Thursday, April 26, 2018

The Valley of the Ghosts by Edgar Wallace (Pan, 1959)

Another Lifeline Bookfair find:


Something brooding...
something evil....
'There's something evil about it, he said.  'Queer word for me to use, MacLeod, eh?  They touch your elbow as you walk—ghosts!  That's how I've named it the Valley of the Ghosts.  Go and stay a day or so in Beverley Green and smell it for yourself—something brooding...'
DR ANDREW MACLEOD, pathologist and detective extraordinare, was never one to refuse a challange...

Friday, April 20, 2018

The Privateer by Josephine Tey (Pan, 1967)

Thanks to the Green Shed, where I found this one:


The thrilling, swashbuckling story of Henry Morgan...
A freed bondsman, he captured his first Spanish ship with eleven men.
He became the scourge of Spain from the West Indies to Panama. 
He found romance but the sea always called him back to new, ever more daring adventures. 
Set against the stirring background of 300 years ago when dashing privateers risked their lives for treasure and conquest, this exciting book by a famous historical novelist is compellingly readable... vividly alive.

Ahhhrrr!  Buckle me swash, and set me mainsails!  It's a "based on a true story" historical novel, which means most of the people are real, and some of the events, but it's all highly romanticised.  The author, by the way, is better known for her mysteries than for her historical romances!  And a warning—some of the attitudes in this book are not politically correct by modern standards, and may even cause offence.

(The cover looks a bit strange in this scan because a previous owner had covered the book in plastic, and I couldn't remove it without damaging the cover.)


Friday, April 13, 2018

Computer War and Code Duello by Mack Reynolds (Ace Double, 1973)

Ooh, look, it's an Ace Double!


THE ODDS WERE RIGHT FOR VICTORY
The problem with computer warfare is that the computer is always logical while the human enemy is not—or doesn't have to be.
And that's what the Betastani enemy were doing—nothing that the Alphaland computers said they would.  Those treacherous foemen were avoiding logic and using such unheard-of devices as surprise and sabotage, treason and trickery.  They even had Alphaland's Department of Information believing Betastani propaganda without even realising it.
Of course he still thought he was being loyal to Alphaland, because he thought one and one must logically add up to two.  And that kind of thinking could make him the biggest traitor of all.



Section G, the top secret security unit of United planets, had a special problem on their hands with the situation on Firenze.  And for that special problem , they gathered together the most unusual squad in Section G's unusual history.  It included:
A research scientist who could bend steel bars like rubber band—
A middle-aged lady with total total recall— 
An interplanetary cowboy whose bullwhip was deadlier than a ray gun— 
A brazen young lady acrobat who looked like an eight year-old kid— 
A mild young man who never lost a bet in his life— 
And the best pickpocket that ever lived. 
But Firenze with its CODE DUELLO  was to prove a match for the lot of them!

A late entry in the Ace Doubles series by an author with a sense of fun and a knowledge of history.  (Sometimes too much knowledge of history, as he stops to explain the historical parallels with what his characters are doing.)  However, for the most part these short novels are romps, blending the spy genre with space opera.  If you're looking for some light reading and a little bit of relief from the real world, you could do far worse than a book by Mack Reynolds.