Friday, December 9, 2016

Cupid Rides Pillion by Barbara Cartland (Arrow, 1968)

Found in a dusty corner of the shed part of the Green Shed (and pounced upon because it's perfect for this blog):


England under Charles II was a gay, pleasure-loving land.  And Lady Panthea Vyne enjoyed it to the full, for she remembered only too well the dark days of Cromwell's Iron Rule.  She remembered Christian Drysdale, too, Cromwell's bestial tax-collector who had been her husband for a few short hours, until she had been rescued by a mysterious Highwayman.  Five years later, at the richly colourful court of Charles II, others learned her secret, including the jealous Lady Castlemaine... and as the dangers besetting her drew closer, Panthea put her faith in the man whose life was in equal danger--the mysterious, yet strangely familiar Highwayman.
If the fact that the author is Barbara Cartland doesn't alert you to what kind of book this is, surely the fact that the heroine is named Panthea Vyne, must!

Anyway, for those of you who came in late, this was Barbara Cartland:


... self-appointed expert on Romance, upholder of traditional values, step-grandmother of Princess Diana, and the very prolific writer of over 1,000 books.  

Sunday, December 4, 2016

The Monster Men by Edgar Rice Burroughs (Ace, 1972)

Lifeline was having a pre-Christmas mini-bookfair, and I found this one one of the tables:


THE
MONSTER
MEN

Number Thirteen was what they called him--the latest and best of Dr. Von Horn's attempts to make life from lifeless chemicals.  He found himself an almost-human on Von Horn's hideaway jungle island off the coast of Borneo.  He saw the monsters that preceded him and grew used to those hideous mockeries of humanity.

Not until Number Thirteen met the American girl who was Von Horn's unwilling prisoner did he realize how different he was from the others.

Because, monster or not, he turned against his master and threw in his lot with the girl and his friends--in a desperate attempt to escape the island of terror.
 Or, in soap opera parlance: Can a Frankenstein's monster find love with a mad scientist's beautiful daughter?  This was first published in 1913, and alas, it shows.

Wednesday, November 30, 2016

The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie (Pan, 1959)

HERCULE POIROT...

today the most popular detective in fiction since Sherlock Holmes, made his bow to the world in this book.

No one had heard the name AGATHA CHRISTIE when she shyly sent the MS. to a London publisher.  He rejected it!  So did others.  Then one more far-seeing accepted the new author's work.  It became famous--and Christie fans place it among the very best Poirot tales.

Intriguing clues marked the murder at Styles Court--crushed fragments of a coffee cup, few few threads of fabric, a scrap of half charred paper, an old envelope with these words on it:

posessed
I am posessed
He is possessed
I am possessed
possessed
And here is the Great Detective's introduction to the world:

Poirot was an extraordinary-looking little man.  He was hardly more than five feet four inches, but he carried himself with great dignity.  His head was exactly the shape of an egg, and he always perched it a little on one side.  His moustache was very stiff and military.  The neatness of his attire was almost incredible; I believe a speck of dust would have caused him more pain than a bullet wound.  Yet this quaint dandified little man who, I was sorry to see, now limped badly, had been in his time one of the most celebrated members of the Belgian police.
[Chapter II]
If Agatha Christie had know she would be writing about this character for over fifty years, I suspect she wouldn't have made his quite so eccentric, nor would she have made him already elderly on his first outing in print!

Friday, November 18, 2016

The Mind Brothers by Peter Heath (Magnum Books, 1967)


Crossroads in Time

The future of life on Earth is at stake ... now.  A few days, hours, or minutes ago civilization took the wrong turn.  Can the fatal mistake be corrected?  Can the future be changed?

Jason Starr, genius, found himself the focal point of a complex Communist plot against America...and as a thoroughly discredited scientist, there seemed nothing he could do about it.

Not until he was joined by Adam Cyber, that is.  Adam Cyber: last man--or superman--to survive in that bleak future; and Jason Starr's Mind Brother.  Cyber returned through millenia to try to change Earth's course.  And when the Mind Brothers met, computers went crazy, all predictions were worthless--and a new kind of spy was born!
This book is the weird love child of the 1960s spy craze and science fiction.   A time traveller comes from the far future to prevent the world being taken over by AI... and tags along on an adventure involving secret weapons, beautiful double agents, underground cults in the back-streets of Delhi and Communist mad scientists working from hidden bases in Tibet.   In other words, this book has everything but the kitchen sink (and if a kitchen sink had been included you could bet on it being some kind of Bondian espionage device!)  And at the end of it all, I still couldn't figure out the action related to the dystopian future our time traveller was trying to prevent.

Monday, November 14, 2016

Five Go Down to the Sea by Enid Blyton (Hodder & Stoughton, 1955)


The
Famous Five

Julian, Dick, George, Anne and Timmy the Dog

in their
twelfth exciting adventure

Summer at Tremannon Farm, the mystery of the deserted tower by the sea, the forgotten secret of the Wreckers' Way
Now here's a book I really did love as a child--in fact I pinched and saved to buy all twenty-one books in the Famous Five series!  In Five Go Down to the Sea Julian, Dick, George, Anne and Timmy the dog explore secret tunnels and thwart a gang of drug smugglers between consuming mountains of buns and sandwiches and drinking lashings of ginger beer.  What more could a child want in an adventure?

