Don Smith (August 2, 1909 – January 11, 1978) was a
Canadian
Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...
writer of
detective
A detective is an investigator, usually a member of a law enforcement agency. They often collect information to solve crimes by talking to witnesses and informants, collecting physical evidence, or searching records in databases. This leads the ...
and
spy fiction
Spy fiction is a genre of literature involving espionage as an important context or plot device. It emerged in the early twentieth century, inspired by rivalries and intrigues between the major powers, and the establishment of modern intellig ...
. He is known for his ''Secret Mission'' series of novels, starring the businessman-turned-spy Phil Sherman.
Early life
He was born Donald Taylor Smith in
Port Colborne
Port Colborne is a city in Ontario, Canada that is located on Lake Erie, at the southern end of the Welland Canal, in the Niagara Region of Southern Ontario. The original settlement, known as Gravelly Bay, dates from 1832 and was renamed after ...
,
Ontario
Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...
.
From 1934 to 1939, he was a foreign correspondent for the ''
Toronto Star
The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part of Torstar's Daily News Brands (Torstar), Daily News Brands division.
...
'' in
Beijing
Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...
.
Smith piloted a fighter in the
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...
during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
Dieppe Raid
Operation Jubilee or the Dieppe Raid (19 August 1942) was a disastrous Allied amphibious attack on the German-occupied port of Dieppe in northern France, during the Second World War. Over 6,050 infantry, predominantly Canadian, supported by a ...
in 1942.
After the war, he lived in
Morocco
Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...
and
Majorca
Mallorca, or Majorca, is the largest of the Balearic Islands, which are part of Spain, and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, seventh largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.
The capital of the island, Palma, Majorca, Palma, i ...
, manning different businesses before becoming a full-time writer in his 50s.
Novels
Smith's first novel, ''Out of the Sea'', an action/romance
paperback original
A paperback (softcover, softback) book is one with a thick paper or paperboard cover, also known as wrappers, and often held together with glue rather than stitches or staples. In contrast, hardback (hardcover) books are bound with cardboar ...
, was published in 1952 by
Gold Medal Books
Gold Medal Books, launched by Fawcett Publications in 1950, was an American book publisher known for introducing paperback originals, a publishing innovation at the time. Fawcett was also an independent newsstand distributor, and in 1949 the c ...
. It was banned by the Irish Censorship Board for being "indecent or obscene".
Two 1953 snippet reviews by
Anthony Boucher
William Anthony Parker White (August 21, 1911 – April 29, 1968), better known by his pen name Anthony Boucher (), was an American author, critic, and editor who wrote several classic mystery novels, short stories, science fiction, and radio dr ...
in ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' called his following book, ''Perilous Holiday'', "a thorough lesson in Yugoslav geography but a marked failure as an Amblerian suspense novel", and dismissed his third, ''China Coaster'', as "much duller... (with a plot that) would stop dead if the participants acted sensibly". However, brief reviews of the same two novels in the ''
New York Herald Tribune
The ''New York Herald Tribune'' was a newspaper published between 1924 and 1966. It was created in 1924 when Ogden Mills Reid of the '' New York Tribune'' acquired the '' New York Herald''. It was regarded as a "writer's newspaper" and compet ...
'' called ''Perilous Holiday'' "considerably fresher" than ''China Coaster''.
In 1966, he created for Gold Medal a series of novels starring Tim Parnell, a former
CIA
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...
agent employed in
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...
as a
private investigator
A private investigator (often abbreviated to PI; also known as a private detective, an inquiry agent or informally a wikt:private eye, private eye) is a person who can be hired by individuals or groups to undertake investigatory law services. ...
specialized in cases involving aircraft. At least one of them, ''The Padrone'', got a positive snippet review in the ''
Chicago Tribune
The ''Chicago Tribune'' is an American daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1847, it was formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper", a slogan from which its once integrated WGN (AM), WGN radio and ...
''.
Some of Smith's novels have been translated to
French
French may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France
** French people, a nation and ethnic group
** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices
Arts and media
* The French (band), ...
,
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance languag ...
,
Dutch
Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
** Dutch people as an ethnic group ()
** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship ()
** Dutch language ()
* In specific terms, i ...
, and
Swedish
Swedish or ' may refer to:
Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically:
* Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland
** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
.
''Secret Mission'' series
In 1968, Smith created a second, more popular series for Award Books, which was already well established as a publisher of spy fiction with its
Nick Carter-Killmaster
''Nick Carter-Killmaster'' is a series of spy adventures published from 1964 until 1990, first by Award Books, then by Ace Books, and finally by Jove Books. At least 261 novels were published. The character is an update of a pulp fiction priva ...
series. It stars Phil Sherman, an American businessman living in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
who is regularly recruited by spy agencies to infiltrate gangs of counterfeiters, drug smugglers or arms dealers, and who goes on to become a CIA agent in the span of over twenty adventures. Most of the titles in this series begin with the words ''Secret Mission''. The character of Phil Sherman, however, first appeared in a 1959 novel by a Duncan Tyler; it is unclear whether this was another of Smith's
pen name
A pen name or nom-de-plume is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name.
A pen name may be used to make the author's na ...
s.
Along the lines of
Ian Fleming
Ian Lancaster Fleming (28 May 1908 – 12 August 1964) was a British writer, best known for his postwar ''James Bond'' series of spy novels. Fleming came from a wealthy family connected to the merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co., and his ...
's Bond series, to which the Phil Sherman novels have been positively compared, each book features exotic locations, sophisticated venues, and no few sexual encounters. Resurging
nazis
Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...
are frequently the
antagonist
An antagonist is a character in a story who is presented as the main enemy or rival of the protagonist and is often depicted as a villain. A brief review in ''The New York Times'' described 1975's ''The Kremlin Plot'' as including "the required porno passages and sadism" in a "well-plotted action story".
In her book, ''The Middle East in Crime Fiction'', Reeva S. Simon of the Columbia University Middle East Institute describes Smith's Phil Sherman character as "a tough-talking, independent operator who resembles a sort of
Mike Hammer Michael Hammer or Mike Hammer may refer to:
* Michael Hammer (politician) (born 1977), Austrian politician
* Michael Armand Hammer (1955–2022), American philanthropist and businessman
* Michael Martin Hammer (1948–2008), engineer and author
* Mi ...
working international". In ''The Cold War File'', Andy East identifies Smith as "one of the first espionage novelists to perceive (the) change in world attitudes... from the Cold War to détente".
Bibliography
Stand-alone novels
* ''Out of the Sea'' (1952)
* ''Perilous Holiday'' (1953)
* ''China Coaster'' (1954)
Tim Parnell series
* ''The Man Who Played Thief'' (1969)
* ''The Padrone'' (1971)
* ''The Payoff'' (1973)
* ''Corsican Takeover'' (1974)