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Hachette UK
Edition details
The Destroyer#51Shock ValueThe DestroyerBook 511983
Shock Value
- Writer
- Molly Cochran
- Series creators
- Warren Murphy, Richard Sapir
After three assassinations by attackers who seem to have vanished from their homes, CURE sends Remo to investigate a baffling case tied to subliminal television messages. Smith is drawn to a remote conference whose delegates claim to serve a secret global plan.
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An unseen force directs Ohio clothing-store worker Orville Peabody and two other men to kill international militants. An in-world news report says Peabody is beaten nearly to death by the crowd and pronounced dead on arrival at a Rome hospital. CURE director Harold W. Smith sends Remo to investigate; Peabody’s wife Arlene reports that her husband disappeared for three weeks and suspects the assassin in the news picture is a clone, a claim the story does not confirm. The strange word ‘Abraxas’ appears in Arlene’s thoughts and those of her son, then in television scan lines. Smith is lured to Abaco by Circe and recruiter Michael LePat, where delegates gather for a three-phase global revolution.
Advertising executive Vehar admits using subliminal television messages and forged identities to direct the assassins. Speaking through the compound’s sound system, Abraxas lays out plans to control public opinion, disrupt financial systems, and reorganize nations into single-purpose economies. Smith is drugged with a pink cocktail and helps configure the planned satellite broadcast. Remo and Chiun reach Abaco, retrieve Smith, and learn the broadcast is due just after midnight on the twelfth; the source supplies no month or year. Circe, Abraxas’s former servant and confidante, helps the plan before defecting and aiding Remo. LePat tries to kill Remo with quicksand and sinks there. An unidentified shooter wounds Circe after her car is tracked; she survives and later tells Remo about her childhood with Perseus Mephisto, whom she says became Abraxas.
Abraxas later kills Circe when Remo confronts him. Remo breaks into the underwater transmission room just as the broadcast begins and floods it; the camera shows Abraxas apparently electrocuted and drowned, but the text does not describe recovery of his body. Smith later reports that ten seconds of the scene aired, and says the White House called the broadcast a hoax. Smith proposes calling Vehar’s death an accident; the text does not establish that this explanation is carried out. Remo buries Circe in their cave.
Characters & places
SpoilersFull articles
- Cheeta ChingCharacter
- ChiunCharacter
- CUREOrganization
- Folcroft FourObject
- Folcroft SanatoriumPlace
- Harold W. SmithCharacter
- House of SinanjuGroup
- Remo WilliamsCharacter
Characters 25
- Abraxas
- Arlene Peabody
- Big Ed
- Bob
- Cheeta Ching
- Chiun
- Circe
- Eric Groot
- Franco Abbrodani
- Hans Bofschel
- Harold W. Smith
- Long-dead President who founded CURE
- Michael LePat
- Miramir Quanoosa
- Ned
- Orville Peabody
- Pascal Soronzo
- Perseus Mephisto’s father
- Remo Williams
- Samuel P. Longtree
- Timmy Peabody
- Unidentified adolescent arsonist
- Unnamed former U.S. Secretary of State
- Unnamed U.S. President
- Vehar
Places 14
Organizations 16
Groups 2
Lore 2
Objects 1
Chapter summaries
Chapter 1
Peabody receives the name and face of Abbrodani through an unknown message, approaches him at a Rome rally and cuts his throat. An in-world report says the militants were killed simultaneously and identifies the three assassins; it reports that Peabody was pronounced dead on arrival at a Rome hospital.
Chapter 2
After evacuating the burning tenements, Remo hears what he thinks is a trapped child. The supposed child attacks him with a knife and Remo kills the adolescent arsonist. The roof collapses on two adult accomplices; Remo breaks the leader’s arms and ribs with a thrown kerosene can, and the man falls to the street. A paramedic mistakes that final fall for a fire jumper.
Chapter 3
Michael LePat offers Smith a role in an unnamed wealthy employer’s world-betterment project; the Folcroft computers are remotely overridden to force Smith to call a number.
Chapter 4
Circe identifies herself, reveals Smith was selected for his computer expertise, and escorts him to Greater Abaco for a secret conference. Smith leaves his briefcase behind under threat.
Chapter 5
Arlene says Orville vanished three weeks earlier, rejects the public account and claims the assassin was a clone; she says she knew “Abraxas” before it appeared in the news and that her son also saw the word.
Chapter 6
Cheeta Ching reports demonstrations worldwide for Peabody and says Washington protesters attribute their assembly to an invisible force named Abraxas. Remo and Chiun find Smith missing and follow his note south.
Chapter 7
At the Abaco conference, Longtree explains the pink cocktail and task-force ribbons. Vehar claims subliminal television messages turned Peabody and other subjects into assassins.
Chapter 8
The DC-3 crashes at Clear Springs; Remo, Chiun and Ned survive. They confront the private airport’s drug-running operator Big Ed, who escapes through a sea tunnel to his yacht.
