I was in my coffin. Why had they buried me face downward
Far off night shapes drifted in front of my eyes, and I knew where I was. Everything that had been said and done had led to this moment. I knew that too.
I should have done my homework.
There are definitions in intelligence work as precise as those in science. If I had paid attention I'd have known and understood. Tree Frog was a deception operation.

So begins Martin Woodhouse's snarky and suspenseful Tree Frog a novel of science and spycraft set in the 1960's about - wait for it - remote controlled drone aircraft used for spying!

Woodhouse was one of the writers for "The Avengers" in the Honor Blackmun days, and this book has some of the cheeky dry wit and whimsy of that show.

Giles Yeoman, our talented amateur, gets roped into a complex spy operation. Just wanted his advice, do you know? He's a likeable hero who thinks he's smarter than the boys around him. He's wrong. There are kidnapping and sex and hairsbreadth escapes in the height of the Cold War.

The writing is genre fiction but at a very high order. (Think Len Deighton - in that part of town).

Woodhouse wrote a few sequels and they are worth chasing down.

Enjoyed it when I first read it in the 1970's. Enjoyed reading it again. ( )

Is the new British warplane real or a hoax? And what does Yeoman tell his captors when he's being interrogated? Fine espionage tale with a twist. ( )