Showing posts with label 1958. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1958. Show all posts

Thursday, October 4, 2018

Dark Duet by Peter Cheyney (Pan, 1958)

(For the Fontana edition of the same book, go here.)


COUNTER ESPIONAGE!
IN THIS BUSINESS YOU'RE EITHER A BRAVE MAN ... OR A DEAD ONE
A look of intense surprise came over Mrs Marques's face.  Then her mouth opened.
Her face twisted in supreme agony for a split second; then she slumped sideways on the settee.
You have to be as tough as seven devils in hell for Process 5 ... but it's artistic.
"Process 5" is murder... of course!

Thursday, September 20, 2018

Sweet Thursday by John Steinbeck (Pan, 1958)

Found in a corner of The Green Shed:


Boisterous, Light-hearted, Impudent! 
High spirits, robust and tender humour, in this gay story by America's famous novelist
JOHN
STEINBECK

AT Cannery Row, derelict Californian seaside town, Doc's friends are worried.  Doc's a scientist who makes a scanty living by collecting and selling marine specimens.  He's unhappy, needs looking after.
What to do?  Marry him off, of course. But to whom?  Well, there's the new girl at the house called Bear Flag.  She's tough and pretty, and not really good at her job because "she's got a streak of lady in her." 
Will Doc take her on?  Suzy is suspicious, Doc needs prodding.  But when Suzy goes to live respectably in an abandoned boiler, things start moving. 
Warning: not for the prudish!
I'm not a big fan of Steinbeck, but I love this cover.  Artist: Cy Webb.

Monday, February 12, 2018

Three Books by Agatha Christie (Fontana, 1958-1961)

I'm beginning to think I should re-name this blog "I Found It At the Lifeline Bookfair"!  I found these on a small table devoted solely to the books of Agatha Christie at last weekend's Autumn book fair:

A Pocket Full of Rye (1958)


"An unusual sound penetrated through the almost sound-proof door of Mr. Fortescue's office.  Muffled, it was yet fully recognisable, a strangled agonised cry..." 
Even as Miss Grosvenor, Mr. Fortescue's secretary, came up to him, his body was convulsed in a painful spasmodic movement. 
Words came out in jerky gasps. 
"Tea—what the hell—you put in the tea—get help—quick get a doctor—"
And that is, unfortunately, the end of Mr. Fortescue—but the beginning of one of Agatha Christie's most ingenious stories that takes all of the skill of Inspector Neale to solve.
 

The Labours of Hercules (1961)


A modern 'Labours of Hercules'—it was an idea that appealed to Hercule Poirot.
In the period before his retirement, he decided to undertake twelve cases with special reference to the twelve labours of ancient Hercules.
Amusing and original, each case more baffling than the last, we guarantee the Labours of Hercules will test the wits of the most ingenious armchair detective.


Peril At End House (1961) 


An
unknown
agent
was
methodically
planning
her
death 
—the heavy picture that fell across her bed
—the rock that landed at her feet
—the car brakes that failed

NOW—a bullet that missed her head by inches

Fontana cover artists of the late 50s and early 60s clearly had a thing for depicting young women in peril!

Tuesday, September 5, 2017

An Axe to Grind by Erle Stanley Gardner (Four Square, 1958)


In this hard-hitting, swift-moving murder mystery the author introduces that notable private eye, Donald Lam, confidential agent of Cool & Lam.  He has said goodbye to the Navy, and is looking for peace and quiet. 
But before he has time to say "Hello" to Bertha Cool, trouble walks into the office.
Within thirty minutes, Donald is off to the Rimley rendezvous, a place for lonely women with little to do and money to spend.  From then on it's a matter of corpses and cops, with a beautiful girl called Billy Prue who gets herself into trouble. 
A. A. Fair (now known to be Erle Stanley Gardner, world's record-seller in detective fiction) has written an original murder story, salty with American dialogue and wisecracks.
Wow!  Another Cool and Lam mystery, which is great.  (This is easily the best series Erle Stanley Gardner ever wrote.  Really.)  Not so great is the cover.  It looks like the artist fell asleep during anatomy drawing class.  Either that, or he had serious problems with perspective.  I know the dame opening the door in the picture is meant to be leaning forwards, but her top half is dangerously out of proportion with the rest of her!

