Cockney, that's how he would say "holiday ambling." Sigh.

Lots of homing devices hidden in people's clothing, instead of actual detective work, in case you didn't want any of that thinky stuff cluttering up your secret agent novel.

This entire book is built around the silly premise that mere photographs of the Thunderbirds aircraft could be sold for a fortune and must not be allowed to fall into the wrong hands. As long as you swallow that, I guess it makes the stakes high. Sort of.

Stick with the other two Lady Penelope books ("Cool for Danger" and "A Gallery of Thieves") would be my advice. They're surprisingly good. This one isn't.