''Sabre-Tooth'' is the title of an action-adventure novel by

Peter O'Donnell Peter O'Donnell (11 April 1920 – 3 May 2010) was an English writer of mysteries and of comic strips, best known as the creator of '' Modesty Blaise'', an action heroine/undercover trouble-shooter. He was also an award-winning gothic h ...

which was first published in 1966, featuring the character

Modesty Blaise ''Modesty Blaise'' is a British comic strip featuring a fictional character of the same name, created by author Peter O'Donnell and illustrator Jim Holdaway in 1963. The strip follows Modesty Blaise, an exceptional young woman with many talen ...

which O'Donnell had created for the

comic strip A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often Serial (literature), serialized, with text in Speech balloon, balloons and Glossary of comics terminology#Captio ...

of the title. It was the second novel to feature the character, though technically it was the first original novel as the preceding volume was a novelisation of a movie screenplay. This story introduces the American millionaire John Dall, who reappears in many of the following books.

Plot summary

Karz is a military leader who has never known defeat. The huge

Mongol Mongols are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, China (Inner Mongolia and other 11 autonomous territories), as well as the republics of Buryatia and Kalmykia in Russia. The Mongols are the principal member of the large family of M ...

is now assembling and training a large and well-equipped army of mercenaries in a hidden valley in the

Hindu Kush Mountains The Hindu Kush is an mountain range in Central and South Asia to the west of the Himalayas. It stretches from central and eastern Afghanistan into northwestern Pakistan and far southeastern Tajikistan. The range forms the western section of ...

bordering on Afghanistan. His objective: The invasion and occupation of oil-rich Kuwait. Karz does have one problem though; he lacks a couple of top lieutenants to command two sections of his growing army. His choice falls on Modesty Blaise and Willie Garvin, even though he knows they are not for hire. Meanwhile, Sir Gerald Tarrant, who runs a secret service organisation under the British government, has noticed that many mercenaries are being recruited by some unknown employer and disappearing. This worries Sir Gerald, and he asks Modesty and Willie to investigate. So while Modesty and Willie are looking for Karz (without knowing who they're looking for), Karz has Lucille (a child dear to Modesty and Willie) kidnapped, and commands Modesty and Willie to report for duty. There is no possible way that Modesty and Willie can both save Lucille and sabotage the invasion of Kuwait. Modesty plays a long shot and is forced to fight the fearsome Twins, two men joined at the shoulders, a four-legged four-armed fighting animal impossible to defeat. And even if she survives that fight, how will Modesty escape from the isolated valley so far from civilisation? 1966 British novels Modesty Blaise books Novels set in Pakistan Souvenir Press books Novels by Peter O'Donnell {{1960s-spy-novel-stub