Friday, January 13, 2017

Rocket Invasion by King Lang (Curtis Books, 1950)

I found this on a stall at the Sunday Markets in Port Adelaide:


... a digest-sized publication so down-market that it doesn't even bother with a back cover blurb.  Instead it gives us an advertisement for this:
Glama, the Oriental Charm of Luck and Love!

Turning from the advertisements to the story, Rocket Invasion follows the adventures of a former Space Corps officer with the odd name of Chan Houston, his inexplicably hot girlfriend Loraine Castle, and his somewhat smug android, Norbert.   (Maybe he's overcompensating for his name.  Who on Earth names an android "Norbert", anyway?)

Norbet is clearly the brains of the outfit, a sort of Jeeves with Gears.  It's just as well someone is on the ball, because Earth is about to be invaded by a force of blue, sword-wielding humanoids.  And though the story is halted several times to tell us androids cannot lie--Norbert spends a lot of his time telling plausible porkies to the aliens who have Houston and company prisoner.

King Land was a pseudonym for George Hay, John W. Jennison and E.C. Tubb. 


Wednesday, January 4, 2017

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie (Fontana, 1959)

Found on a stall at Fishermen's Wharf Markets in Port Adelaide:

Thundering along on its three days' journey across Europe, the famous Orient Express suddenly comes to a stop in the night.
Snowdrifts block the line somewhere in the Balkans.  Everything is quiet and passengers quickly settle down for the night, including Hercule Poirot.
In the morning an American millionaire is found stabbed, many times--Poirot is very much wanted.  The untrodden snow seems to prove that the murderer is still on board.  Poirot begins to think--and a brilliantly ingenious solution is found...
 And without a doubt, the solution is brilliant ingenious.  (No, I'm not going to tell you what it is.  This blog is a Spoiler Free Zone!  If you haven't already read Murder on the Orient Express--one of Christie's best known books--do so and find out the solution for yourself.)

This is the sort of plotting that earned Agatha Christie the sobriquet "the Queen of Crime".  At times her prose was merely functional, her characters two-dimensional, her attitudes snobbish and old-fashioned.  She was never adverse to using stereotypes, particularly when depicting foreigners or members of the lower classes.  However, she knew how to weave together the real clues and red herrings to create a mystery that kept the reader guessing right to the end.