(This copy predates me by several years.  My own copy as a child was one of the paperback Knight editions published in the 1970s.  The Famous Five adventure stories are still in print, though when I flicked through one in my local library recently it saddened me to see that an editor had "updated" the text to make it more accessible.  There are also now some very tongue-in-cheek Famous Five adventures available for "grown-ups" with titles like Five on Brexit Island and Five Go Gluten Free.  Clearly I'm not the only adult who remembers the series with affection!)

Thursday, November 10, 2016

The Woodville Wench by Maureen Peters (Fontana, 1973)

Picked up at a local school fete:


The King's Wife...

Determined to rise above the poverty of her upbringing, Elizabeth Woodville uses her great beauty to win a place in the royal family.

Edward Plantagenet

the handsome young King, risks everything to marry her.

Cecily, of York

the King's mother, welcomes her as a daughter

Richard of Gloucester

Edward's brother, offers her protection when his own life is in jeopardy.

Considered an upstart by many, Elizabeth reigns supreme during the bitter years of the Wars of the Roses.  But behind the brilliant mask is a cold and lonely woman, shivering in the chill of her husband's waning passion, fearful of what lies ahead...
This is an example of what I think of as "cleavage history", where the author takes a real woman from history and writes a wildly romantic fictionalised version of her life.  You can usually spot these by the models on their front covers who generally wear some kind of pseudo-historical garb complete with a deeply plunging  neckline.

In this case our heroine (who seems to have picked her dress up at Biba and who is sporting some very 1970s blue eyeshadow) is Elizabeth Woodville and the story the author is telling is the story of the War of the Roses.

The other giveaway for a "cleavage history" novel is the choice of adjectives on the back cover, which often includes words such as "passionate", "untamed" and "determined".  The Woodville Wench may not be passionate and untamed, but by Jingo! she's determined.

Monday, November 7, 2016

The Sheep Look Up by John Brunner (Orbit, 1977)

From the Green Shed:


'AND NOW A POLICE FLASH,' said the radio.  'RUMOURS THAT THE SUN IS OUT AT SANTA YUEZ ARE WITHOUT FOUNDATION.'

Pollution--social, moral, political and industrial--is the key to the United States of the not too distant future.  The seas are foul, the rivers choked, the land is poisoned by excessive use of insecticides, no one moves out of doors without a 'filter mask' and the sun is permanently obscured.

John Brunner chronicles a full year of this situation, following the lives of a diverse range of characters from all levels of society.  Many are resigned, a few are seeking new ways for mankind to survive, but the one man whom millions believe has the solution cannot be found.

The Sheep Look Up is more than sf speculation, it is terrifyingly realistic.  It is, indeed, 'a fascinating and brilliant profile of the utter technological hell we are working so hard to create' (Sunday Times).
 1970s science fiction had a tendency to be dystopian.  This example is one of Brunner's best-regarded books, having been nominated for a Nebula Award as "Best Novel" in 1972.

Monday, October 17, 2016

Kay of Kingfishers by Constance M. White (Hutchinson, 1954)


I found this in the Green Shed, and bought it a) because the dust jacket was intact and b) because it looked like something I might have enjoyed when I was a child!


To begin with, Kay missed half a term by being ill.  Then, when she did return, it was to find that dear old Miss Benson--surely the nicest headmistress anyone could wish for--had been replaced by young and efficient Miss Oliver.  And Judy, her dearest friend, seemed to have forsaken Kay for a fresh interest--the new Head's Girl Guide Company.

Kay, rebellious and stubborn, turned to Stella Jason, and together they stumbled upon a discovery which involved not only Miss Oliver, but also an archaeological student, the local vicar, and a strange little girl called Bella.
 All right, get your mind out of the gutter.  (Yes, you.  You know who I'm talking about!)  The "discovery" Kay stumbles upon is neither a drug smuggling ring nor a swingers' party, and absolutely nothing naughty is going on between the headmistress, the vicar and the archaeological student.

Friday, October 14, 2016

The Black Rose by Thomas B. Costain (Tandem, 1971)



Walter of Gurnie, bastard son of the Earl of Lessford, fled from England to escape the enmity of his family and the bitterness of his love for the Lady Engaine.  Wealth and fame and a chance to claim the woman he loved were to be found only in the fabulous realms of the East, if he could win through the savage hordes of Kublai Khan's Mongol warriors, who ruled all of Asia from Persia to the ocean of Cathay.

Joining a caravan under the protection of Bayan of the Hundred Eyes, Walter found Maryam, a beauty as rare as the priceless Black Rose of the spice traders, destined for the Great Khan's harem, and a stronger reason than any other to lead him to the Celestial City of the Manji Emperor.

How Walter followed Maryam to fabled Kinsai, lost her and found her again, makes a superb and stirring romance, filled with the vivid colour and adventure of medieval England and the age-old empires of the East.
 And that just about sums up the entire book... so there's no need to read it.