Wednesday, July 5, 2017

The Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov (Panther, 1958)

A gift from a friend who knows me far too well:


A CRIME THAT COULD INFLAME A GALAXY...

A Spaceman--a specialist in robotics--has been murdered.  Lije Baley, a plain-clothesman of his age, combs the huge cave of steel for a lone fanatic, for a murderer--for the solution to an almost perfect crime.
One of the two men on the cover is a robot—I'm not sure, but I think it is the one who is unconscious.  Don't quote me on that, though!

Isaac Asimov was one of the Big Three names of the "golden age" of science fiction (the others were Arthur C. Clarke and Robert Heinlein).  Asimov is most famous for inventing the Three (fictional) Laws of Robotics:
  
"A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law."

 In The Caves of Steel he combines a science fiction novel with a detective story, a combination of genres that for some reason seldom works.  And yet it works in this one.  I put it down to the fact Asimov creates an interesting futuristic setting for his story, then makes it integral to that story rather than using it as window-dressing.  His detectives move through an overcrowded urban world where people huddle under domes and hate and fear the outdoors—and robots.  It's an almost film noir-ish setup—except Asimov was far too prissy and logically-minded to indulge in the sort of sex and violence common in most hardboiled fiction!

Need I add that one of the detectives is a robot and the resolution of this mystery lies in the world outside the domes?

I have another copy of this—also a Panther Book—but alas, it was published in the 1970s, and the cover isn't nearly as interesting.


Thursday, March 2, 2017

Corpse at the Carnival by George Bellairs (Thriller Bookclub, 1958)

Another Lifeline Bookfair treasure!


In his latest thriller, George Bellairs takes us back to the lovely and haunting Isle of Man.

It is holiday time in Douglas, and a carnival crowd engulfs a solitary, elderly man, who is peacefully gazing out to sea.  When the procession passes, the old man quietly dies.  He is found to have a knife wound in his back.  He is, at first, merely an anonymous victim, known casually to a few locals as Uncle Fred.  Superintendent Littlejohn, called to visit his old friend the Rev. Caesar Kinrade, Archdeacon of Man, on his way home from a police conference in Dublin, is asked by his comrade Inspector Knell, of the Manx C.I.D., to give him a hand in the case, unofficially.

As the inquiry progresses, Uncle Fred is virtually brought to life again by Littlejohn.  The lost years of his past are found again, his friends and his foes appear, the events leading up to his strange death fall in line and, gradually, the picture of the murderer appears.

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...

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!)

Tuesday, April 12, 2016

A Tangled Web by Nicholas Blake (Fontana, 1958)

Another book from my Lifeline Bookfair crime spree:


"... Daisy was conscious of his eyes upon her... something flashed between them, like magnesium, and in that instant he was printed on her memory for ever--the thin, swarthy face, the mouth arrested in a half-smile, the eyes brown, alert, ready to dance, with a sort of wildness asleep behind their steady gaze.  A poacher's face she said to herself ... she might as well have said an angel's ... or a fallen angel's--she was never to care which..."

Daisy and Hugo's love is a tangled web of joy and tragedy, vice and innocence, betrayal and loyalty.  This is a story which cannot be put down.
Who is the tough cookie on the cover of the book?  She certainly isn't Daisy, for Daisy is a true innocent (albeit one with bad taste in boyfriends!)

A Tangled Web is an updated and  fictionalised retelling of the story of John Williams, who was hanged for murder in 1913,  and of his mistress Florence Seymour.

