James Nicoll Reviews

1970’s Good Men Do Nothing is the second volume of John Brunner’s Max Curfew thriller series.

Jamaican-born ex-Soviet agent Max Curfew vacations in Italy. By chance, his route takes him through the town of Giambattista de Belvedere on the day of a religious festival. Curfew plays tourist while the festival is ongoing.

This decision dooms poor unfortunate Maria Salvadore, who greets Curfew by spitting at him.

Maria does not like Americans in general and she loathes black Americans in particular. This is because her father was a black US serviceman who seduced and then abandoned Maria’s late mother. Life as Giambattista de Belvedere’s only half-black bastard has not been wonderful for Maria. The only reason she has not left is because the pious townsfolk keep her too poor to afford bus fare.

Once Curfew explains he’s Jamaican, not American, he and Maria get on reasonably well. Unlike that long-vanished serviceman, Curfew has no interest in seducing naïve Italian women. Having once been a poor black kid with dismal prospects himself, Max is willing to provide Maria with a trip out of town.

American-born Petronelli is a go-getter who turned his enthusiasm for applied cruelty into a career. Governments across the world have a use for a skilled torturer, whether to extract information from unwilling prisoners or to convey official displeasure to dissidents. Even bad men take holidays. Petronelli, for example, is in town for the religious festival.

Petronelli interprets a pious prognostication by the local holy man as an indication that Curfew is a threat. The only reasonable response is to plant a bomb in Curfew’s car. Maria reaches the car before Curfew. Maria dies and Curfew survives.

Petronelli’s current employer is Greece’s Regime of the Colonels. Petronelli flees back to Greece. This will not be nearly far enough to escape an irate Max Curfew.

~oOo~

This essay was originally supposed to be a review of Brunner’s 1989 Children of Thunder. In fact, this is a review of Children of Thunder, in the sense that putting Children of Thunder down with only a quarter of it read and no intention to return to it is a review of sorts.

At first I believed that Petronelli misinterpreted something and that his attempt to kill Curfew was misguided. However, given the havoc that follows the murder attempt¹, including what could be interpreted as divine punishment, this may have been less a tragic misunderstanding and more a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Good Men Do Nothing takes its title from the famous quotation often attributed to Edmund Burke: ​“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” This encapsulates Curfew’s views about the Greeks’ apparent indifference to their deplorable government (not to mention the world’s decision to turn a blind eye to the misdeeds of the regime). This is somewhat unfair of Curfew, as the plot makes clear what happens to Greek people who openly dissent.

Good Men is a straightforward revenge story. While the narrative is made somewhat less linear thanks to an unscrupulous supporting character realizing how useful a hothead like Curfew could be², this is a fairly slight novel. However, as it is just 204 pages long, the tale does not overstay its welcome.

Good Men Do Nothing is out of print.

1: One result of the murder attempt is that Petronelli is fired. The junta does not appreciate their torturer returning with an irate international man of mystery close behind.

2: Curfew is not as good at spotting duplicity as one might expect from a former spy. Good for him that he is so skilled at not dying. It’s hard on the dissidents Max tracks down, as he makes it easier for the government to detain them.

Unlike a certain other International Man of Mystery, Curfew, Max Curfew, has an excuse for travelling under his own name. He is between jobs and has no reason for subterfuge.