(I do, however, love the 1970s hairstyles the models are sporting on the cover.  It seems that Vidal Sassoon was hairdresser of choice for the Mongol Hordes!)

Sunday, October 9, 2016

The Man From U.N.C.L.E. No. 6 - The Dagger Affair by David McDaniel (Four Square, 1965)


"Tell us all about Dagger!"

This was the order threw at Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin.  And from each U.N.C.L.E.  agent came the same answer: 'We know absolutely nothing of DAGGER.' 
'You appear to be telling the truth,' said a hidden voice.  'A pity...'
But it was more than merely unfortunate that the U.N.C.L.E. organization had never heard of DAGGER--for the secret behind that name was an insane plot for mass murder of the human race!
Often regarded as the best of the tie-in novels based on the 60s TV series, The Dagger Affair is a fun read.  Good guys must unite with bad guys to defeat a common enemy.  Of course, the bad guys remaining bad guys (be they never so entertaining) the truce comes to an end once the common enemy is defeated.

This is the book, incidentally, where evil organization "THRUSH" gets a fuller form of its name: The Technological Hierarchy for the Removal of Undesirables and the Subjugation of Humanity!

Friday, October 7, 2016

Cleopatra by Carlo Maria Franzero (Panther, 1962)


TEMPTRESS!
'A gift, Great Caesar,' the big man said, prostrating himself, 'from a devoted admirer.'

'H'm,' Caesar murmured, fingering his chin.  'You can't mean Ptolemy...!'  

'Judge for yourself, Master,' Appollodras invited, and unrolled the carpet; out of it sprang to her feet the little Cleopatra, apparently as fresh as a daisy and as bright as a newly minted coin.  She stretched her slim, shapely arms above her lovely head, arched her perfect back so that her perfect young body stood out deliciously under the translucent gown, and smiled provocatively at the mighty Caesar.
An Elizabeth Taylor lookalike poses on the cover of this book--not inappropriately, as Joseph L. Mankiewicz loosely based his 1963 movie version of Cleopatra on this novel.  However, at the time this paperback edition was published the movie was still in production--running grossly over-budget and mired in production problems. 

Sadly, anyone expecting "wantonness" in this version of Cleopatra's story (as promised by the cover blurb on the paperback) will be disappointed.  The titillation value of this book is low, even by the standards of the early 1960s.  You might pick up some history, however, as the main characters spend a lot of time playing politics, 1st Century BC style.

 

Monday, September 26, 2016

Flying Saucers from Outer Space by Donald E. Keyhoe (Arrow Books, around 1956)

 Found in a dusty corner of the Green Shed:


... And it has a wraparound cover.  Oh what the heck--let's see it in all its glory!


Do you believe that flying saucers emanate from another planet?  Or are you a confirmed sceptic?  Whatever your views this book will give a great deal of authoritative information about the most epoch-making phenomena of our time.

Here are investigations, reports, data and explanations from absolutely reliable sources, all rigidly and scientifically checked and verified.  The revelations in this book will startle you.  They will also fascinate you, and when you have read to the end you will be prepared for the final act of the saucer drama--an act that will have an impact on the lives of every person living on the Earth!
There's no date on this book, but research indicates that this was published some time between 1953 (when the first hardcover was released) and 1956.

This is the great-granddaddy of all the UFO conspiracy theories.  The author begins with accounts of pilots seeing things while in flight, continues with speculations about a government coverup, and concludes with a theory that we are being visited by aliens from outer space!

If I had to speculate and formulate a theory, I would say it is no coincidence that the first flying saucers were sighted in 1947, right at the beginning of the Cold War and the atomic age.  If Reds were under the beds, why not alien spaceships in the sky?   Keyhoe was one of the earliest writers about the phenomenon, producing a booked called "Flying Saucers Are Real" in 1950.  This is its followup. 

Friday, September 23, 2016

The Lion of Sparta by John Burke (Pan, 1961)

Another find in the dusty recesses of the Green Shed:


BARBARIC
SPLENDOUR

ELEMENTAL
SAVAGERY

SUPERB
HEROISM

The countless hordes of Asia surged onwards towards Greece--an irresistible wave spreading  fire, pillage and rapine.  Xerxes, King of Persia, had sworn to annihilate the Greek States.

But at Thermopylae waited Leonidas, King of Sparta--blocking the narrow pass with his immortal Three Hundred.

These were no ordinary men.  For Spartans there was no retreat, no surrender.  Their highest hope a glorious death.

This is the story of those men--and their women--and of the days which led them to Thermopylae, that desperate, glorious battle which changed the course of history.

"As filmed by 20th Century Fox starring Richard Egan"... another long-forgotten CinemaScope epic, starring an actor I've never heard of.  And yet, strangely enough, Ralph Richardson appears in a supporting role!

Thursday, September 22, 2016

Three Act Tragedy by Agatha Christie (Fontana, 1962)

One more from the Lifeline Bookfair!


Sir Charles Cartwright, the distinguished actor, had invited the local vicar and his wife to a house-warming party  at his new country cottage.  The Reverend Stephen Babbington unaccustomed as he was to strong liquor, nervously sipped his cocktail with a slightly wry expression on his face.  The other guests continued to chatter.  Suddenly Mr Babbington's hand clutched at his throat, and, in a moment, he collapsed--dead.

