A year after the last volume, we get the third volume of Wild Inc. by Jack MacKenzie: Madam Murder. The covers, both front and back, are clearly inspired by the Bantam Doc Savage volumes.
As with the prior novels, we start off with some flashbacks to set things up. First is one in 1993 in Cyprus, dealing with an assassin and his two young daughters. After taking care of a mission, the assassin’s employer has instead sent someone to silence him. Then we jump to Scotland in 2013. A female detective inspector has gathered evidence to prove a gangster brutally killed his mistress. But her boss just files it away and lets him go to her dismay.
In present time, we see that that gangster has “retired” to Spain. After receiving a warning letter, he is found brutally murdered with numerous daggers, the same number as those he killed. One of his bodyguards saw something. The knives left behind point to a group of female assassins called Kyrie Dolofonia, or “Madame Murder.”
The leader of Wild Inc., Morrigan Wild, brings together her group of now six aides, including the latest member, Harry Calhoun, who was introduced in the first novel, which occurred two months prior within this series. The team includes Bulldog, a big Cockney man; Fergus, a Black attorney; Genesis, a genius Indian woman with technical skills; Eagle Philip, a Native American man with lousy directional sense; and Chaplin, a red-headed Asian girl.
As noted, Wild Investigations is a secret crimefighting organization that goes back some decades. Its headquartered in the Empire State Building, and there is some kind of clinic in Upstate New York. We get a little more about the history as we learn more about Morrigan’s father, Cormac Wild, through someone who knew him. Readers might be surprised who he is clearly based on. All we learn about her mother is that she died when she was very young. I hope we learn who she is based on. And we now know Morrigan is a highly skilled surgeon.
While Morrigan goes elsewhere, the group heads to Spain. There they split up. Harry to the hospital where the gangster’s bodyguard is, Bulldog and Fergus to the crime scene. At the hospital, Harry runs afoul of a strange woman who kills the bodyguard and someone else, then drags him away. At the crime scene, Bulldog and Fergus find a couple of clues. One is an overlooked dagger. While leaving, someone shoots a Spanish cop, also hitting two British cops. One dies, the other is injured. Then a pair of female assassins appear. They are members of Kyrie Dolofonia.
Things are off on another wild trip. Harry gets dragged along by the strange woman, who turns out to be our ex-DI, Trina. She steals Wild’s plane and flies to Scotland and then to Madrid. Meanwhile the rest of the team, with the assassins, who strangely know Morrigan and didn’t kill the gangster, are heading to Madrid. What’s in Madrid? Among other things, a fashion show. And the vice president of the United States. Is he a target? And if so why? We soon learn the connection between the vice president, the gangster, and that assassin from long ago. And we get Morrigan back into the storyline in a unique way.
Can Morrigan and her team stop what is coming before more are killed?
As I noted before, I hoped we would get more info on Wild and her associates. We do learn a little more about Morrigan, but still not the whole picture. I am assuming that this information will be given out as the series progresses.
The next one is Go, Johnny Go. I have no idea when it’s coming out. Hopefully in the next year or so. Considering where some of the characters wind up at the end, I do wonder if they will appear.
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