In the Teeth of the Evidence by Dorothy L. Sayers (New English Library, 1960)

I found this rather battered specimen in the (where else?) Green Shed:

All that was left of the garage was a heap of charred and smouldering beams.  In the driving seat of the burnt-out car were the remains of a body. 

An accident, said the police. 

An accident said the widow.  She had been warning her husband about the dangers of the car for months. 

Murder, said Lord Peter Wimsey . . . and proceeded to track down the killers.

In spite of the book's shabbiness, this cover really demonstrates how perspective and a limited palette can be used to create a dramatic image!

Four Books by Agatha Christie (Pan, 1955-1960)

And.... the Lifeline Bookfair continued!  Here I have another four paperbacks by Agatha Christie:

Five Little Pigs (1955)

Is the floating head meant to be Poirot?  Somehow I never pictured him as wearing glasses.

FIVE LITTLE PIGS starts with Carla Lemarchant calling on the famous detective Hercule Poirot.  She tells him she is really the daughter of the painter Amyas Crale for whose murder, sixteen years ago, her mother Caroline was sentenced to death.  Carla, convinced of her mother's innocence and eager to clear her name, persuades Poirot to investigate the case.  It appears that there are five people who are concerned (hence the book's title) from the nursery-rhyme about the five little pigs).  They are: Philip Blake, Crales's greatest friend; Philip's elder brother, Meredith; Elsa Greer, "the girl in the case", who is now Lady Dittisham; Cecilia Williams, the governess; and Angela Warren, Caroline's half-sister.  Poirot interviews each of the five.  Then each provides for him a written narrative of the events leading up to Crale's murder.  Finally, Poirot reconstructs the crime and reaches his startling conclusion.  Whether you will guess the solution before it is revealed will depend on your ability to avoid being deceived by the 'double twist' at the story's climax.

... And the back cover contains a solid block of text, ticking of all the main plot points and characters one by one.  Really, why buy the book when you can get a complete summary of the story on the back cover?

The Secret of Chimneys (1956)

THE SECRET OF CHIMNEYS.  This is Agatha Christie at her mysterious best.  Anthony Cade, who liked an exciting life, was in Bulawayo escorting a group of tiresome tourists for Castle's Select Tours when Jimmy McGrath, an old friend, turned up with an attractive offer: £250 if he would carry to a London publisher the memoirs of Count Stylpitch, late Prime Minister of Herzoslovakia.  Anthony jumps at it, and also agrees to find a lady named Virginia Revel and return to her some letters misguidedly bequeathed to McGrath as possible blackmail material.  He hasn't been in London long before the letters are stolen from him, and Virginia, a beautiful widow, finds a dead man in her study—shot with a revolver engraved with her name.  Then a Hersoslovakian envoy is shot at 'Chimneys', one of England's stately homes.  From there on, this light-hearted thriller moves at a terrific pace.  There are detectives French, British and American ; characters gay, scatter-brained, sinister and odious.  And there are murders, clues, secret passages, a fabulous jewel, a mysterious rose emblem, a curious organization called the Comrades of the Red Hand, an international jewel-thief called King Victor, and impersonations, assassinations and machinations.  At the end of it all Anthony, who has done most of the work and kept everyone (including the reader) guessing, claims a double reward ; a lovely lady and a very, very strange new job.

Another solid and pedestrian block of prose, this time listing all the story elements in one of Christie's early thrillers.  "But wait!  There's more!"

The ABC Murders (1959)

MR HERCULE POIROT

        YOU FANCY YOURSELF, DON'T YOU, AT SOLVING MYSTERIES THAT ARE TOO DIFFICULT FOR OUR POOR THICKHEADED  BRITISH POLICE?  LET US SEE, MR. CLEVER POIROT, JUST HOW CLEVER YOU CAN BE.  PERHAPS YOU'LL FIND THIS NUT TOO HARD TO CRACK.  LOOK OUT FOR ANDOVER ON THE 21ST OF THE MONTH

YOURS, ETC.,

A B C  

This letter disturbs the famous detective.  Sure enough, a Mrs. Archer is murdered at Andover on the 21st. 