This was only the first act in the drama--a three-act tragedy, with a mysterious death in every act.  It is Hercule Poirot, the indomitable Belgian detective, who moves behind the scenes of this play and who finally rings down the curtain.
 The man on the cover of this book is either dead drunk--or just dead!  Since the author is Agatha Christie, I'm guessing the latter.

(See also my post on the 1964 Pan edition of the same title.)

Tuesday, September 20, 2016

What Happened to the Corbetts by Nevil Shute (Pan, 1970)


When war came to Southampton, no one expected it to be like this - least of all the Corbetts.  Their home a ruin without gas, electricity or water, no milk for the baby, typhoid and cholera a daily threat, and bombs from the sky a nightly terror.

In a desperate attempt to save their children, Joan and Peter begin a heart-stirring journey that exchanges the dangers on land for the darkness and waste of the sea...

Written in 1938, this moving and dramatic novel of simple heroism shows a master storyteller and modern prophet at his irresistible best.
This is an oddity--a "future war" story about the Second World War... published a year before the actual war began.  So it's interesting to read this in hindsight and compare it with real life events--which were both better and worse than depicted here.  Better, because British civilians were better prepared for the Blitz and subsequent upheavals when the bombing eventually began.  Worse, because the author clearly didn't imagine how ruthless the Nazis would be and how quickly they'd steamroller over Europe.  (It's quite clear from the text that Europe is not under enemy occupation when the attack on Britain begins.)

One last really strange thing to note--though it's quite clear who the author sees as "the enemy" in this book, they are never named! 

Saturday, September 10, 2016

The Case of the Hesitant Hostess by Erle Stanley Gardner (Pan, 1959)


Frame-up!

She looked cool and innocent on the witness stand--a formidable challenge for Perry Mason.

She held the jury spellbound--for she had all the trumps to convict an innocent man.

And when Perry sprang his bomb-shell, the hoped-for explosion never came...

That was 5 p.m. Friday, leaving Mason three nights, two days, to break the case against his client...  Tense, action-packed hours, with the chips mounting steadily against him.
Hostess as in "nightclub hostess", that is.

This is actually a good Perry Mason mystery.  Perry defends a man framed for an armed robbery, and finds himself in the middle of a case involving illegal gambling, impersonation, drug smuggling--and murder.  Murder goes without saying of course!  Also needless to say, Perry gets his man off all the charges and the real criminals behind bars.

Thursday, September 1, 2016

Double Doom by Josephine Bell (Ballantine, 1957)

From the Lifeline Bookfair:


In the quiet English village of Farthing-On-Hone, two brothers suddenly die, one of an accident in the garden hothouse, the other--two days later and even more unexpectedly--while convalescing in a hospital.

What makes this coincidence of deaths peculiar, not to say downright macabre, is the notice which appears in the local paper announcing the demise of both brothers at the same time--while one is still, in fact, very much alive...
A disquieting little novel, with some VERY unpleasant characters and quite politically incorrect by modern standards.  What's not to love?

Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Never A Dull Moment by Peter Cheyney (Fontana, 1955)


In NEVER A DULL MOMENT, our tough, wise-cracking hero, Lemmy Caution of the F.B.I., finds himself in England caught up in a tangled web of intrigue and international espionage.  As usual, Lemmy finds it hard to keep his mind on business when two such lovelies such as Tamara and Julia are on the scene--or maybe they are his business!  Here indeed is vintage Cheyney of the kind that prompted one reviewer to write: "Heavens, what a craftsman!  How adroitly he keeps a story in and briskly shakes together all the right ingredients--sex, violence, mystery."
Now this is an odd one: an English author whose main character (and narrator) is a hard-boiled, tough-talking American FBI agent.  The result is... well, it reads like bastardised Damon Runyon:

"An' I reckon that the dame is gonna talk without a lot of pressin'.  I reckon she was plenty scared when Nikolls took her outa the cottage an' she thought she was goin' to get herself nicely creased out an' chucked in the river.  An' she has plenty of time since then to think over what's gonna be good for her."
 (Page 93) 

Still, there's nothing like stealing from the best!

Friday, August 19, 2016

Neutron Star by Larry Niven (Sphere, 1972)


Larry Niven is one of the brightest new talents in s.f. and the title story of this collection won him the 1966 Hugo Award.  The seven other stories are thronged with superbly original characters and whole races of creatures such as grog, thrint and bandersnatchi, inhabiting worlds like LookItThat, Down, Jinx--indeed an entire galaxy of planets with their own histories, ecologies and epochs.
A collection of short stories written in Larry Niven's award-winning prime.  What a pity they're contained in a book with an ugly cover that conveys nothing.   Would it have been too much to ask for the cover artist to have depicted some of those "grog, thrint and bandersnatchi" instead of this naked muscleman floating in space? 

Monday, August 15, 2016

The Case of the Cautious Coquette by Erle Stanley Gardner (Pan, 1958)


Perry Mason Suspected!

LAWYER-DETECTIVE Perry Mason begins a search for a hit-and-run motorist.  A police advertisement brings an anonymous letter, and the letter brings him to a blue-eyed blonde.

