After reading the original article when it was first posted, I picked up a few across the entire range (they're available for a few euros in French on Kindle) i

After reading the original article when it was first posted, I picked up a few across the entire range (they're available for a few euros in French on Kindle) including all of 1-27 and read through them to see what the fuss is about. My opinion FWIW: - the early books (1-20 or so) are pretty good and similar in tone and observations to non-fiction of the period written by those who lived it (Mike Hoare, Mike Calvert... even Jacques Foccart). There's a lot of interesting claims, which seem ridiculous and with a bit of research appear to be grounded in some form of reality. Even the names that come up seem to have done what is claimed that they have done (e.g. Gehlen). The local flavour is fantastic, the Iron Curtain stuff even more fascinating from being gone today. The books are extraordinarily politically incorrect in every way you care to list, racism, sexism, colonialism, great admiration for aristocracy and classism... there is no way a modern editor will ever approve a translation, or a translator will ever put their name on the job. Despite the tone, they are the most interesting ones in terms of actual content. Some are creative - the Hollywood plot definitely is the result of an active imagination. - The middle books (e.g. "Panique au Zaire") get pretty trashy in a Roger Moore Bond kind of way (but one with the sex scenes left in). There's still some "local colour" (e.g. in aforementioned, an exploration of Lebanese networks in Africa) but it's buried under fairly boring and flat plots. At some point I started skipping most and picking a few titles in locations of interest. For example, the photos of De Villiers with Savimbi hint that he might have interesting things to say about Angola, and I read the one on Singapore because I live there. Oddly enough he becomes more politically correct, especially regarding racism and colonialism, almost a 180 degree turn; "Compte a Rebours en Rhodesie" is profoundly anti-Rhodesian and anti-apartheid and has the aristocratic, blond-haired, "golden-eyed" S.A.S. go help one of the Rhodesian resistance movements whilst continuously expressing disgust towards the white Rhodesians. The books are somewhat worth reading for snapshots into fast moving political situations that look nothing today like they did back when the book was written. - The last books claim a lot of things which seem possible but which we will never know about. E.g. "La Vengeance du Kremlin" claims Litvinenko was acting FOR the FSB/GRU, accidentally poisoning himself whilst preparing the dose, and Cameron covered up the poisoning for political reasons as he was trying to get things from Putin. I thought they were interesting books presenting a non-mainstream POV (and "higher up gossip") but not as insightful as the early ones, and more political. Fun fact: De Villiers selected the cover girls himself in the street, sometimes asking his contacts for "the right kind of girl" (said in a Helmut Newton accent). France is the elephant in the room in all the novels, especially considering many of the locations.