Thursday, April 7, 2016

A History of Courting by E.S. Turner (Pan, 1958)


Down deep in hell there let them dwell
and bundle on that bed
Then turn and roll without control
Till all their lusts are fed.

That was how they did it in America in the 18th century.  Bundling it was called.  Not as naughty as it sounds.

In Moscow in 1952 they courted quite differently.  It went like this: The boy was a collective farmer, and the girl a tractor driver working on the same night-shift.  Sighed the girl: 'How wonderful it is to work on such a beautiful night under the full moon and do one's utmost to save petrol!'  Exclaimed the boy: 'The night inspires me to over-fulfill my quota by a higher and still higher percentage.'  Later he admitted: 'I fell in love with your working achievement from the very first moment.

There's no end to the different methods employed in this enchanting game, practised by nearly all of us some time or another.

You'll love this book.  It's instructive.  It's fascinating!
Here we have a very decorous couple from the 1950s looking at a picture of a not-so-decorous couple from an earlier era.  It all seems a bit too clean-cut and peachy keen to be true: surely the 1950s was the era of making out in drive-ins and in the back seats of cinemas?

The answer is, it was, and this book is happy to record it.  It also discusses--yes!--bundling, along with valentines, chaperones, flappers and a thousand and one other elements of courtship in days gone by.  And of course it also has fun with the thoughts of various "experts" on love, marriage and morals through the centuries.

Thursday, March 31, 2016

Timeliner by Charles Eric Maine (Corgi, 1955)



TIMELINER!

The fascinating and provocative story of Hugh Macklin--an alien lost in endless futures--fighting desperately to return to his own era.
 Here we have a late fifties cover adorned with abstract art--the sort of art that doesn't really tell us much about the story inside the book.   There's a man--presumably the protagonist--fractured into six tiny squares.  There's a hazily-rendered back view of a naked woman.  And the background is a mix of random lines and swirls in a fetching shade of grey.  It's all rather bleh.  Give me a science fiction cover depicting rockets, doughty astronauts and scantily clad space amazons in metallic bras any day!

 For the record, the book is about a man whose consciousness travels through time, jumping from host to host like the hero of "Quantum Leap".   It's a well-written, if not particularly great book, with a nice twist at the end.


Sunday, February 21, 2016

The Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie (Pan, 1958 and 1963)

Here we have two versions of the same book, from the same publisher, but printed five years apart.  They provide proof that while things always change they don't necessarily improve.   First, the version from 1958:


THE SECRET ADVERSARY tells how two young people advertise for adventure and are caught in a whirlpool of international intrigue which almost costs them their lives.  A gay and exciting thriller!
 A woman, held at gunpoint, hands over documents to the mysterious figure in the foreground.  The cover doesn't tell you who the woman is, or what the documents are, but it certainly lets you know that what you're about to read is a crime thriller.

Next, the version published in 1963:


Two Innocents in search of adventure.

An Elusive Young Woman holder of a vital secret

A Faceless Man with a Blueprint for Anarchy

The woman being held at gunpoint has been replaced by a picture of a dark and gloomy mansion.  While the art isn't bad, the contents of the book could be anything: a Gothic romance, a collection of ghost stories, and traditional murder-in-a-country-house whodunnit.

At least Pan's copy writers had learned to write snappier blurbs for their back covers--albeit ones with really strange ways of using capital letters!

Tuesday, December 8, 2015

The House of the Seven Flies by Victor Canning (Hodder and Stoughton, 1958)

Another book from the Lifeline Bookfair:


A sunken launch.  It couldn't be much more than a couple of fathoms near the island ... one could dive without any elaborate outfit ... a steel deed-box, small enough to lift.  It sounded too easy ... Perhaps it was.
 (Page 111)
World War II and its aftermath inspired a whole generation of thrillers.  This one sees a gaggle of rival crooks searching the Netherlands for lost Nazi loot.  The good guys (such as the are) eventually wind up with it, but not without a lot of plot twists and turns along the way.