A second lettter announces a murder at Bexhill: and Betty Barnard is found strangled. 

Then a third, at Churston, the victim being Sir Carmichael Clarke... a fourth, at Doncaster on the day of the great St. Leger race. 

Beside the corpse each time lies an ABC railway guide open at the name of the place where the crime occurs. 

A B C D... How far through the alphabet will the crazy murderer get?  Will his challenge to Poirot succeed?

Now this is better.  The back cover tells you just enough to spark your interest.   And The ABC Murders is one of Christie's more intriguing whodunnits, too. 

The Hound of Death (1960)

Here is Agatha Christie in a different mood.

Her first story, THE HOUND OF DEATH, is fair warning that she intends to make you shiver and think!

Each of the twelve stories underlines the remarkable versatility of this very remarkable writer.  Some, like THE RED SIGNAL and THE FOURTH MAN, may make you shift uneasily in your chair.  Others, like the ironic WIRELESS, will give you grim satisfaction. 

Tucked away in the middle, like a bonus, is a story which is clearly the origin of her world-wide stage and screen success, WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION.

And this is a volume of short stories, so we can forgive the blurb writer for selecting a handful of stories and telling us how we're going to react to them.  What really grabbed me was the picture on the front cover.  It's not often you see pictures of frightened men on the covers of books, and this chap is so plainly terrified he has got me intrigued!

Murder is Easy by Agatha Christie (Fontana, 1960)

Another from Fishermen's Wharf Markets:

 

  Murder is easy....

... so long as no one suspects you and the person in question is the last person one would suspect.

Surely you won't let Agatha Christie diddle you again--it would be again, wouldn't it?

I'm trying to figure out what's up with the woman on the cover.  I can't decide whether she is a) frightened, b) sinister or c) doing some weird kind of face toning exercise!

This Is Murder by Erle Stanley Gardner (WDL, 1960)

Sam Moraine, businessman, poker player and friend of the D.A. agreed as a lark to act as go-between in a kidnapping case.  Following instructions, he went to the boat, delivered $10,000 in old bills and received in exchange a bundle of blonde dynamite named Ann Hartwell.

As they reached the mooring float, they were met by the beam of a flashlight and a man's voice saying:

"You're under arrest, both of you.  Get your hands up in the air and keep them that way."

It was the Federal boys, and when they'd finished working him over, Sam thought the case was finished.

But it was only beginning.  What had started out as a simple adventure turned into a boiling mess of crooked politicians, double-crossing cops, ex-cons, a certain lady of elegant if easy virtue - and MURDER!

 Of course it did.

This is one of Gardner's earlier novels (first published in 1935 under the name of Charles J. Kenny) and not part of any of his series.   He'd been writing for nearly fifteen years before that, however, and he'd honed his craft publishing in magazines such as Black Mask and Detective Fiction Weekly.  In other words, he was already a slick and professional crime writer by the time this entertaining yarn was first released.

The Red Planet by Charles Chilton (Pan, 1960)

 

Blast off! to new heights of adventure and excitement

with JET MORGAN and the crewmen of the spaceship DISCOVERY, made famous in Charles Chilton's thrill-packed BBC radio series. 

In this book, Jet leads the first fleet of rocketships to reach across space from the Moon to the 'Red Planet', Mars.  But right from the beginning the expedition was ill-omened.  Uncanny happenings were to test their courage to breaking point, both on the long space flight and on the hostile planet itself.

Nerve-racking sequel to JOURNEY INTO SPACE

"Jet Morgan"!  Now there's a name that really belongs in a mid-century space opera.  And what better adventure for a mid-century space hero than to battle nefarious aliens on Mars?