Chapter 9
Remo and Chiun locate Greater Abaco and Remo meets the scarred woman again; she refuses to reveal Smith’s location, then flees after Remo helps replace her tire.
Chapter 10
The amplified voice identifies itself as Abraxas, admits the assassinations advertised his name, and outlines the Unity, Harmony and Peace phases. Smith escapes the compound and tries to contact the President.
Chapter 11
Remo learns the TV message is hidden in scan lines. Circe reveals Smith is at South Shore, is caught helping Remo, and is ordered to kill him; she lies about their meeting place and Abraxas sends LePat’s men to murder him.
Chapter 12
Smith, drugged and disinhibited, proposes stealing from the IRS for Abraxas. Remo removes him from the compound and returns to meet Circe; paid attackers ambush them at Mother Merle’s and Circe helps Remo escape.
Chapter 13
Circe tells Remo about her childhood with Perseus, the yacht explosion, her scar, his recovery and his adoption of the name Abraxas. They become lovers; the tracked car leads to a shooting that wounds Circe and separates them.
Chapter 14
LePat lures Remo into quicksand and identifies himself. Remo uses the rock and LePat’s panic to escape; LePat sinks in the bog. Circe is missing and a transmitter and blood trail lead back toward South Shore.
Chapter 15
Smith tells Chiun he was drugged into planning the satellite schedule; the broadcast is due in minutes. He and Chiun re-enter South Shore, but the computer requires Abraxas’s voice print.
Chapter 16
Remo finds Circe alive beside Abraxas, who threatens her and kills her with his claw. Remo survives an electric attack; Abraxas disappears during the smoke and confusion; the source does not show his route.
Chapter 17
Remo, Smith and Chiun find the hidden control room; Abraxas taunts them and gives Smith a transmission code, then triggers a deafening acoustic weapon. Vehar attacks Smith, and Chiun kills Vehar when he draws a gun.
Chapter 18
With seconds before midnight, Remo breaks the electrified doors and the underwater dome window. The ocean floods the room as the live camera shows Abraxas apparently electrocuted and drowned; Remo’s view ends before any recovery is shown.
Chapter 19
Smith reports the broadcast’s official dismissal as a hoax and says the international dispute settles. Remo carries Circe to their cave and buries her with colored stones and a starfish.
Editions & covers
Explore cover historyReferences & notes
Sources 38 references
- stopyourekillingme.com/D_Authors/Destroyer.html
- www.fantasticfiction.com/series/destroyer
- www.warrenmurphy.com/index.php?page=books
- sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/murphy_warren
- www.45cat.com/book/title/created-the-destroyer
- api.publicrecords.copyright.gov/search_service_external/simple_search_dsl?query=TX0001128975
- www.hachette.co.uk/titles/richard-sapir/shock-value/9780751558937
- spyguysandgals.com/sgShowChar.aspx?id=472
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Edition and source notes
Names are the bibliography’s title-level “written by” attribution key, not a verified edition byline. credited_authors is null because no first-edition cover/title page was checked. A creator name in the general franchise metadata must not be treated as proof of sole drafting.
registration-declared first publication: 1983-02-20. CPRS record field is the registrant/depositor-reported first-publication date, not independent retail/on-sale verification; no print copy inspected. Source
Shock Value:
Publisher's description: Hachette supplies only its general series overview here; it characterizes the novels as action-led stories mixing comedy and mysticism.
Presidential clues
Current U.S. President: historical identity unresolved.
Unnamed current U.S. President
unnamed current national officeholder; reported investigation, direct but interrupted call with Smith, and an indirectly conveyed computer reply
- An in-world State Department report says the President is looking into the international assassinations (ch01:p0050).
- The narrator says only the President of the United States knows of CURE (ch02:p0008); Smith later considers the President’s voice a conditional self-destruct trigger if he dies (ch03:p0055, p0082), without a personal identity clue.
- Smith reaches the White House switchboard, and after Circe injects him he manages to say ‘Mr. President’; the President calls his name as the connection ends (ch10:p0078, p0095–p0096).
- Smith says he sent a message through White House computers and reads a reply that dispatches helicopters against the delegates; no personal name or administration is supplied (ch19:p0008).
unresolved
The source gives no personal name, administration, or date from which to identify this officeholder; keep the report, phone scene, and computer relaying distinct.
Unnamed long-dead President
John F. Kennedy
- The narrator says CURE began as an idea from a President who is now dead (ch03:p0002), later calling him the first President who found need for the organization (ch03:p0053). The computer self-destruct mechanism can be activated by the current President’s voice if Smith dies (ch03:p0055), but this does not identify the founder or establish a link between the two officeholders.
strong cross-book inference
This book leaves the founder unnamed. Book 26 explicitly names John Kennedy and John F. Kennedy as the founder in a former President’s account; this is a cross-book identification, not a name printed here or an identification of the current officeholder.
All 155 books in The Destroyer
Phrases & sayings in this book
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