A Cure for Serpents by Alberto Denti di Pirajno (Pan, 1957)

 

 Breath taking in its frank and joyous account of extraordinary adventures, this book is the fruit of many years spent in the former North African colonies of Italy. The Duke's medical skills and genius for friendship made in welcome in gorgeous palace and humble tent. He tells of:

• His patients in closely guarded harems
• The veiled Tuaregs and their 'courts of love'
• The Negress who charmed poisonous scorpions
• The Arab with a serpent in his stomach
• The strange life and death of a pet lioness 

The author, whose dukedom was created in 1642 by Philip IV, King of Spain and Sicily, joined the Italian Colonial Administration after five years' service in Africa as a doctor, and in 1941 became Governor of Tripoli.

The Green Ribbon by Edgar Wallace (Arrow, 1957)

 

She inherited a fortune--& sinister misfortune...

Young, wealthy and beautiful Edna Gray suddenly found herself, like a fly, caught in a web of sinister intrigue.  New to the racing game, she found that one of her tenants, Elijah Goodie--the famous racing owner and trainer--was indulging in strange, nocturnal activities...

And alone in the dark Perrywig Caves--she awaited a horrible death.

Well might Our Heroine be afraid--she's being pursued by a floating man emerging out of what appears to be a pink radioactive cloud!

As Edgar Wallace thrillers go, this one isn't bad mainly because the plot is halfway believable.  Criminals have set up syndicates to cheat at the races.  However Edgar Wallace can't resist adding a few over-the-top flourishes to this basic story--his chief villain is slain by panthers!

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?

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!

The Ringer by Edgar Wallace (Pan, 1957)

More Edgar Wallace.  This one was found in The Green Shed:

 

THE RINGER, considered by many Wallace 'fans' to be the best of his thrillers, tells of a killer known by this name, whose exploits had terrified London--such a master of disguise that the police had never been able to circulate a description of him.  Mixed up with the Ringer was a tricky lawyer of Deptford, Maurice Meister.  Now young Detective-Inspector Alan Wembury is taking over the Deptford police division, and is hoping to marry Mary Lenley, who has recently become Meister's secretary.  News comes that The Ringer, who had been traced to Australia and was reported dead, is back in London.  Meister will be his next victim, for he left his sister in Meister's charge and her body was found in the Thames.  Soon a gaunt stranger is shadowing the frightened lawyer, who seeks police protection. Wembury is involved in an affair of extreme difficulty, complicated by the fact that Mary's brother, ruined by association with criminals, is jailed for robbery--and Meister knows more of this than he will admit.  Moreover, the unpopular, bearded Inspector Bliss, just returned from America, is working along his own lines to solve the problem.  Who is The Ringer?  It will be a clever reader who can spot him before the very end of the story.

With a summary that detailed, it's hardly necessary to read the book!  And given we're talking about Edgar Wallace here, probably just as entertaining.  Just skip to the last chapter to find out who actually was The Ringer.

(Edgar Wallace was a best seller in his day, but his books have dated woefully.  However they were reprinted often--well into the middle of last century.  Delightful paperbacks like this one turn up quite regularly on charity stalls and in junk shops, so expect to see a few of them featuring on my blog!)

4000 Years Under the Sea by Philippe Diolé (Pan, 1957)

The fascinating pursuit of undersea archaeology has been much developed in recent years.  In this book Philippe Diolé , who wrote The Undersea Adventure, tells enthusiastically of 'free diving' experiences off the coasts of Southern France and North Africa.  He shows that the rewards are not won without a hard struggle.  A sunk ship laden with statues or wine-jars may be located; but it will be buried under a dozen feet of oozy mud.  A statue may be so encrusted with molluscs or overgrown with sea vegetation as to be unrecognisable.  To expose the walls of a Roman villa lying beneath the Mediterranean, divers worked four years, lifting first a top layer of sand, next a clay deposit thirty inches deep, and finally digging into pebbles and mud.  By linking the discoveries with history, M. Diolé gives fascinating information about seamanship, trade, wines and the spread of cultures in antiquity.

Appointment With Death by Agatha Christie (Pan, 1957)

Another book I bought for its cover!

 

"You do see, don't you, that she's got to be killed?"

These startling words overheard by Hercule Poirot in a Jerusalem hotel, open

APPOINTMENT WITH DEATH

by Agatha Christie

 The speaker is a young American, Raymond Boynton; he is talking to his sister Carol about their stepmother.  Old Mrs. Boynton, it appears, was a prison wardress before her marriage, and her ingrained lust for power and cruelty has gradually driven her family to desperation.  While she lives, there can be no happiness for any of them.  Soon an expedition is arranged to Petra, "the rose-red city"; and there a death occurs.  The problem is taken up by Colonel Carbury in Amman just as Poirot arrives with a letter of introduction to him.  And so the little Belgian detective becomes involved in one of the most extraordinary cases of his career.

Trust me on this: in his entire career, Hercule Poirot has never become involved in an ordinary case.

(The back cover blurb is a strangely unexciting summary of the first half of the book.  And it's in the passive voice too--an expedition "is arranged" and a death "occurs".  No, a death didn't "occur"--this is Agatha Christie.  Someone was murdered!)

The Case of the Backward Mule by Erle Stanley Gardner (Pan, 1957)

I got this one from a bookshop in Tasmania via eBay:

 

Chase in San Francisco's Chinatown

To baffle the lie-detector clamped on his arm, Terry Clane practises the intense concentration he learned in the Orient.  But the sight of a little Chinese figure--an old man riding backward on a mule--sends the indicator-needle leaping; for he'd given it once to Cynthia, his former fiancee and close friend of a man convicted of murder who has escaped.  Says the police examiner: "Either there's something I haven't accurately diagnosed or else ... you murdered Horace Farnsworth."  Then begins a grim game of hide-and-seek through Chinatown.

Erle Stanley Gardner--a prolific mystery writer, best known as the author of 82 (!) Perry Mason books.  None of his works could be described as great literature (not surprisingly, given his output) but they are mostly entertaining light reading.  I find them great reading for the daily commute.

The Case of the Backward Mule is one of the (many) books Gardner managed to write when he was not churning out Perry Mason mysteries.  The book has many "Chinese" elements, as you can see from the cover of this edition and the blurb.   It's interesting to note that Gardner probably drew upon his own experiences in writing this.  As a young lawyer he had many clients (and made some lifelong friends) among California's Chinese community.  Being the writer he was, you can't expect any deep insight into China or the Chinese from this book, nor is it entirely free of cliches, but it is surprisingly sympathetic and lacking in the racism of its era!