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.

Alias the Saint by Leslie Charteris (Pan, 1953)

ALIAS THE SAINT tells of three adventures of Simon Templar.  In "The Story of a Dead Man' we find the Saint supervising an office in which many irregular things take place; there is a network of mystery about the firm of Vanney's Ltd. and Pamela Marlowe, who is employed there as a secretary, is very puzzled--as indeed she has a good reason to be, for she and the Saint are soon in a very dangerous situation, shared (curiously enough) by Chief Inspector Claud Eustace Teal of Scotland Yard.  "The Impossible Crime" displays the Saint pitting his wits against a gang of smuggling crooks; there is an amazing battle in a London square, where a night porter is shot dead.  "The National Debt" opens with the Saint making a trip to a quiet seaside village, hot on the track of three men who have kidnapped a girl analytical chemist whom they hope to compel to carry out a nefarious scheme.

Oh look!  It's The Saint.  Younger readers might not have heard of him, but older readers over a certain age will probably remember him well.  They might even have watched a young Roger Moore playing The Saint (aka Simon Templar) in the TV series of the same name.

The three novellas in this collection come from fairly early on in The Saint's career.  They were first published in the early 1930s, and people who recall Templar's smoother, newer, incarnations might be surprised at how much of a roughneck he is in this book.  He is not adverse to working on the wrong side of the law, and is quite prepared to use lethal violence if he feels it is necessary.  It is quite clear that it is only his own cunning that keeps him safe from the law--as well as the villains he tackles.  Because, criminal though he is, Templar is also one of the Good Guys, and someone you'd want on your side when the going gets tough.

(This is a fairly early Pan paperback.  I only have one older in my collection!)

Dark Duet by Peter Cheyney (Fontana, 1963)

 

KANE looked at her appreciatively.  "I don't know whether anybody's ever told you, but you've got the swellest pair of legs I've ever seen" he said.  Valetta looked at him sideways along her dark eyelashes.  He thought she was very beautiful; her mouth delicate, sensitive, almost tremulous.  He could look at her for hours on end.  It was that sort of mouth...

And.... here we have some more fiction about World War II--in this case from the pen of pulp writer Peter Cheyney.  Firstly published in 1942, this book contains three linked novellas about two spies/assassins working for the British Government.  Though they are definitely working on the side of good, they are not particularly moral characters, nor do they operate by a gentlemanly code.  The whole thing is altogether more gritty than the previous generation of spy thrillers, and seems to have been influenced by hard-boiled detective fiction (another genre in which Peter Cheyney specialised!)

The Chequer Board by Nevil Shute (Pan, 1968)

Found at a Lifeline Bookfair, bundled with some other books by the same author:

 

THE CHEQUER BOARD

'One of them was a Negro from America,' Turner said.  'The last one to go out... Dave Lesurier, his name was... Then there was Duggie Brent - he was a corporal in the paratroops.  And then there was the pilot of the aeroplane... Flying Officer Morgan.  We was all in a mess one way or another, excepting him, and yet in some ways he was in a worse mess than the lot of us.' 

THE CHEQUER BOARD

Brilliantly interweaving the chequered fates of four men brought together by one violent moment in war, this unforgettable story matches A TOWN LIKE ALICE with its heart-stirring romance, its rich humanity and compelling drama.

World War II was a major influence on Nevil Shute's writing--all his best known novels involve the war in one way or another.  However, he wasn't a writer of straight combat stories.  No, Shute's fiction is mostly about the civilians caught up in the war, and the human effects on the men who have to fight it.

And that brings me to The Chequer Board, which deals with four men in wartime.  Three are in trouble with the law--and the fourth is just in trouble.   The book tells the story of how they got into trouble and what happened to them afterwards (spoiler alert--it ends happily for most of them!)  Of the four stories I enjoyed the one about Dave Lesurier--the 'negro from America'--most, and the culture clash between a small Cornish village and the US Army base that has been planted upon it.

The Chequer Board was first pubished in Great Britain in 1947.

The Toff Takes Shares by John Creasey (Hodder, 1965)

A local bookshop obtained a lot of vintage paperbacks by John Creasey, and all in near-mint condition!

 

An unexpected female passenger introduces the Toff to one of the most complicated and violent cases of his career.  The shares of a large London store are crashing, and amidst gripping excitement the Toff turns stockbroker to find out why.

And no wonder the shares in this "large London store" are crashing!  There are many and varied problems behind the scenes--including blackmail, embezzlement, kidnapping and murder.  In addition to all this--the book being originally published in the post-War austerity year of 1948--the owner is up to his neck in the black market.  How will the Toff manage to sort out the victims from the villains? 

The Man in the Brown Suit by Agatha Christie (Pan, 1959)

Found in a charity shop on a shelf full of Christie paperbacks:

THE mysterious man in the brown suit is a link between a fatal accident at a London Underground station and the body of a strangled woman found at a Member of Parliament's lonely country house.

Enterprising Anne Beddingfeld, back by a newspaper magnate, follows clues leading to South Africa, and there finds herself plunged into a highly dangerous Secret Service adventure.

First published early in Agatha Christie's career in 1924, this book was written while she was still experimenting with different genres.  It is a thriller rather than a classic whodunnit--and her heroine is an enterprising amateur caught in the middle of things rather than a professional detective.  Readers of Christie's Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple series will find this a rather different kind of read!

Rogue Roman by Lance Horner (Pan, 1970)

Found on a dusty shelf in the Green Shed:

 

Imperial Rome--centre of the world--throbbing with the white heat of violence, bloodshed and uninhibited sexuality...

Bought as an actor, kidnapped by pirates, sold as a gladiator, young Cleon's beauty and flagrant masculinity made every woman--harlots and Vestal Virgins alike--desire him.

And passion drives Cleon to help destroy a Caesar who combined the vices of his predecessors with his own special perversions--the Emperor Nero.

Soft-core sixties smut, with a plot revolving around a hero whose main attribute is... the size of his, um, main attribute:

Contux took a firmer grip on the cloth and yanked.  There was a ripping sound and the hand came away with the front of Cleon's tunic clutched in the swollen fingers...  "I take it back.  He's more than a man - he's a true stallion.  He was shouting the words and waving the cloth for all to see.

(Page 125) 

Why am I suddenly reminded of Biggus Dickus?