Mason is delighted--and finds a damaged black sedan that fits the case perfectly.

Next thing on his hands is another damaged car and two equally convincing candidates for the role of guilty party!

Then a corpse crops up--and the man the police start building their case against is Mason!
I've been trying and trying to work out who the man on the cover reminds me of, and my best guess is Richard Attenborough as he appeared in Brighton Rock.  If anyone has any better guesses, please let me know.

As for the book itself--I get the impression that Erle Stanley Gardner had reached the stage where he no longer cared--at least about his Perry Mason stories.  After a nice start, the plot isn't terribly coherent, and when Perry solves the mystery it comes out of left field.   It's almost as if the author suddenly realised he needed to finish the book, so he closed his eyes and stuck a pin into a list of his characters in order to decide which one was the murderer...

Thursday, August 11, 2016

At Some Forgotten Door by Doris Miles Disney (MacFadden-Bartell, 1967)

Bought at the closing down sale of one of my favourite bookshops:


STARK TERROR NAILED HER TO THE SPOT

They stood facing each other, her enormous eyes reflecting the fear for her life--the greatest fear she had ever known.

Neither of them moved or spoke, testing the unique bond between them, the bond of murderer and intended victim.

He broke the deadly silence. "If you'd listened to reason..."

She saw his hands clench and unclench.  She could almost feel them at her throat.  She saw him stiffen with the resolve to get it over with.

Hetty hurled the lamp into his face.
... And I don't blame the heroine for being scared of the house - look, there's a giant head growing out of it!

Seriously.  This was sold as crime fiction, but it's much closer to being a gothic romance.  There's a sinister house - check - an orphaned heroine - check - and vague intimations of something being wrong before anything actually happens.  There's a charming young man whom the heroine insists on marrying even though everyone warns her against him.  And it's not until the very last chapter of the book that the heroine goes exploring and discovers a secret room filled with dead bodies.

Lastly, At Some Forgotten Door is set in the 1880s.  This came as quite a shock to me when I opened the book, because there is nothing on the cover to indicate that it is a historical novel!

Thursday, August 4, 2016

Cards on the Table by Agatha Christie (Fontana, 1957)


WHO DID IT?

Four people are playing bridge when their host, who is sitting out, is murdered.

Only one of them could have done it--while he was dummy.  Each player has committed at least one murder before.

There are no clues; nothing but the people themselves.

Hercule Poirot was to later call this one of his most interesting cases.

We think you will agree!

Classic Christie--four suspects in a locked room with the victim!

As a bonus, this book introduces Agatha Christie's alter-ego: crime-writer Mrs Ariadne Oliver.  She has a lot of fun with the character:

"I say, I'm terribly sorry.  Am I interrupting anything?" she asked breathlessly.

"Well, you are and you aren't," said Mrs Oliver.  "I am working, as you see, but that dreadful Finn of mine has got himself terribly tangled up.  He did some awfully clever deduction with a dish of French beans, and now he's just discovered deadly poison in the sage-and-onion stuffing of the Michaelmas goose, and I've just remembered that French beans are over by Michaelmas."
(Page 112)
Finn--Belgian.  One wonders if Christie felt the same way about her detective!

Thursday, July 28, 2016

Double for the Toff by John Creasey (Coronet, 1973)


The Toff certainly didn't want to take on two problems at once, but these were entreaties he couldn't ignore.

He was needed by Robert Benning--accused of murdering the beautiful and promiscuous Marjorie Fryer--and his mother and girlfriend, both desolate and desperate for help.

He was needed by young Cendric Dwight--with his so-called delusions and his genuine fears, especially when he was taken away by men, who might not kill, but certainly aimed to terrify him.

And then quite suddenly there was Bill Ebbutt--owner of an East End boxing gymnasium and a staunch friend to the Toff--to avenge as well.

I bought this for the sheer ugliness of the cover.  It's hard to imagine that this was ever considered appealing--even in "the decade taste forgot"!

John Creasey was another prolific crime writer, active under a number of pseudonyms from the 1930s to the early 1970s.   The "Toff" (aka The Honourable Richard Rollinson) is a freelance crime fighter and righter of wrongs not unlike The Saint.

Thursday, July 21, 2016

The Secret Woman by Victoria Holt (Fontana, 1972)


Voyage into mystery...

When Anna Brett sets sail for a Pacific island, she is already in love with Redvers Stretton, captain of the Serene Lady.  Stretton has lost an earlier ship in mysterious circumstances, and with it some priceless diamonds.

On the primitive island of Coralle, with its beliefs in witchcraft and the powers of darkness, the truth about Captain Stretton comes to light.  And the haunting riddle of the Secret Woman is finally revealed...
Here we have a variation on the Women Running From Houses theme--Woman Standing in Front of a Palm Tree.

This book actually got me thinking: namely that Gothic Romances share a lot of the ingredients of crime fiction, but they're mixed in different proportions.  Here we have a story filled with crime--murders, attempted murder, sabotage (the hero's ship is blown up), theft (the priceless diamonds mentioned above), blackmail and identity theft (the plot's resolution turns on the swapping of two babies many years before).  Yet none of these seem really important--instead the story focuses on the emotions of our rather passive heroine.