Jet made his debut on BBC radio in 1953.  The Red Planet is a novelization of his second serial (also on radio) broadcast in 1954.   Both serials were immensely popular in their day--pulling a bigger audience in their timeslots than television.   They're available to download at Old Time Radio Download for anyone who's interested.

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!)

The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle (John Murray, 1960)

If you take the trouble of searching the dusty shed part of The Green Shed you can find some amazing stuff:

 

On a high plateau in South America a group of explorer-scientists led by the famous Professor Challenger discovered a huge tropical marsh surviving from prehistoric times inhabited by giant reptiles and the grotesque half-ape forerunners of man.  In the face of fantastic dangers they capture one of the flying reptiles and bring it back to London, where it escapes and causes havoc.  The Lost World was the first of the full-length novels of this kind, and its breathtaking combination of science and fiction and real characters keeps it without a rival.

Everyone knows Arthur Conan Doyle as the creator of Sherlock Holmes.  Less well known are his ventures into writing science fiction and fantasy.  The Lost World (1912) is the first in a series of three novels featuring the bullish and eccentric Professor Challenger: the others being The Poison Belt (1913) an end-of-the-world story, and The Land of Mist (1926) a rather too-credulous look at the claims of spiritualism.

This first novel is literally a "lost world" story, with Professor Challenger and his band of intrepid explorers finding an isolated plateau  in South America inhabited by dinosaurs.  Evidently South America was to the average person of 1912 as outer space is today--a place where anything could happen, and strange things  could be found!

The Clue of the Forgotten Murder by Erle Stanley Gardner (WDL Books, 1960)

 

The story begins when a cop investigated a man and a woman suspected of a gas station stick-up.  The man turned out to be Frank B. Cathay, prominent banker on a binge.  The girl disappeared.

The story deepened when a private eye was shot on a downtown street, presumably by a gangster.

The story got hot when Charles Morden, a reporter from "The Blade" investigating the case, was murdered.

Immediately Dan Bleeker, publisher of "The Blade", called in Griff, the famous criminologist.  Then the story really boiled!

One of Gardner's more confusing stories.  By the end of the book I was not only unsure who the criminal was, but I was also confused about the nature of his crime!   The detective--I mean criminologist--investigating this tangled mess of a case didn't follow up clues so much as as "play human checkers" with the suspects as pieces.

I'm also confused about the dame on the cover of this edition.  I'm pretty sure she didn't actually appear in the book.

Solomon and Sheba by Jay Williams (Corgi, 1960)

Another one from the Green Shed, source of many things strange and wonderful.  Judging from the creases on the cover, it's been well read:

 

SOLOMON AND SHEBA

Great king, and beautiful, barbaric queen--the most passionate and sensuous love story of all time.

Does anyone else think Sheba there looks kind of masculine?  Or maybe the dancing girl is Solomon in drag.

Anyway, they don't write 'em like this anymore.  Solomon and Sheba is the sort of historical epic where the characters talk with a twisted Ye Olde Englishe syntax and vocabulary in order to show that they're... well, historical.  Strictly speaking, given the setting, they should be talking in Ancient Hebrew:

"Call me not 'king' this morning, I pray you," he said.  "I have set aside that heavy mantle for these few days.  I will not think of cares; there will be time enough for that when..."  He paused.  And when she looked at him he went on, "When my sister, Balkis, feels that she must return to her own place.  I would that day might be put off forever."

(Page 123)

But as a bonus, this book was turned into a movie, so it comes complete with... stills from the picture!    There are eight pages of plates in the centre of the book.  And look, Yul Brynner has hair!

Headed for a Hearse by Jonathan Latimer (Pan, 1960)

More loot from my Lifeline Bookfair crime spree:

 

SIX DAYS

to go before Westland would go to the electric chair for the murder of his wife...

SIX DAYS

for him to sweat in the death cell--with a gangster and a fiend for company...

SIX DAYS

for private investigator William Crane to flirt with death and find the real killer...

