FFB: The Xanadu Talisman -- Peter O'Donnell

The Modesty Blaise books rely heavily on coincidence, and this one's no different. In the opening chapters, Modesty finds herself trapped in the rubble of an earthquake with a mysterious man named Bernard Martel, who's double-crossed a criminal organization and is going to locate "The Object" and get back his wife, long ago sold into slavery.  

The organization he betrayed is led by Nanny Pendergrast, whose two charges are the deadly Silk brothers.  The feared assassin of the organization is the mysterious El Mico, who can sometimes be in two places at once. When Bernard is murdered by El Mico on Modesty's grounds, she's ready to get revenge, but Giles Pennyfeather (whom we've met before), always full of goodness, talks Modesty into completing Bernard's quest, instead.  This leads to one of the biggest coincidences ever, and also to Modesty and Willie being captured in scene I found really hard to credit, with Modesty being put to the test in the arena in Xanadu, a true pleasure dome, or at least the rough equivalent.  Of course [SPOILER ALERT] they eventually escape, carrying Bernard's wife with them, and this results in a nice bit of irony [END OF SPOILER ALERT].

To tell the truth, I didn't mind the coincidences in the least.  It's the kind of thing I expect in a Modesty Blaise novel.  The novels are pure spy fantasy with no intention of mirroring reality.  That's their attraction, along with the characters and O'Donnell's smooth narration.  I'll be reading another Modesty adventure soon, I'm sure.