Again, unlike in crime fiction, no one actively seeks to solve the crimes or bring the perpetrators to justice in this book .  The heroine, as I said, is rather passive and very naive.  She lets things happen to her rather than directing events.  The hero is absent through most of the book and if anything, is even less interested in investigating mysteries than the heroine.  There's an anti-heroine (in another kind of story she'd be a femme fatale!) who is responsible for the murders and attempted murders.  However her misdeeds take place offstage--and her downfall is recorded in a short chapter and is brought about by accident.  None of her co-conspirators are caught or face any kind of punishment for their crimes.

So I'm left imagining the story as written by a different author: a story where hard-boiled Captain Stretton searches for the men who blew up his ship and stole the diamonds, and tangles with the shady dame who tries to poison him....

Tuesday, July 19, 2016

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert (WDL Books, 1959)

Found in a dusty corner of "The Green Shed:

 

In 1857 when Madame Bovary was first published, the detailed realism of its love scenes shocked and horrified the entire populace of France; and Gustave Flaubert, its author, was made to stand trial for "immorality".

Since then, the brilliant, cynical story of Emma Bovary, who revolts against her bourgeois surroundings and her marriage only to find profound disillusionment in the arms of a shallow lover, has come to be regarded as one the masterpieces of nineteenth-century literature.

Flaubert's aim was to give an impersonal, objective account of emotions and events, without any of the moralizing which was then the literary fashion.  His Madame Bovary stands today as the perfect model of fictional "realism".
Flaubert's infamous adulteress is sexed-up, 1950s style, on the cover of this paperback.  Maybe it's her anachronistic makeup, or her backless nightwear (and seriously, how is she keeping that garment from falling off?) but this picture does not say "nineteenth century novel" to me.  It doesn't even say "notorious nineteenth century novel" to me.  I could imagine an ignorant reader mistaking this one for contemporary sleaze, and finding himself with something quite different!

Friday, July 15, 2016

Cop Hater by Ed McBain (Permabooks, 1962)


The headlines screamed:
KILLER SLAYS SECOND COP!

First Mike Reardon--his face nearly blasted away.  Then young Dave Foster, sprawled on the concrete with a chest full of slugs.  Only a maniac could have done it, people said.  Only a raging cop hater.

With only one meager clue, Detective Steve Carella began his grim search: a search that led him through the city's low life to a notorious brothel, to the apartment of a beautiful and dangerous widow, and finally to a room where the cop hater was waiting--waiting with a .45 automatic loaded and ready to kill again.
The back cover invites us to watch "the compelling television series based on Ed McBain's 87th Precinct novels each week on NBC".  Doing a quick search on IMDB I learned that the series was called "87th Precinct" (very original!) starred Robert Lansing and Ron Harper and ran for all of one season in 1961-62.  Clearly the TV audience of the time didn't find the show all that compelling.

Wednesday, July 13, 2016

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne (Scholastic, 1971)


The desperate men cling to the giant hulk in the water.  Suddenly its iron body begins to move - to sink!  They'll all be drowned!  But a panel slides open and the terrified men are drawn inside - inside Captain Nemo's incredible underwater ship.

Have you seen the exciting film based on this book?  (Walt Disney Productions)
Another version of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea--this time abridged for young readers, and with the adventure aspects of the story played up.

(The "exciting film"  mentioned on the back cover of this book is the same film James Mason starred in in 1954.  It leads me to wonder how the children of 1971 were expected to watch it, long after the film's initial release but years before the advent of home videos.  Did Disney re-release at some stage?  Was it shown regularly on television?  I guess I'll never know for sure.)

Friday, July 8, 2016

Enemy of Rome by Leonard Cottrell (Pan, 1962)

Another paperback from The Green Shed:


In May, 218 B.C., Hannibal of Carthage set out from Spain with over 100,000 troops--the most tremendous fighting force assembled since the days of Alexander the Great.

His destination--Rome.  His aim--the destruction of its great empire.

So began an immortal campaign that lasted sixteen fierce and bloody years...revealed Hannibal as an inspired military genius...and culminated in a battle of giants which was to decide the fate of European civilisation.
 It's an epic story all right--so why is the cover so bloody dull?

I mean, it was a military campaign that abounded in such picturesque things as Roman legions, Gaulish warriors fighting "naked to the navel", the Alps, pitched battles and elephants--and the best the cover artist could do was squeeze a few of these into the background?  You have to look very carefully even to see the elephants!

0/10 for your cover design, Pan.  0/10!

Thursday, July 7, 2016

Killer's Wedge by Ed McBain (Permabooks, 1959)


SQUADROOM 87TH PRECINCT 

Four cops getting through a routine day.  Complaints, interrogations, reports--holdups, beatings, rapes, murders.

Then in walks a dame in black.

"Yes?" asks Detective Cotton Hawes.

She reaches into her coat pocket and pulls out a cold, hard object.

"This is a .38," she says and points it at the four men.  "Give me your guns."

"Look, Lady," says Hawes, "put up the piece.  The joke's not funny."

