Nota Bene

Uh oh. This is a good note to self. If you want to be a published and well known spy thriller novel, probably best NOT to plagarize. The whole article, Spy Thriller: 'An Instant Classic' Vanishes Amid Plagiarism Charges by Jefferey A Trachtenberg (here), is well worth reading but I've quoted (not lifted!) segments below.

The Hook

The book is a thriller about an elite CIA agent chasing a shadowy international group of assassins. But Tuesday, publisher Little, Brown & Co. recalled all 6,500 copies of the novel on the grounds that passages were "lifted" from other books. One sharp-eyed observer says he had identified at least 13 novels with similar material.

The Proof

One example, noted by spy novelist Jeremy Duns, is this passage from "Assassin of Secrets": "Then he saw her, behind the fountain, a small light, dim but growing to illuminate her as she stood naked but for a thin, translucent nightdress; her hair undone and falling to her waist—hair and the thin material moving and blowing as though caught in a silent zephyr." The same sentence appears precisely in "License Renewed," a James Bond novel by John Gardner, a search of Google Books shows.
Although not in and of itself damning, this next passage is enough to nail the coffin down.

On the first page of chapter one of "Assassin" is this paragraph: "The boxy, sprawling Munitions Building which sat near the Washington Monument and quietly served as I-Division's base of operations was a study in monotony. Endless corridors connecting to endless corridors. Walls a shade of green common to bad cheese and fruit. Forests of oak desks separated down the middle by rows of tall columns, like concrete redwoods, each with a number designating a particular work space."

In the book "Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency" by James Bamford is this: "In June 1930, the boxy, sprawling Munitions Building, near the Washington Monument, was a study in monotony. Endless corridors connecting to endless corridors. Walls a shade of green common to bad cheese and fruit. Forests of oak desks separated down the middle by rows of tall columns, like concrete redwoods, each with a number designating a particular workspace."

YOW! Why do folks do this. There are things that I read from my favorite authors that I might want to mimic. For example, in Three for the Chair by Rex Stout, Archie uses a characters mannerisms to describe the character, but he does it in a clever and funny way (see more here) but I wouldn't dream of actually cutting and pasting the entire section into my book.

Not a big fan of plagarism. Avoid it at all costs!