A 1001 Midnights Review: JAMES GRADY – Six Days of the Condor.

< A 1001 MIDNIGHTS Review by Newell Dunlap. strong>JAMES GRADY – Six Days of the Condor. W.W.Norton & Co., hardcover, 1974. Dell, paperback, 1975. Also published as Three Days of the Condor (Dell, paperback, date?). Film: Also as Three Days of the Condor (1975; directed by Sydney Pollack and starring Robert Redford, Faye Dunaway, Cliff Robertson, and Max von Sydow). Six Days of the Condor is a riveting book that subsequently became a riveting movie starring Robert Redford with the “Six” of the title halved to “Three.” The story’s central character is a young man named Ronald Malcolm (code name: Condor), a book-reading specialist for the CIA. He works with a small group of people in an unobtrusive building in Washington, D.C., doing just that — reading books, particularly mysteries, and passing along information (field tips, authors who seem to know too much, etc.) to CIA headquarters. Then one day the unthinkable happens. It is Malcolm’s tum to pick up lunch, and when he returns to…