The dame's eyes narrow to slits.  "Shut up, Copper.  I've come here to kill.  One phony move and I keep shooting until every man in this place is dead."

And the award for All Time Most Awkward Posture goes... to the "dame" on the front cover.   Seriously.  I think she's supposed to have one of her feet resting on a chair rung, but it looks like she's doing some kind of seated can can dance.

(Incidentally, at no time in this book is she referred to as a "dame".  We're spared that cliché at least.  Nor do the cops in the book commit any beatings, rapes or murders.  It's not that kind of story!) 


Monday, July 4, 2016

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne (Fontana, 1955)


A remarkable thing about 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA is that it forecast the submarine some thirty years before this class of warship was invented.  It is strange, too, that when Jules Verne wrote this book the world should be on the threshold of a new era of steam and electricity.  For now, as we enter the atomic age we find ourselves preoccupied with the same fascinating and frightening dilemma--the onslaught of science on Nature.

This exciting story, narrated with all the gripping realism of modern science fiction, opens with an eminent French scientist, his servant and a famous harpooner embarking on a U.S. warship in search of the unknown monster at large in the oceans.  In the disaster of their first encounter with it, the three men are washed overboard and are taken prisoners in what is revealed to them as a monster submarine, propelled by electricity generated from the sea itself.  They also meet the proud and mysterious Captain Nemo, whose grievance against mankind has caused him to seek solitude in the depths--a forceful character brilliantly portrayed by James Mason in the current film success.
Wow!   I have memories of reading this one many years ago as a child.  This edition is prefaced by a Very Serious Introduction to the work, touting its literary credentials, but I remember the book as an adventure story.  I wanted a submarine of my own after reading it!

(Interestingly, the back cover of this paperback mentions James Mason in the 1954 film adaption of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, but there is no other hint that this might be a movie tie-in!)

Tuesday, June 28, 2016

Hickory Dickory Dock by Agatha Christie (Fontana, 1958)

I found this one at a trash and treasure market:


Curious things are happening in a students' hostel.

Various ill-assorted objects disappear--a powder compact, bath salts, an electric light bulb.  A rucksack is slashed, a silk scarf is wantonly cut up.

Hercule Poirot visits the hostel.  He observes the occupants closely--Colin McNabb, the flaming, redheaded medical student; dark, clever Valerie Hobhouse who works in a beauty parlour, and all the others.  At first their relationships and characters, though intricate seem innocent, but Poirot is uneasy.  Gradually his worst fears are confirmed, a murder is committed and one after another all sorts of ugly details come to light.

Once more Hercule Poirot--and Agatha Christie--achieve a masterpiece of detection.
Hmmm.... a "flaming" medical student!

This book is ventures into strange territory for Agatha Christie.  Usually she was most at home in the world of upper-middle class England--a world of retired colonels and village clergymen--with occasional excursions into the haunts of high society.  A student hostel, on the other hand, is not only less genteel than the places she usually sets her novels, but is decidedly more modern as well.  First published in 1955 when Christie was nearly 65, the student characters in Hickory Dickory Dock belong to a much younger generation than the author.  In a way this book shows Christie's discomfort with the changing world of the mid-twentieth century, an unease that became more evident in her stories as the 1950s became the 1960s. 

(Incidentally, are couple on the cover of this edition of Hickory Dickory Dock are meant to be the students in question?  If so, they're oddly middle-aged for undergraduates!)

Saturday, June 25, 2016

The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan (Pan, 1967)

From the Green Shed:


THE THIRTY-NINE STEPS
a story of adventure which for sheer excitement has never been surpassed

'Remains the definitive story of espionage, intrigue and pursuit - terse, taut, endlessly inventive, and as delightfully fresh as the day it was written'
NEW YORK TIMES
Pan doesn't bother describing the story on the back cover of this book. After all, the plot is well known--having been adapted for film, television and radio. Instead it tells potential readers how good it is.  And it is--one of the classics!

Thursday, June 16, 2016

A Penknife in My Heart by Nicholas Blake (Fontana, 1960)

One last book by Nicholas Blake--found at the Lifeline Bookfair:


Charles Hammer was ruthless ; he needed money quickly and he would get it if a certain person died.  When he met Ned Stowe he saw how he could commit the perfect murder.

Ned was by no means ruthless--but he was desperate.  Passionately in love with Laura, he was tied to a neurotic, clinging wife.  He sometimes felt he'd do anything to get rid of her.

Hammer proposes a contract.  As it works out it binds the two men together in a terrible grip which only death can relax.
If this plot seems familiar, it is.  Patricia Highsmith told the same basic story in Strangers on a Train (1950).  (Of course Blake denied having read Strangers on a Train, or having seen the Hitchcock movie of the same name!)

Saturday, June 11, 2016

The Lady in the Morgue by Jonathan Latimer (Pan, 1959)

Another piece of loot from my Lifeline Bookfair crime spree:


Lively DEATH

PRIVATE EYE, WILLIAM CRANE, juggles with the identity of one dead blonde and sundry live ones, cuts grim mortuary capers over a volcano of violence and reminds us that there's no place--in crime fiction--like Chicago!
"Hardboiled" would be the only word to describe this book.  The plot involves a stolen corpse, competing gangsters and a murdered morgue attendant (you can see the murderer bringing down a cosh on the poor guy's head to the right of the cover.)   Oh yes, and there are sundry Dangerous Dames floating about the story (including a group of taxi dancers in a sleazy dance hall.)