Now this is an example of hard-boiled crime fiction.  Originally published in 1935 it is steeped in Depression cynicism, and filled with characters who are corrupt, cowardly and treacherous.   Innocence is vindicated--eventually--but it takes a lot of bribes and a sharp lawyer.  Oh, and some help from gangsters:

    Butch looked forbiddingly at Crane.  "Connors musta told you about us."
    "You bet he did."  Wind whipped the side curtains against the body of the car and whistled across the back seat.  "He said you boys could muscle your way into heaven and come out with a truckload of harps."
    This was a lie but it satisfied Butch.
    "Connors would have been all right," he said, "if he could of left the coppers alone.  It's OK to knock off a hood or so, but you oughta be careful about shootin' coppers.  It makes the judge mad, and sometimes he won't let ya fix the case."

(Page 110)

The Murders on Fox Island by Margaret Page Hood (Dell, 1960)

 

They Called Her A Wanton,

the people of Fox Island, but Jeanne Marie was only young and full of high spirits.

Her constant teasing flirtations, with any man and even with his own brother, were meaningless--or so Jeanne Marie's husband told himself.

Until the night he found her lying on her bed in a flimsy nightgown.  Dead.  With his dead brother beside her.

And found himself the chief suspect for a double murder.

 As I read this one I kept wondering whether it was part of a series--the author kept making passing references to the personal life and history of her detective character.  And sure enough, a quick search of Google confirmed my suspicions.  Margaret Page Hood wrote a number of books starring Deputy Sheriff Gil Donan, of Fox Island, Maine.  Evidently Fox Island was one of those quiet little rural communities with a high murder rate.  They're oddly common in detective fiction!

Vulcan's Hammer by Philip K. Dick / The Skynappers by John Brunner (Ace 1960)

The thing about the Lifeline Bookfairs is you never know what you're going to find.  So my heart skipped a beat and I think I gave a little "squee!" of happiness when I visited the bookfair one time and found rows of Ace Doubles spread out on the science fiction table:

CHOOSE - THE DEADLY TRUTH OR THE VITAL LIE!

Vulcan 3 was the supreme head of Unity, the perfect world government that had evolved out of chaos and war.  Vulcan 3 was rational, objective and unbiased ... as only a machine could be!

Theoretically there should have been nothing but peace under such a rule--and for a century or so there was.  Until the crackpots, the superstitious, the religious fanatics found themselves a new leader to follow.

Then the discontent began to explode again.  But this time there was a third side involved, a machine that could not accept any emotional viewpoints.  The people of the world began to realize that they had created a vicious paradox: they had to make peace between themselves or be stamped out by the ever-growing claws of VULCAN's HAMMER.

(Need I point out that you don't strike things with the claws of a hammer?)

 

PAWN OF THE STAR PLOTTERS

When Ivan Wright stepped out of his mountain cabin, rifle in hand, to investigate the sound of a strange helicopter, he stepped right into the middle of a galactic crisis.

For the crew of that odd aircraft were not men such as he'd ever seen before--and when he tried to oppose them, he found himself hurled uncontrollably into oblivion.

He awoke to find himself considered a kidnapped barbarian from a backward planet in a galaxy of advanced civilizations--yet one who somehow held in his own hands the ey to all their futures!

Everyone has heard of Philip K. Dick.  All his books are still in print (even the ones that haven't been made into movies).  So I'm going to write about John Brunner instead...

 In the late 60s and early 70s John Brunner started writing highly regarded, socially and environmentally aware science fiction (Stand on Zanzibar won a Hugo Award, and  The Sheep Look Up and The Jagged Orbit were both nominated for Nebulas).  However I must confess to a decided... affection for the space operas he wrote earlier.  (Many of them were published as Ace Doubles.)   Brunner didn't suddenly start writing well in the late sixties--he honed his skills producing potboilers from the early fifties onward.  So yay! for well-written escapism.  These books are excellent entertainment if you can get your hands on them.