In brief: generic but fun!

Thursday, June 2, 2016

Tibetan Journey by George N. Patterson (Readers Book Club, 1956)

Someone must have taken a keen interest in Tibet, around 1956.  I found this in the Green Shed along with Seven Years in Tibet:


When the Chinese Communists broke into Tibet, George N. Patterson was engaged in missionary work there--a labor of love.  He had to leave in a hurry, and, for vitally important reasons, made a dash for India.  Yet, despite the urgency of his Tibetan Journey - which maintains a throb of excitement all through the book - the author succeeds in presenting a magnificent picture of a superb, secretive and little-known land, with its hair-raising perils, strange customs, and tough, quaint, "earthy" people.
It's strange to think that Tibet is now a tourist destination!  This book was written when travelling to Tibet was the Real Deal--something that only the most hardy and the most adventurous would undertake.  It's not a romantic account of the country (indeed, the author expresses scorn for the "Shangri-La" fantasies some people have about Tibet).  It makes no bones about describing the hardship and poverty the author encountered.  However--and this is Tibetan Journey's best feature--the author never treats any of the people he meets as anything less than individuals.  The book's blurb may describe the Tibetans as "quaint", the author most certainly does not!

Thursday, May 26, 2016

The Case of the Fan Dancer's Horse by Erle Stanley Gardner (WDL Books, 1959)


If you find a couple of ostrich-plume fans and a pair of white dancing slippers and advertise it in a "Found" column, you don't expect to receive a reply about a lost horse.  Yet that was what happened to Perry Mason after he and Della Street had witnessed a car accident.  It was amusing, intriguing, yet very deadly - particularly deadly.

But then he is visited by John Callender, who says he is acting on behalf of "Cherie Chi-Chi", a fan dancer.  And hot on his heels comes Mr. Arthur Sheldon, also trying to claim possession of the horse.

So it appears there is a horse!  That maybe... but there is certainly one of the most beautiful clients Perry Mason has ever had, and presently, there is also a corpse, attached to a Japanese sword.
The fan dancer is very much in evidence on the cover.  Not so her horse!

(Actually, the case involves two fan dancers, and the fan dancers' fans play a more of a role in the plot than the horse.  Never mind--The Case of the Fan Dancer's Horse is a thoroughly entertaining little mystery.  It's one of the earlier Perry Mason books too, so it isn't quite as by-the-numbers as later works in this series!)

Thursday, May 19, 2016

Head of a Traveller by Nicholas Blake (Fontana, 1962)

Yet another prize from my Lifeline Bookfair Crime Spree!


They found the body in the Thames--the head, weeks later, in a string bag hanging on a tree.
 Short and sweet--and oh, boy, doesn't it make you want to read more!

Mind you, the blurb makes the book appear more hardboiled and gritty than it is.  And if it had been published in America, and started with the discovery of a headless corpse floating in the Hudson or San Francisco Bay, this book probably would be that kind of detective story.  One would expect the hero (either a jaded PI or a world-weary cop) to track the murderer through the mean back streets of the city, encountering various underworld types along the way.   However, Head of a Traveller was written by a British author, and the detective is a gentleman amateur who tracks the murderer to the country estate of a poet!




Sunday, May 15, 2016

Seven Years in Tibet by Heinrich Harrer (Pan, 1956)

A rather battered copy of the classic travel book, found in a corner of the Green Shed:


SEVEN YEARS IN TIBET has been described as 'the greatest travel book of our time'.  Yet even this comendation does not do justice to the unique experiences which it unfolds.  No European has ever before penetrated into that inaccessible land in such strange circumstances, or has succeeded in staying there so long.  Heinrich Harrer, well known Austrian mountaineer and Olympic ski-ing champion, was climbing in the Himalayas when caught by the outbreak of war, and was interned by the British in India.  With a companion, he escaped at his third attempt and crossed the Himalayas into Tibet.  After many desolate marches and strange adventures, they reached the Forbidden City of Lhasa, where they were eventually allowed to remain and earn a living.  They found the traditional insularity of Tibet leavened with a new appetite for Western knowledge and ideas.  Their fame quickly spread.  Soon they were in great demand as advisers on many subjects on which they knew little.  The day came when Harrer was presented to the young Dalai Lama, the god-king; he became the boy's friend and tutor and was permitted a degree of intimacy which awed the people and worried the religious hierarchy.  After the War's end, Harrer stayed on, but when Communist China invaded Tibet he accompanied the Dalai Lama in flight to India, and then returned sadly to Europe.  His remarkable account of his experiences is illustrated with a number of his fine photographs.  A film of this book has been made by Seven League Productions, with Harrer himself playing the chief part.
There's really not a lot I can add to this detailed description--except Seven Years in Tibet was made into a movie again in 1997, this time starring Brad Pitt.